5 ways to enhance your Sunday evening service

While some churches have decided to do away with the Sunday evening service for the sake of convenience, I believe that a Sunday service is important and vital to the spiritual growth of a congregation. Admittedly, the size of the congregation is always smaller then your Sunday morning service. People are not always as committed as they ought to be. How can you encourage these folks to come for the Sunday night service? Well, I've complied a few ideas that I have seen done or read about that could be a help to your ministry.

1. Be friendly on Sunday mornings! - One of the best ways for you to see more people in your Sunday evening service is to be friendly to the Sunday morning crowd. Understandably, you may not be able to shake everybody's hand in your church, so delegate some of your faithful soul winning members to be greeters and watch for folks coming in even after the service has been started. Everybody wants to be welcomed to a church, so make sure it happens. If the people see the friendliness of the church in the morning, they'll be more likely to come back at night.

2. Promote your Sunday evening service. - In your church's bulletin, does it remind the congregation about the service? Perhaps it says something like this "Sunday Evening service - 6 pm." If that is all that it says, you're not likely to have a lot people interested in the Sunday service. Use your creativity in your message titles. Have titles like "The night New York disappeared", "One goal, One cup" (Our NHL team, the Sabres, are on the quest for the Stanley Cup), etc. Promote this message or your message series in the bulletin for it will peak the curiosity of the congregation and make them excited to come back!

3. Have top-notched music specials. - Many times Sunday and Wednesday evening services are times that the choir, specials, etc. are second rate. Make sure that doesn't happen. Make sure your choir sings in the Sunday evening service and has a really good song for that evening. It's important that your congregation sees that the church staff and those that participate in the service believe it is an important service. If there is a clear difference between the quality of your Sunday morning service choir special and Sunday night service, you're losing in the fight to have people come back. Maybe once a quarter have a Singspiration service. Sing songs for the whole service and wrap it up with a short challenge. Have a mini-concert with your church members singing hymns, choruses, or playing their instruments. Even get some of the children or teenagers involved.

4. Keep things moving! - If you Sunday evening service drags, most people won't want to come back. Keep the announcement time short (tends to be a big time waster anyhow), start the service on time, end the service on time, etc. Keep it moving. Avoid long pauses between the offering and the congregational singing. Keep it moving. By the way, if you end the service on time, you'd be surprised at how appreciative your congregation will be. It's totally appropriate to go over on occasion when the Spirit leads, but for the majority of the time, end the service on time. People may have children to get to bed for school the next day or some have to get up for work the day, so be mindful of that.

5. Have some surprises. - One sure fire way to peak the interest of your congregation is having some special surprises that night. Have a special mystery singer or preacher. Have a "everybody's birthday" fellowship afterwards. It seems that churches get in a rut and stay in it for the long haul, so get out of it! Add some spice to your Sunday evening service.

Above all, make sure you spend some time in prayer about your Sunday evening service. Prayer is a huge part to a successful church and making those Sunday evening services better!