For Tina Riddle and her family, attending Wednesday night services is a standing commitment regardless of what else is going on in their busy lives.
“We are always telling our children to put God first, but it’s much harder to do,” said Riddle, a member of Heflin Baptist Church in Cleburne Baptist Association. “We schedule time for practices and ballgames, so going to church on Wednesday nights is one way to show our children how to put God first.”
Wednesday gatherings began in the late 19th century as lay-led, midweek prayer services in frontier churches that had itinerant pastors, according to Bill Leonard, professor of church history and Baptist studies at Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, N.C.
“It was a kind of evangelical Protestant vespers service,” he said.
Denominational churches adopted the format in the early 20th century and added music programs, congregational meals and, sometimes, preaching. Within a few years Wednesdays had become the time when different ministries within congregations would meet.
In Alabama Baptist life, the midweek service, usually held on Wednesday night, remains a strong tradition. However, the structure of the time has changed, according to Keith Hibbs, director of the office of worship leadership and church music for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
“In the past, churches were having another worship service on Wednesday night, but that trend is not growing or continuing,” Hibbs said.
Instead, midweek services in most churches include time for some combination of Bible study, prayer and music rehearsal organized by groups for children, youth and adults, often simultaneously. Fellowship is a vital part of the time as well.
“One of the dynamics of the Wednesday night service is that it’s a more intimate time,” Hibbs said. “Midweek services provide a time of relationship building for the core group of the church.”
Riddle said when she and her family first began attending Heflin Baptist, they only attended Sunday morning services.
“I enjoyed it, but I didn’t really ‘know’ anyone. It wasn’t until we started on Wednesday nights that I began to know the wonderful people of my church,” she said. “I think the informality is more conducive to building relationships instead of just acquaintances.”
Part of the midweek tradition at many churches is the fellowship meal, which Leigh Anne Armstrong, interim minister to students at First Baptist Church, Auburn, in Tuskegee Lee Baptist Association, said is her favorite part of that time.
“As a long-time participant, I see the midweek service as unique in that it offers a fellowship time that is unstructured and multi-generational,” Armstrong said. “There is sacredness in gathering with brothers and sisters in Christ around a table and redeeming an hour from a hectic week.”
First, Auburn, holds its midweek service on Thursday nights, a tradition that started decades ago when Wednesday night meetings of Greek organizations at Auburn University conflicted with the church schedule.
Today churches compete with sports and school activities for time on weeknights and even on Sundays, a conflict Hibbs sees as a “byproduct of the secularization of our society.”
In her work with students and their families Armstrong regularly encounters the conflict between church attendance and extracurricular activities.
“Families are so busy these days, with no day, not even Sunday, set apart as sacred when it comes to dance, sports and other activities,” Armstrong said. Still, she said, “I encourage anyone who asks to not take this opportunity for true fellowship for granted.”
In addition to competing for time with non-church activities, ministry leaders also must decide how best to organize the time they have. Hibbs said many churches have reduced or eliminated time for children and youth choir rehearsals on Wednesday evenings to give more time to other activities.
“The implication in that reduction of time is that there will be fewer people who will be worship leaders in the future,” Hibbs said. “That’s a concern to me.”
Candace McIntosh, executive director of Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union, sees many churches incorporating multiple programs for children and youth as well.
“For the most part, missions education is still Wednesday or Sunday night, but whereas in the past, it might have been an hour, now it’s 45 minutes or even 30. There’s certainly more sharing of time,” she said.
McIntosh is not discouraged though. Even as culture continues to infringe upon the limited time that churches have for ministry, she said Alabama Baptists continue to focus on their mission — the Great Commission.
“Alabama Baptist churches for the most part have a very good understanding of the Great Commission, and because of that, they continue to raise up our preschoolers, children, youth and adults to be Great Commission leaders,” McIntosh said.
Given the small amount of time allotted to church life each week, the challenge for churches is to focus on what is most valuable.
“If you want children to understand the value of missions and worship, you begin to guide them when they are young,” McIntosh said. “We only have so much time, and we want to know what we do in that time makes a difference.”
(ABP contributed)
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