The Questions:
I was talking to a friend about why I go to church twice a week, and why not once. My question is why go twice, why not once? Or even three times? I think we should WANT to go to church and learn so why not go more often? And why do some churches choose to only have one service?
Answer:
Let me begin by answering your first question: “Why go twice, why not once? Or even three times?”
Why Go To Church Twice Every Sunday?
Worshiping God in His house twice each Lord’s Day is not a matter of tradition, but rather is rooted in the Word of God. At creation, God Himself established the pattern of worshiping Him both morning and evening. Every morning and evening, during the cool of the day, there would be a blessed worship encounter between God and Adam and Eve. Since this was the pattern for every day, God most certainly intended it to be the pattern for the seventh day of rest.
After the fall, God perpetuated that pattern by instituting the morning and evening sacrifice, which were to be observed on all seven days of the week—and thus also on the seventh day of rest.
This pattern, rooted in creation and established by God Himself, must govern our worship until Christ returns. Therefore the proper observance of the Lord’s Day requires our attendance at the morning (AM) and evening (PM) worship services. Attending the evening service is thus not optional, for the proper and biblical observance of the Lord’s Day requires it.
This divinely instituted structure of public worship on the Sabbath (= rest)—and thus also on the Lord’s Day as the NT Sabbath—is affirmed in Psalm 92, which has the inspired title “A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath Day.” It then stipulates, as God’s revealed will, that our public activity of thanking and praising the LORD should consist of the following: “To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night” (v. 2).
This AM and PM pattern of worship was also remarkably endorsed by the Lord Jesus Christ who, as the Lamb of God, sanctioned the morning and evening sacrifice by permitting Himself to be crucified at the third hour (9 AM), and then crying out, “It is finished” and giving up the ghost at the ninth hour (3 PM).
He thereby paved the way for us to now worship God without the shedding of blood. We do so especially on the Lord’s Day when we worship God on the basis of the finished work of Christ—accomplished on the cross, affirmed by His resurrection, and applied by His intercession at God’s right hand. What abundant reason we have, therefore, to show forth His lovingkindness in the morning and His faithfulness every night! We should relish the opportunity to do so each Lord’s Day.
Why Do Some Churches Meet Only Once?
Now your second question: “Why do some churches choose to only have one service?”
I fear that many churches have caved in to the relentless encroachment of our culture that views Sunday as day of recreation and entertainment. Regretfully many church members now view the Lord’s Day as their day—a day of physical rest and a family day. Therefore, they will conveniently skip the second service of the Lord’s Day. As this is increasingly becoming the norm, many churches, rather than bucking this trend, are simply opting to permanently canceling the second service.
Such a compromise proceeds from a failure to understand that God has explicitly set apart the Sabbath (= rest) day as a holy or sacred day—a consecrated day that belongs exclusively to God. Thus, when God calls us to rest after six days of labor, He simultaneously calls us to engage on His (!) day in the sacred activity prescribed by Him: “The seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation [i.e. public worship]; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD [emphasis mine—BE] in all your dwellings [i.e. private worship] (Lev. 23:3).
We therefore may not observe the Lord’s Day as we see fit. God speaks clear language when He instructs us that on His Day we are to refrain “from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD” (Isa. 58:13-14).
Nicely written article! I agree that 2 services are important to attend and those who don’t observe the 2nd service often make the Sunday a day for self rather than for God. I’m wasn’t able to quite see the connection between the hours of our Saviour’s crucifixion and death and the sanctioning of the morning and evening sacrifices – do these hours coincide with the Old Testament sacrifice hours? Also the morning and evening sacrifices (specific means of worship) have been fulfilled through the work of Christ – I understand that the principles (regulative principles) remain but is there flexibility and Christian liberty in how a church worships on the Sunday (particularly in the second service)? For example our Reformed churches tend to have a very similarly structured AM and PM service whereas others have a more structured AM service and the PM service is either a prayer service/Bible study/sing-song/meditation. What are your thoughts on the PM service being a different format than the AM? Thanks!
Thank you for your very insightful response to my article, and for your excellent questions! The reason I referred to the exact timing of Christ’s suffering on the cross, coinciding with the morning and evening sacrifice, was to emphasize what an integral part the morning and evening sacrifice was for Israel’s public worship. Granted, Christ fulfilled all that was symbolized by the morning and evening sacrifice, a fact that was dramatically affirmed by the rending of the temple veil. What is important, however, is that by His perfect sacrifice Christ laid the permanent foundation upon which we can worship God at any time of the day—and certainly at the beginning of our day and at the conclusion of the day. And thus Christ dramatically affirmed the divinely established pattern of morning and evening worship—a pattern that is rooted in the creation order itself.
That does not mean, however, that we are compelled to worship at 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM on the Lord’s Day. That specific ceremonial detail has been fulfilled by Christ’s perfect sacrifice. But the principle remains that AM & PM corporate worship must ever remain the bookends of the Lord’s Day, and the precise timing of such AM & PM worship is now left to the discretion of the local church. My personal conviction, therefore, is that the PM service should not be reduced to a more informal Bible Study and/or singing event. Both the AM and PM services should be worship services in the full sense of the word. It is essential that we affirm this in our present compromising church culture in which the PM worship service appears to be on the way out. Historically the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has always understood that the corporate assembling of ourselves together for the AM & PM worship services must be the structural framework of a proper observance of the Lord’s Day—the “bookends” of the Lord’s Day. And thus the exhortation of Hebrews 10:24-25 is a very timely one: “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
Thank you for your insightful and thorough answer!