2. Move Sunday school to Sunday night

The Spring Meadows Church of Christ in Spring Hill, Tenn., has enjoyed success with this approach.

Minister Dale Jenkins explained:

Sunday night services began as a service for those who were shift workers and couldn’t make the morning services. Eventually, they became ‘mandatory’ and a measure of faithfulness.
For years, many of us have enjoyed Sunday evening services. At Spring Meadows, we decided to offer small group home studies in addition to a service at the building. We did this for about two years but did not feel it was meeting the spiritual needs of the church here.

In the meantime, our Sunday morning services often would run long, and our Bible classes would end up not being consistent in their lengths, which frustrated our teachers. We also began to notice that Sunday morning is when your kids are not as alert, especially after having sat through a service lasting an hour and 15 minutes.
So we decided to ‘throw the clock away’ on Sunday mornings. Our services typically last an hour and 30 minutes, though that is not a form — it allow us more time for singing, focus on the Lord in the Supper, preaching, special focus services. We don’t feel rushed.

Then we moved our classes to Sunday evening. Our people love the flow of our Sunday morning services, and more people stay around and visit afterward. And our Sunday night attendance is up about 67 percent to 75 percent.

It has been enjoyable to see how good our Sunday nights have become.