Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

What do you recall about Wednesday nights in the Church of Christ? Did your church call it "Wednesday night services" or "Wednesday night Bible study"?

What time did your church start on Wednesdays?

At my church, everybody would gather in the main auditorium. There would be a welcome, announcements, a prayer, and then the preacher would give "the invitation" and there would be one song for that, usually only a verse or two. Sometimes there would be a baptism or a walk of shame (which would delay classes), but not very often. Then we'd head off to classes by age group, with the "adults" staying in the main auditorium. The preacher taught that class. Usually there was about 45 minutes for the classes.

It's been a while, but I don't recall the Wednesday classes being a whole lot different than those at Sunday School. We had workbooks, I think. Teachers changed at about the same time as the Sunday School teachers did. But we didn't have to memorize Bible verses for Wednesday classes, just for Sunday School. By teenage years, they would send some younger man into the classroom to try and be relevant. He wasn't. One year, they had separate classes for girls and boys, but I forgot why. The best part really was afterward, when we played or horsed around out front while the grown ups talked (gossiped).

After high school everyone went to the adult class in the auditorium, since college kids took advantage of their new found freedom to get the hell away from Wednesday night. There were usually just a few 20-somethings around every in any CofC I ever was in.

Wednesday night was more interesting, since most of it was spent with people my own age (who also didn't want to be there), so it was preferable to Sunday night (which was excruciating).

Bible study only. No authorization for a service on any day but the first day of the week. Started w/announcements then broke for individual classes. Then 15-20 minutes of a mini-Sunday service w/o the Lords Supper. At least 1 hour long. I hated being there as a kid on those beautiful summer evenings.

Of course, it was a service. They were always so hypocritical about that including the relaxed dress attire on Wed. nights.

We'd meet in the auditorium at 7 pm. Boys would lead a couple songs, then a prayer, and dismissal to classes. Classes lasted minutes, then back to the auditorium for what was supposed to be a short invitation. These could go on for half an hour. Not to sound disrespectful but your homework and TV viewing suffered if anyone repented. That was another 45 minutes. Then an elder got up and made announcements we were too dumb to read in the bulletin. ?Then a prayer blessing every blade of grass. Then everyone had to recap things and praise how uplifting things were. No wonder I failed Math, I was asleep in class on Thursday mornings!

I am so glad those days are behind me. I go to church on Sunday mornings and to small group once a month. That is enough! For years, my husband insisted on taking our kids to all 3 services every week because it would teach them that it was important and that is how he was raised. Well, that did not work. None of our 3 children attend any church anywhere ever! All the constant CofC services are a depressing childhood memory for me.

One thing that the 3x/week service schedule accomplishes is a belief that "doing church" is the primary way that we fulfill our spiritual obligations in life. Most of what sets the COC apart from other denominations can be categorized under "rules of assembly." Sure, there's the odd rule against dancing or drinking in moderation, but even those are shared by lots of other evangelical protestant denominations. The acappella singing, the three-songs-and-a-prayer, the dress code, the Wednesday night Bible studies, etc. are what, to a large degree, makes the COC different.

Like FinallyFree, I now attend one church service per week. Very rarely there's some special event like a Taizé service on a Friday night, that I'll attend, bringing my weekly total up to two. The result for me has not been a weaker spiritual life but a stronger one. Since leaving the COC I've seen more whole-life integration of the "spiritual" and the "secular," to the point that I really don't consider those separate at all any more. I don't think of "church clothes," "church behavior," or "church friends" anymore. I'm a more complete person, in part because I'm not scrambling to be in attendance every time the COC doors are open. The infamous COC attendance policy, in my case at least, has had exactly the opposite effect from what I assume it was intended to do.

Lev

ooh that was a long time ago. Let me think -

IIRC, Sunday night was 'service' and Wed night was 'Bible study' but sometimes it was also called a 'service' (what were we serving, anyway?)

It was more interesting than Sunday nights, that's for sure. Wed nights we'd meet briefly in the auditorium - maybe a song or two, prayer, announcements? I don't actually remember. Then split up to classes. At least 45 minutes in class and only 15 mins in the auditorium. I don't remember anything about the classes, really - whether they were similar or different to Sunday morning classes. Maybe. I don't think there was any particular attempt to have an actual CURRICULUM where Wed night class would tie in to Sundays.

After classes, we kids would play various forms of tag around the gossiping adults, if the weather was nice.

There were a lot fewer people on Wednesdays than on Sundays. We knew we were the elite because we weren't forsaking the assembly of yourselves together AT ALL.

Wednesday night seemed like a speed bump in the road for me. Everything had to grind to a halt so we could get our lesson and ourselves ready for church. Most I attended had classes first and then a short devotional or invitation in the auditorium. We had memory verses and oftentimes, our teachers were kinda short with us. They had long days, too. I got in trouble once for wearing flip-flops on a hot August night and was told to go home and put on "real" shoes. People would stand around and talk forever and if we left early, we were seen as rude or anti-social. We could not attend any school activities or work or anything else on a Wednesday night.

I taught a Wednesday night class for several years. Finally, I got a break. My last night Wednesday night teaching was my last Wednesday night service. Didn't go back after that. Nice to have that time back.

Our was always called "Mid-Week Bible Study." I hated it. Always have, always will. It was annoying, and it made me tired.

We did it a few different ways over the years...sometimes everyone met in the auditorium before classes, then again after; sometimes we went straight to classes, and just met after. I don't think we ever met before but not after, though. The time changed a few times, too -- needed to be early enough for the kids to get home to bed on a school night, but late enough that people could get off work and get dinner. I think we settled on 7.

My most memorable Wednesday night activity was going home right after to watch Growing Pains, which I was not allowed to watch. Mom and Dad usually stayed at the church long enough that it was over before they got home, but after a while, Dad got home early, I didn't hear him come in, and I got caught.

We met at 7:00 pm on Wednesdays for a number of years, then changed it to 7:30 pm so people could get there on time (since people would be walking in 15 minutes late when it was at 7:00 pm.) It would always be called Bible study on Wednesday, but worship service on Sundays. Sunday night services varied between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm. Sometimes we'd have to cancel morning services after a snow storm on a Saturday so people could get their cars shoveled out, but usually the weather cleared up in time to meet on Sunday nights and by then people were shoveled out and already breaking out of the cabin fever (I live in eastern Pennsylvania.)