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I wanted to start Sunday School at 9 am, but was told that was too early and no one would attend. So, we start SS at 10 am and service at 11. I drive around our town and see the Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, and even the Baptist churches start at 8:00 or 8:30 am.What am I missing? Why are Pentecostals unable/unwilling to come to church early or is it just my church?

Our church starts Sunday school at 10:00 and worship at 11:00. (Sunday school classes stop at roughly 10:45.)The churches in the community I grew up in followed the same schedule except they usually dismissed around noon (except for the predominately black churches which seemed to go all day long).Somewhere in the 90's or so, it became popular for the Pentecostal churches to lengthen the praise and worship and extend the services to 12:45 to 1:00. The churches that have early services seem mostly to be the ones which have 2 morning services in order to accommodate a growing congregation or else a diverging preference of music (i.e. contemporary or traditional). The other variation I've seen is that churches sometimes eliminate Sunday school altogether and start at 10:30 and go till noon.

Around my home town other denominations start earlier. They do not know the scripture. It must be in there somewhere Sunday morning service is SS=10AM +/- a few minutes and worship at 11AM +/- a few minutes. Also services should end according to scripture at noon!Seems to be that way always has been probably will be for 10-15 years when us old fuddy duddies die off. LOLSeriously in our area the churches that have Sun even services seem to increase by those from other COG congregations who have no Sun nite service. I have noticed our pastor seems to skip some Sun nite services for many reasons. (My wife stays up on our home church because she is up some phone tree, what ever that is!) Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/

Early service at 8:45. SS at 10. 2nd service at 11 am. My predecessor was a tremendous leader and very progressive. But if I have one complaint, it's the way he set us up to be two different churches. Our early service is branded as the contemporary service- praise band, modern music, much younger attendees. Our traditional service features choir, organist, and pianist. Very few younger families attend the 11 am service. The attendance is about the same for both, but our facility could easily accommodate both groups in a combined service (we have a combined service each quarter). The irony is that most of the people who come at 11 are up with the roosters. So for them, it's not a matter of the time being inconvenient. It's simply a way to hold on to tradition. I have learned to pick my battles. This is not something I care to start a controversy over. I enjoy both services. I do feel sorry for our associate pastor, music minister and sound tech though, because they have to listen to my sermon twice in the same day

That made me laugh. Chief Charging Battery gets to church an hour and a half to two hours early to open up doors, turn on lights, start coffee, etc. (and perhaps pray for his reprobate wife). Needless to say, we drive separately. I always figured the line separating winners and losers in this world is the line between those who can get by on little sleep and those who require at least 8 hours, lol.Our praise team practices at 9:00 am.

Ours does as well. Another pet peeve of mine. They're often still rehearsing just moments before time for service to start. They used to practice during the week but felt that doing so on Sunday was a way to hold leaders accountable (no rehearse/ no participation). I don't think it has been effective though, because I see band members still coming in late or skipping practice, but they ascend the platform anyway. Ok, I need to stop hijacking Ernie's thread.

I'm always disappointed when people don't respect others. I know it's not perceived as spiritual, but our current structure demands certain time constraints. When we have guest speakers who don't respect that, they don't get invited to come again. Are there exceptions ? Sure. But I expect people to be mindful of others and their ministry. It's hard to teach Sunday school with drums and guitars booming just feet away. Ernie, you mentioned you were told that a time change wouldn't work. Is this the consensus of the congregation, or the rigidity of an individual? Tell the truth, you just want to beat the Methodists to Cracker Barrell right ?

I love it when a little levity is added. But seriously I am enjoying this post. Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/

And our later service at 11 and finished at 12:30. Praise team practiced at 8 am. Each service was 1 1/2 hrs. Then we built larger sanctuary which could accomdate all the church and then some but we had some who insisted on having 2 services, same start time as before. Was tough on our worship teams though. So, for about 1 yr we tried starting at 9 and doing announcements, offering and preaching til 10. Started worship service at 10 and second preaching service at 11, getting done at noon. Finally, we got tired of all the movement and some people leaving at 10 and went to 1 svc. Practice at 8:30 -9:30. Ss at 9 to 9:45, worship starts promptly at 10 and we finish usually by noon. We also have a coffee fellowship in one of our lobbies from 9:30

I didn't survey my people, but I asked a retired pastor who had pastored for 40 years what his thoughts were and that is what I shared. I had surveyed my people in the past on other issues and for the most part their reply was, Whatever you think is best.