EMPTY PEWS

Evening Post, Issue 47, 24 August 1936, Page 8

EMPTY PEWS

EVENING; SERVICES

A CHURCH PROBLEM

. The problems that have to be faced by, the churches, particularly iri respect to counter-attractions on Sunday evenings, are the subject of comment by the Rev. A. B. Kilroy in his introduction to the annual report of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, The Terrace. "The task of the Church is not growing any easier with the passage of the years, at any rate so far as her stated services and ordinances are- concerned," Mr. Kilroy writes. "The number of counter-attractions on Sunday seems to be on the increase. It has been stated that on a recent Sunday evening' in this city there were no fewer than three places of entertainment open nominally after church but actually tending to draw people away from public'worship. For my own part I feel the method of dealing with this difficulty is not by-protest but by demonstration that we church people have in our services something that we would not surrender for any entertainment. Provided we show ourselves to be enthusiastic concerning the things of God, we shall soon discover that our enthusiasm is contagious. "The problem of the evening service is causing concern to. churches- all over the world. In Scotland ministers who formerly preached to crowded evening congregations are now facing empty benches. A recent visitor from the U.S.A. stated that in his city four churches with fairly good morning congregations combined in the evening and then could muster only fifty or sixty people. Perhaps the day will come when we shall have to" alter the times of bur services or even the character of the evening service. In the meantime, however, we may discover that loyalty on our own part will bring an unexpected response 'from the outsider. "Let us never forget that to deplore empty pews, is not, to tell the whole story. What shall we say of the pews that are not empty? We may well thank God for the true-hearted folk-who week by week, sometimes in small companies^ sometimes in large crowds, meet for" fellowship with one another in fellowship with their risen Lord. For centuries the enemies of the Church have bee,n declaring that she is dead or dying, but 'the corpse, has always proved " too' lively for the obsequies."