How did church-going people do Sunday dinner? When would there be time for preparation?

Did you belong to a family or have neighbors who had a Sunday dinner tradition? I never did. But where I live people used to do a Sunday dinner, and they usually went to church.

The way families stayed together when living apart, is that everyone would gather for Sunday dinner. Sometimes, a family would invite close friends and aquaintences over. Or, friends of the teenage children whom the parents wanted to meet.

I know a minister who once espoused to a friend of mine, when her children moved out and had families of their own, to always keep Sunday dinner and your family would stay close.

I doubt these were ever really fancy affairs but were probably decent full-course meals. So, I am wondering, when did people have time to prepare such a meal after church?