Posted on 07/06/2011 7:07:50 AM PDT by Bed_Zeppelin
The comments after the article are a real eye-opener.
Yes, Christians should be clamoring for more church time than less. If not there is a problem.
No. I have found that most, not all, of the churches that finish in less than an hour, present a watered-down or even a liberal interpretation of the Bible. When the exposition of the Word is the pinnacle of corporate worship, it isn’t uncommon for a service to be longer than an hour.
How about we skip the sermon and just hold hands and sing a few hymns? Why bother with that pesky old Gospel?
How about take those new 7-11 praise songs they sing at my church (7 words repeated 11 times), and instead repeat them only 3 times. This would take 15 minutes out of the service that provide no spiritual nourishment.
Catholic Masses run about an hour and I’m in no hurry to leave. Plus we can get some Knights of Columbus business discussed because more members go to Mass than go to meetings.
Exactly. Our preacher goes for at least 40 minutes and he may only cover a couple of verses. Our service is almost always 2 hours by the time you get the singing, the sermon, any special music and then prayer and praise time in.
I’m a Christian, though not always a good Christian, and I attend when I’m not working, and I always fight sleep during the sermon and always wish for a shorter service. Recently noticed an aside in one of Bruce Catton’s Civil War histories in which President Buchanan usually answered the same lady in the same way, on his way out of church: “The sermon, ma’am? Too long, I thought.”
Best Pastor I ever had, limited his sermons to around 25 minutes. Asked him about why it was so short. His reply was that people can only pay attention for 20-30 minutes in a stretch; and that if you can’t say it in under 30 minutes, you can’t say it in 45 minutes.
When he was getting ready to retire, he asked for people in the congregation for suggestions on which past sermons they would like to hear again. It was amazing that some of the most requested had been preached originally many years prior to his retirement. He preached sermons you actually remembered. With most preachers, it’s had to remember was was said the following Tuesday.
Gerald Marvel ws a Godly man with an extraordinary talent for preaching.
That’s about the right time. Mass is Mass. It’s not a circus or a picnic which is what it has turned into since Vat11. Attention spans my foot. We as children sat through Masses and special Masses and listened to and responded over and over again to the Priest during a Litany. It’s self discipline. However, someone giving a speech for over an hour or so is absolutely ridiculous and seems to me to be all about the one giving the speech. Three hours in the church??? We used to go to Mass then home to be with our families and enjoy a nice Sunday dinner prepared by our mother. Mass was Mass and the rest of the day was the rest of the day.
It’s difficult to get a non-Christian or immature Christian to sit longer than an hour. They just will not do it.
If you want to win hearts and minds (aka souls) for Christ then you need to deliver the message in a format they’ll accept. It can still be a biblically correct message and be done within 1 hour.
Once people grow in their relationship with Christ they will develop a hunger for more.
Coming soon, drive thru services.
See my post #10.
“Our services on average run around three hours, the same length as watching a football game or going to a concert. So what’s the problem? “
Today people seem to get more from a football game than a church service (and, no, I’m not talking about the entertainment aspect of football).
Churches with long services can pack ‘em in if they are actually feeding the flock. But that happens rarely these days IMHO.
I’d go if services were shorter. I’d go if services were longer. However, if they were much longer, I’d make sure we didn’t have all the little boys with us going ballistic.
I have no objection to spending time in church. I go to religious lectures on my own initiative, and sometimes even pay to hear a speaker.
There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.
But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.” Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted." Acts 20:7-12
I go for God, not to feel good about going. If God’s in the service, time doesn’t matter.
I was just reading it.
I don’t think God cares how long we sit in church so much as how the time is used and how the sermon is applied the rest of the time.
A lot of churches that have services lasting 1:00 to 1:15 also have extensive Sunday School programs for all ages and encourage people to join small groups.
This is especially true for churches that have more than one service because the sanctuary can’t seat all the attendees at one time.
A church service that goes for two hours probably only has one service and not a lot in the way of Sunday School; and especially adult Sunday School.
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