… this will either make you smile or grimace.
I probably get more pushback on this suggestion that I give regularly –-
to have a consistent time for wrapping up services each Sunday or weekend.
When one week goes an hour and five minutes and the next week goes an hour and 20 minutes and the next week goes an hour and 10 and the next week, extravagant, goes an hour and 30, I get pretty serious about it.
(Always realizing of course that nobody has to do anything I say. Even though I’m coaching them, I’m not the third base coach who can get you benched if you proceed when I tell you to stop! 🙂
But here is why I suggest that each week the service should be about the same length (in no particular order) even though I know all the books of the New Testament are not all the same length — or the Old….even though I know nobody except your wife said anything to you about how long the sermon was last week. Or your teens…..even though what the worship leader said between songs sounded very good —if you like palaver.
- Some people make reservations at a restaurant and like to be there on time.
- The nursery workers hate it when the kids start crying, those who can tell time or who just think it’s time their parents show up.
- First time visitors are not used to that long sermon or service. And some decide on the spot that they will not come back. The ones from Catholic or more traditional, formal churches — the kind many grew up in before they quit! — are accustomed to 15-18 minute sermons.
- Some people don’t even invite first-time visitors because they’re aware that sometimes the service goes much longer than usual. (They love you like everything and so they don’t want to tell you this.)
- Almost everything else they go to has a set ending time. (And I do know about overtime games!)
- Only a few people like it when the service goes long. (Both of them pastor nearby churches.:-)
- Nice people argue with me on this, but it is just as normal for the Holy Spirit to lead in planning the service and sermon as it is for Him to “add content” to the speaker as he nears the end.
- Consistency is a nice gift. And so is the discipline of those who plan the service.
- If you are ever going to go to two more services you are going to have to have almost exact same ending times each service.
- Children’s and youth and adults teachers need to know when the service is over.