Featured Is a 1 1/2 hour Sunday morning service to long ?

Mini-services for mini-Christians?

 

I guess you haven't attended a Evangelical Christian-Baptist service: two hours minimum, three preachers, and only five-ten minutes of fluff (aka announcements).

 

It depends on what's going on. If you mean do away with singing hymns, psalms and songs of praise to get to the message then perhaps you have misunderstood the sermon to be the "main course". If you mean limiting members participation, testimonies, and fellowship then you have misunderstood the assembly. The sermon is not more important than other functions of the church. But if you mean should people just waste time then that certainly would get old.

 

A typical Sunday (morning or evening) service goes something like this:

A. The Pastor or his designee calls the service to order and gives the Invocation.
B. Choir number
C. Congregational hymn
D. The first preacher (the Pastor or the man in charge of the service has previously designated which of the preachers in the church will be speaking at a given service and in what order <Nezavisimaya has +/-12 preachers>) speaks usually for 10-15 minutes. This message is usually a Call to Worship or Prayer.
E. Congregational prayer (three maybe four men or women lead in prayer from their places in the meeting hall, with the preacher closing). This is a time of Thanksgiving for the God's provision in the last week. The preacher closes with a prayer for God s blessing on the coming service.
F. A congregational hymn
G. A senior choir number or
H. A children's choir or
I. A recitation of Christian poetry or song by an individual or group
J. The second preacher speaks (see d. above). This preacher brings a strong Bible Message for 20-25 minutes.
K. Repeat f-i.
L. The third preacher speaks (usually at Nezavisimaya this is the senior pastor). This man ties the two previous speakers together. (Or may launch off on his own message.)
M. See e. above
N. Congregational hymn and offering
O. Greetings from various churches given by various members of the audience both members and visitors.
P. prayer requests are taken and final prayer two+ hours later.

 

Since I am in a church planting mode - at the moment, what we have is a Bible Study.
Once we grow and have a typical service - we will have a format as follows.

Worship will be about 65-75 minutes.

Opening Hymn
Prayer
Hymn
Mission moments
Choir/special music
Announcements
Offering
Hymn
Message (35-45 minutes)
Invitation

 

Or just sit in the parking lot and listen to your favorite preacher's podcast (that way you can say you "went to church").

Our service lasts 1 hr. 15 min.
Open with a song
Greet each other/guests
Worship songs and congregational scripture reading
Sermon (45 minutes)
Offering
Announcements (if any) and dismissed.

 

My last two pastors (my current pastor and one from my previous church) both commented that if you could only attend one service it should be small group study. But if you have to miss one part of the service, it probably should be the preaching. At least for us, you can listen to the sermon at a later date. Missing the "worship" and fellowship (the church being the church....so to speak) is another matter. I don't say this to take away from the sermon (you don't need to miss that either), but too often the "other stuff" is simply seen as filler when it is...or should be....a part of the main meal. The local church was never designed to gather and hear a sermon. It was designed to gather and do kingdom work - to disciple, worship, teach, learn, meet each others needs, stand out as a unique community of people, etc. Segmenting the church and assigning importance to each element is probably not the best idea.

 

An hour and a half is something you can hardly stand? Wow.

Our service is just shy of that because we need to clear out to allow the other church to get their worship team set up but an hour and a half is nothing - unless the worship is horrible and the preaching is worse. I'd love a good 40 minute worship and prayer time and if it's good preaching, keep going!! Our service order is:

Call to Worship
Worship Song
Greeting and announcements (announcements take no more than a minute or two)
3 worship songs
Pastoral Prayer
Offering with a song (congregational song - we don't do "specials")
Sermon
Closing Song (unless the preaching went longer than planned in which case we just dismiss)
Fellowship and coffee