Posted on 07/06/2011 7:07:50 AM PDT by Bed_Zeppelin
One church leader says worship services today are too time consuming, speaking out during an era when discussions about long church services seem to be a touchy subject for many Christians.
The Rev. Jonathan Gledhill, the Bishop of Lichfield, told a group of clergy in a speech in his London diocese this week that church services have become too long, recommending “clergy should aim to keep the time of worship to no more than 50 minutes.”
The bishop continued to say that worship has become “too complicated, leaving people who are not regular churchgoers feeling confused and excluded.”
"One of the reasons for our recent decline in churchgoing is we are not making the occasional worshipper feel welcome," he said.
"You have got to be quite tough to come to some of our services if you are not a regular attender. We're praying for longer and we're singing for longer."
Most religious leaders say Sunday morning church services already have to compete with shopping, lying in bed, or taking the day off, and the idea of spending two hours dedicated to worship is not very appealing in today’s society.
One blog reported that people who are in favor of longer church services frequently use the argument that “we need to give God the time that he deserves. If we can make time for everything else, we can make time for God.”
“In my opinion, being in service for 3 hours on Sunday is not a badge of honor. It means that there are a lot of people in your church that waste a lot of time during service,” said Clifton Holmes, a Christian writer for the Gospel Blog.
“There is no point in any of us bashing people for how much or how little time they spend in church on Sunday. If you really want to score points and find favor with God, then focus on how much time you spend with him outside of the walls of your cathedral, worship center or sanctuary.”
Research conducted over the last year by anonymous worshippers for the church website Ship of Fools found some Anglican clergy are preaching for as long as 42 minutes. Throw in songs of praise, fellowship and prayer and the worshipping public spends about two hours in church.
Bishop Gledhill said there had been a tendency to devise "more and more intricate and beautiful services for our own use, forgetting those who might come if we made things simpler for them to start with."
He said that clergy need to make sure that their sermons are not too long, arguing that people's "attention spans aren't what they used to be."
Attention spans remain a major area of investigation within research for psychology and neuroscience. Medical professionals generally believe that there is an"epidemic-level shortness in the attention spans of American citizens,” according to a federally-funded study on improving attention spans of Americans.
Kirk Johnson, a behavioral psychologist at the University of Minnesota who took part in the attention span study, said one explanation for the plummet in American attention spans may be, in part, an increasingly intrusive overabundance of often irrelevant and distracting information.
“From reality television to advertising on mobile phones to giant screaming headline broadsheets on every street corner contributes to the problem,” he said.
In another recent poll conducted by City Data, nearly 20 percent of those surveyed said their church services were timed just right.
Others surveyed for the poll, reveal 50 percent saying they spend about 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes in church.
Recent research shows only 26 percent of the world attend church services.
Last year, the Vatican told Catholic clergy to keep their sermons under eight minutes to cater for people who found it hard to concentrate for long periods.
According to Christian Research, there is no doubt that the long term downward trend in Church attendance continues as does the increase in average age of Churchgoers.
So far, research shows nothing the Church leaders have done seems to have brought about any change in the decline in church attendance that started in the 50's.
oh they drop one story like a hot potato when something else comes up. They are like flies on you know what.
don’t know why but you are probably right. A lot of people spend the biggest part of the day there. Not us. We used to go and loved being there for that time then back home to enjoy being with family and a nice Sunday dinner. Can’t beat it.
If church feels like an obligation, why go?
The Bible says to not forsake assembling ourselves together. Sometimes it feels like an obligation. Most times it is a joy. I go whether I feel like it or not because my life is not my own but belongs to the Lord.
Thanks for the explanation.
Feh. You’re an adult. You know when you have to get up. It’s a little different than with kids. Or if you made a specatacle of yourself. I guess because I was in various choirs for many years, I am used to being able to get up and move around during the service.
As an RC convert who attends a church planted under the Pastoral Provision, our service is more like 90 minutes because we do the full Roman Canon version of the Eucharist, there is a LOT of chanting, and that’s just the way the people who came from the Episcopal church and started it wanted it.
Our Cardinal came for the first time ever a while back (our first Cardinal ever too!). He was moved and impressed by the attention to the liturgy. He said he hoped we former Anglicans could teach the Roman church something about liturgy and music, and that the Roman church, in return, could teach us something about Obedience. :)
So, part of the choirmaster’s job is to set up a rotation of hymns. A lot of it is pre-planned, so you’ll sing the same him every four to six weeks or so... I don’t know the details. Anyways, part of that duty is to introduce new hymns to the congregation. Of course it’s rocky at first but it’s mixed in with other hymns that they DO know, so it’s no big deal. And after a few tries, they either get it or the choirmaster gives up on it.
I grant you the exception. In fact, in post 58 I noted that the one pastor with the sense to be brief was probably also the only one talented enough that one would ENJOY him going on a bit longer. But if you have that gift of the spirit, blow your horn.
Sorry, I have to disagree with you. The exposition of the word is not worship. Absent the Real Presence in the Eucharist you merely have an educational session.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.