The 15 Minute Church Service Might Help

Understandably, churches are experimenting with new ways of persuading people to attend. One is to shorten the church service. As a preacher in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod recently in his podcast, the Bible does not say what is to be included in a service, in what order or for how long.

I'm sure every reader has his/her own opinions about church services. Way back, we had a close friend who had, at age 50, gone back to college and become a Lutheran minister. After she returned to our neighborhood we would ask her what it is like to be a preacher and her stories were fascinating. I remember mentioning we did not like a new practice at the time in our downtown Presbyterian church where the minister would stop the service and say, "Now, everyone greet your neighbor." People would shake hands with those around them and mumble something. I always wondered if everyone washed their hands. We told our friend the preacher we felt guilty not wanting to do this. "Don't feel guilty," she said, "Everyone has preferences for the rituals of Sunday service. People leave churches all the time over things like that."

I never liked the hymn singing at the churches we belonged to. At Presbyterian it seemed like the people hired as music directors where often from Lutheran Concordia College minutes away and had tastes for high church music. At church with my wife, I would grab the hymnal to find the proper page but hold it in my lap until the singing started. When I raised the hymnal to start singing, I always had it upside-down, much to the consternation of my wife. As a Mayor I was invited often to churches for special events. Some churches sang simple music that I enjoyed. I've read a lot about how important music is to some of the faithful but it is lost on me. 

In a 15-minute church service, it seems like music would be squeezed out. There other end of modern church is the all music concert style worship service. People drift in and out getting snacks and coffee. The Bible says whenever two or more gather there can be church.

It doesn't seem like new styles of holding church will do much to stem the tide of exodus. Ultimately, there needs to be some reason to be there. If there is not a reason to be there, people will be somewhere else.