Dear Editor,
Is church a waste of time? Is it a waste of time for you to refuel your car? If you do not stop occasionally at the convenience store or fueling station, your car will just be a piece of metal beside the road. Your automobile requires gasoline or charging to keep going.
Your automobile will not run efficiently if you do not occasionally have it serviced. Wheel balancing, alignments, brake pads and more are just part of routine maintenance.
Gathering in our faith groups is critical to refueling and recharging our spiritual engines and batteries. The scripture reminds us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves, Hebrews 10:25. Worship brings us together to hear encouragement, scriptural insights, teaching and fellowship with others who are on the same journey as us. An ember will soon lose its glow but when stirred back into the fire it burns brighter and hotter.
I’ve been in and around church worship my entire life. My life is better because of Christian people and worshipping with others.
However, I am not alone when I say I don’t want to feel my time has been abused or even wasted. I don’t mind a 90-minute worship service if the music is great and the message is well prepared and worthwhile. I don’t want to sit through 90 minutes of bad music and a sermon that was preached off the cuff and unprepared. I don’t want to hear the same announcements, appeals, promotions Sunday after Sunday. Put the announcements in a bulletin, on a screen or on a website. Use the worship time to present good songs, scripture, prayer and a good message.
My hometown pastor had this word of wisdom for all ministers to follow, “Preach about God and preach about twenty minutes.” Most people can handle 25 minutes but after that the minister starts losing people unless it’s really an exceptional sermon. Many ministers think all their sermons are exceptional and love to keep hearing themselves for 40 to 50 minutes or more. Stop doing this to your people!
A good worship service can be easily carried out in an hour. Twenty minutes for good prepared music sets a good mood and tone. Ten minutes for prayer and scripture reading should be plenty. This allows the minister to have 25 to maybe even 30 minutes to present the message. I’m not saying this is the golden rule but I would say it’s a good silver rule.
There is nothing spiritual or godly in keeping people inside the church building 90 to 120 minutes. Chances are, if this is the practice of your church, you probably have a small congregation. I know someone will write me making an exception and there are always exceptions but there aren’t many on this one.
When you refuel or service your car you don’t want it take half of your day. When it happens, it’s a tiring and aggravating experience. Church was never meant to be this way.
Dr. Glenn Mollette
Response to Dr. Mollette’s thoughts on whether church is a waste of time.
Dr. Mollette offered several observations regarding the church worship service from a presentation viewpoint, i.e. length of service, quality of music and message, and efficiency in the sundries such as church announcements.
To be sure, the presentation matters. For instance, Psalm 33:3 reminds musicians to “play skillfully” in worship. The Apostle Paul reminds young Timothy regarding preaching, “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” Additionally, Paul says that worship should be decent and orderly (1 Corinthians 14).
So, on the surface, Dr. Mollette captures the necessity to execute worship well.
What concerns me is the consumeristic approach he seems to espouse.
“I don’t want to feel my time has been abused or even wasted.”
“I don’t want to sit through 90 minutes of bad music and a sermon that was preached off the cuff and unprepared.”
“I don’t want to hear the same announcements, appeals, promotions Sunday after Sunday.”
And then the condescending, “There is nothing spiritual or godly in keeping people inside the church building 90 to 120 minutes. Chances are, if this is the practice of your church, you probably have a small congregation.”
He offers a qualification of this by saying, “…there are always exceptions but there aren’t many on this one.”
For a man of enumerated qualifications, I find a wanton disregard for what God desires from us in worship.
If I set a perfect table but the guest of honor is not present, does it matter what the menu is or the quality of the setting?
When worship becomes about outward expressions rather than a hunger for intimacy with God, we are no better than the pharisees whom Jesus rebuked, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean (Matthew 23-25-26).”
I am sure Dr. Mollette is a sincere man, and I offer my thoughts solely as an encouragement to reflect on his letter and the deeper meaning of consumeristic Christianity.