The Trouble with Traditions #3

One-Hour Service

This has almost become a sacred cow. I read in the Bible that Paul preached past midnight. I don’t think they met at 11:00 p.m. We honor this tradition for the most part, but we need to realize it’s not a matter of scripture.

We do this more as a convenience. Many times we could use more preaching and teaching time as a body. Do we give our visitors a true sense of what the church is all about during a sixty-minute service? Do our young people know the Word as much as the past generations?

One of my favorite hobbies is riding roller coasters. My boys and I enjoy some of the wildest, tallest, upside-down, inside out rides ever built. We have gone to all the great parks across the United States. Roller coasters can turn you completely inside out. They usually make me laugh and get an instant adrenaline rush. Usually when I get off the coaster the first thing I want to do is get back on again. When the ride is over I rush back and get in line again (My record is 12 times in a row on a coaster at Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, California).

Many times I have that same feeling or emotion when I have encountered God in worship. There are some days after an uplifting service of praise and worship I just want to start all over again. I want to continue singing and lifting up our Heavenly Father and thanking Him for giving His only Son because He loved me more than anything else in this world.

How about you? Ever feel like wanting to participate in a “marathon worship service?" Never wanting it to end? Ever feel one-hour just isn’t enough time to praise God?

The early church should be our example of a people that truly felt a need for worship:
Acts 2:46-47 “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved."

Christians who worship in this manner think of worship as being a celebration of God's glorious works.

As I was examining this subject I read a blog by Travis Stanley from Abilene Christian University that stated the following:
“Whether we realize it or not, congregations are formed by their worship. If the purpose of our worship is simply to fulfill a requirement, then such worship will form Christians into legalists. If the purpose of our worship is to evoke some individual emotional response, then such worship will form Christians into selfish individualists. The very fact that we fight in our churches over worship styles signifies that we have missed the point of worship. Worship is not about elevating one style of music over another, it is about emptying ourselves of our own personal agendas, seeking to imitate the selfless Christ we worship."

I encourage all of us to leave our watches, organizers, palm pilots and even our own agendas at home next Sunday and really concentrate on heartfelt worship.