I have listened to various suggestions on how the worship should be shortened – “Use more trays,” “Omit a song,” “Cut the sermon.” In all of this thinking, there seems to be the underlying premise that a shorter service is a better service – that efficiency is better.
Are we rushing through our worship so that we may hasten to feed the poor, preach to our neighbors, and lift up the brethren? No. We rush so that we may get a tasty, sumptuous meal or so we can watch our favorite TV program or take a nap, read a secular newspaper, play golf or go on an outing. If none of these attracts us, we may rush because we are nervous and have the habit of doing everything in a hurry.
We sing, “Take Time to Be Holy,” but we don’t have time to meditate, to praise, or to listen to the Word in a relaxed atmosphere. There is pressure by more worldly members to “pay our respects” to God in the smallest capsule of time possible.
Movies and TV programs are getting longer, but periods of worship are being compressed. WHY? Is it because we are so spiritual that we don’t need more time to be holy? Or is it lack of appetite for spiritual food? Do we hunger and thirst after righteousness or do we fret when the Lord’s Supper takes more time than the newscast?
Time is precious, and we should “redeem the time.” Our periods of worship should be planned so that our worship will be more effective. Let us take time to be holy – time for more spiritual songs – for sermons that are long enough to convict the sinner and edify the Christian. Let us take time for meditation on the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. Time for silence, to be still and know that God is with us.
Borrowed