Sacred moments aren’t measured in minutes
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Reflections
Michael J. Brooks
I visit the National Institute for Standards and Technology website occasionally to reset my wristwatch. I’ve resisted the current trend to wear a watch that monitors my heart, calories and what my neighbors are watching on TV.
My current Seiko was a gift from my mother-in-law nearly 30 years ago. It’s still serviceable, though gaining about 10 seconds every two weeks. Quite a record. It should last me until heaven.
Visiting this site lately reminded me of being accused of not being able to tell time.
We did an open survey in a church, asking members to write responses. I’ve referred to this previously since one person suggested he or she enjoyed good humor from the pulpit, and another person suggested the pulpit wasn’t the place for joking.
I was thoroughly confused.
But then another person wrote snarkily (if one can write in snark), “The pastor needs to learn to tell time.”
I wasn’t aware this was a problem, and I still after so many years don’t believe it was. We had an 8:15 service for some time, and were constrained to one hour, but the 11 a.m. worship had no such constraint.
I told the story once about our music minister using a stopwatch and reporting how long others took in the morning worship besides the pastor. It was intriguing that announcements and such were so time-consuming.
The Church Answers group reports that the typical Protestant worship service in America is between one hour and one hour and fifteen minutes. I don’t think at this particular church we ever went beyond that, though I often exhorted the church that if God was working and people responding, we needed to “chill” and let Him finish.
I also remember that I’ve had denominational guests who’ve asked to give greetings, and organization promotors who wanted to ask for our help. Many of those who asked for “five minutes” took longer.
A pastor wiser than me said he always had guests like this scheduled at the end of the service after his sermon, underscoring that the preaching of the word had priority, and putting the onus on the guests if things ran long. I wish I’d known this much earlier in my life!
I get it that we can waste time in worship with peripheral things and must be on our guard. But I also understand the other side of this argument. The shortest movies on Netflix are 90 minutes, and some more than two hours. The college football game is three hours.
All of this is fine, but shouldn’t we give priority to the eternal truths of God’s word, and pray that He do good work in receptive hearts – including our own?
Michael J. Brooks, pastor of Siluria Baptist Church and former Judson College faculty member, writes a weekly faith column. Visit siluriabaptist.com.
