{"id":3353,"date":"2013-11-13T09:34:51","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T07:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/?p=3353"},"modified":"2013-12-11T19:04:38","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T17:04:38","slug":"the-problem-with-short-worship-services-in-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/the-problem-with-short-worship-services-in-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem with Short Worship Services in the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One difference we notice after coming back to America is that Sunday morning worship is much shorter. In my experience most US churches keep their main worship service to somewhere between 60-90 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast most Ukrainian churches \u00a0I&#8217;ve been in will run around 120 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"3354\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/the-problem-with-short-worship-services-in-the-church\/photo-45\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/photo-45.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"640,360\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Picasa&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 4&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1384105851&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;3.85&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;125&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0666666666667&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"photo (45)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/photo-45.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3354\" alt=\"photo (45)\" src=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/photo-45.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/photo-45.jpg 640w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/photo-45-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/photo-45-600x337.jpg 600w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/photo-45-460x260.jpg 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Maybe Ukraine has influenced me too much or maybe God&#8217;s Word has but I&#8217;ve come to the conclusion that many American churches have wimped out on worship!<\/p>\n<p>They have caved to cultural pressure and cut short the one time in the week when the entire local church gathers to worship as one!<\/p>\n<h4>Social Norms<\/h4>\n<p>Some argue that the church must be culturally relevant and in and effort not to break social norms they limit the worship time.<\/p>\n<p>What social norms are they talking about?<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s look at the most popular sports in America they must tell us something about what people are willing to sit through. I did a little research and this is what I found for the average length of games.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Basketball NBA &#8211; 150 minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Major League Baseball &#8211; 170 minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Football NFL &#8211; 180 minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Those definitely don&#8217;t fit into our nice 60-90 minute church service slot!<\/p>\n<p>What about movies, they&#8217;re a lot more like a church service and aren&#8217;t most popular moves around 90 minutes?<\/p>\n<p>Once again I did some checking! Below are the top 10 grossing films of all time along with how many minutes they run.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Avatar &#8211; 171 minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Titanic\u00a0&#8211; 194\u00a0minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Avengers &#8211; 142\u00a0minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows &#8211; 130\u00a0minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Iron Man 3 &#8211; 130\u00a0minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Transformers &#8211; 154\u00a0minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Lord of the Rings: Return of the King &#8211; 201\u00a0minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Skyfall &#8211; 143\u00a0minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Dark Night Rises &#8211; 165\u00a0minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Pirates of the Caribbean:\u00a0Dead Man&#8217;s Chest &#8211; 151\u00a0minutes<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>That&#8217;s an average running time of <strong>158 minutes!<\/strong> Maybe Americans aren&#8217;t as pressed for time as we thought!<\/p>\n<h4>Plan well<\/h4>\n<p>You can&#8217;t just decide to have longer services by simply moving the start time back a few minutes! Adding 30 minutes to your service doesn&#8217;t automatically make it more spiritual or more helpful.<\/p>\n<p>A longer service means more planning.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What do your people really need?<\/li>\n<li>How can you use the time most effectively to foster true worship of the true God?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These question demand that we focus our attention on our core purposes for the weekly worship time. A properly planned time of worship ought to edify the participants and glorify God at the same time.<\/p>\n<h4>Add what is lacking<\/h4>\n<p>Every church is different so there is no cookie cutter approach. However, here are a few suggestions of what you might want to add to your service.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Longer sermons:\u00a0<\/strong>20-30 minutes just doesn&#8217;t cut it. Our people need well prepared Bible teaching that does more than skim the surface. Shoot for at least 40 mins of clear and compelling Biblical content.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More sermons:\u00a0<\/strong>Instead of making the sermon longer you could add a second or third sermon. People will benefit greatly by hearing from more than one preaching voice on Sunday mornings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More testimonies:\u00a0<\/strong>Too many churches relegate testimonies to a few times a year. Why not make them a weekly part of your worship?<\/p>\n<p><strong>More prayer:\u00a0<\/strong>Extended corporate prayer is beautiful and powerful! Consider 10 mins of praying in small groups and also prepared prayers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More participation from the Children:\u00a0<\/strong>Involving children in worship helps our kids appreciate worship from an early age, it also blesses the adults! Don&#8217;t wait until Christmas or Easter to have the children sing, recite verses or do a skit!<\/p>\n<h4>Question: How long is the service at your church? Is it too long or too short? What would you add or subtract?<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One difference we notice after coming back to America is that Sunday morning worship is much shorter. In my experience most US churches keep their main worship service to somewhere between 60-90 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[72,221],"class_list":["post-3353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-church","tag-worship"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/photo-45.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3izZc-S5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4051,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/32-the-problem-with-worship-experiences\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":0},"title":"#32 The Problem with Worship Experiences","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"June 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you noticed the emphasis many churches give to your experience in worship? I have and I think it's dangerous! In this episode of Now is the Time\u00a0I talk about why turning worship into an experience is a bigger problem then you may have thought. The experience trend The trend\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ministry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ministry","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ministry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC07077.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC07077.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/DSC07077.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5226,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/donetsk-war-on-protestant-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":1},"title":"Donetsk&#8217; War on Protestant Churches","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"March 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Is there a targeted effort to take out Protestant Churches in the Eastern Ukraine war-zone? In this video reporter Simon Ostrovsky\u00a0recently traveled to Donetsk and visited several Protestant church buildings that are now under the control of Donetsk People's Republic soldiers. One pastor describes how armed men came to their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;New&quot;","block_context":{"text":"New","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/new\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/propoganda.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/propoganda.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/propoganda.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4471,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/is-there-a-war-against-the-protestant-church-by-radical-orthodox\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":2},"title":"Is There a War Against the Protestant Church by Radical Orthodox?","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"October 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in June I wrote about how Peter Dudnik's church in Slavyansk was seized by separatists and then used as a military base and as a firing position on Ukrainian forces. Thankfully in August Ukrainian troops regained control of Slavyansk and Dudnik's church building was returned to the congregation. Recently\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ukraine&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ukraine","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ukraine-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/orthodox-war.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/orthodox-war.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/orthodox-war.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3091,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/10-worship-and-the-church-podcast\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":3},"title":"#10 Worship and the Church -Podcast","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"September 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The problem with our understanding of worship is that it is often limited to what happens during the church service on Sunday morning! In this episode of \"Now is the Time\" I talk about why worship is vital to the life of the church and how we can incorporate worship\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Gospel Today&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Gospel Today","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/podcast\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/DSC05299.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/DSC05299.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/DSC05299.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9422,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/an-open-letter-to-the-person-loitering-in-the-foyer-during-the-sermon\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":4},"title":"An Open Letter to The Person Loitering in the Foyer During the Sermon","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"June 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Person loitering in the foyer every Sunday, You might think nobody notices, you might think it's no big deal, and you probably have some really great excuses for why you rarely if ever join us in the sanctuary for corporate worship and the preaching of God's Word. Before you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/AdobeStock_188324580.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/AdobeStock_188324580.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/AdobeStock_188324580.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/AdobeStock_188324580.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/AdobeStock_188324580.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3116,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/are-your-church-gatherings-getting-the-job-done\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":5},"title":"Are Your Church Gatherings Getting the Job Done?","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"October 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"What happens when your church gathers for worship? It seems that most churches have a few basics that go into each Sunday morning. Usually it includes a few songs, announcements, some prayer time a sermon and another song or two. Many churches understand that it is important \u00a0not to neglect\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/DSC03220-001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/DSC03220-001.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/DSC03220-001.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3353"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3361,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353\/revisions\/3361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}