Worship is a Funny Thing
I don't mean that worship is to be funny, or that there is anything trivial about worship, or even that worship is to be entertaining, but culturally we are funny people when it comes to worship. This was evidenced here at Community yesterday when we went long in worship - probably about 20 minutes past the magical 12:00 noon time! Our guest speaker, Bill Nikides (who I adore and thought he seriously and rightly challenged us with the Gospel) went long in his message although it was evident he did it knowing what time it was, knowing we had communion to follow, and he did it without apology. It mustn't be overlooked that his topic was "the persecuted church."
The "funny" part of this story is how about 1/4 of the congregation simply got up and started leaving at the conclusion of my prayer after communion. No closing hymn, no benediction, no anything else . . . at my "amen" several folks just started toward the doors! Stokes and Adam were playing and about to start singing the closing hymn and the look on their faces was priceless! I said to them, "just let 'em go."
Now I really don't believe people were leaving then in protest (certainly I don't want to believe that). My guess is that some people's automatic alarm just went off and when they heard an "amen" from the preacher they assumed it was time to dismiss. Surely we would not have just heard a message of genuine and intense persecution of Christians around the world and felt like our 20 minutes extra in worship was anything remotely resembling "suffering." Surely we would not have just eaten at the Lord's Table, enjoying Christ's presence and grace, and then responded in frustration and annoyance.
Again, I do believe the incident yesterday was just a conditioned response we have in our culture to what we "believe" worship should be.
Something else worth noting is that we as Americans/westerners are the ONLY culture that watches the clock so intensely in our worship. Could there be any connection with this and the fact that the church seems to be booming in other cultures and NOT ours?
waiting on the closing hymn,
Burt
The "funny" part of this story is how about 1/4 of the congregation simply got up and started leaving at the conclusion of my prayer after communion. No closing hymn, no benediction, no anything else . . . at my "amen" several folks just started toward the doors! Stokes and Adam were playing and about to start singing the closing hymn and the look on their faces was priceless! I said to them, "just let 'em go."
Now I really don't believe people were leaving then in protest (certainly I don't want to believe that). My guess is that some people's automatic alarm just went off and when they heard an "amen" from the preacher they assumed it was time to dismiss. Surely we would not have just heard a message of genuine and intense persecution of Christians around the world and felt like our 20 minutes extra in worship was anything remotely resembling "suffering." Surely we would not have just eaten at the Lord's Table, enjoying Christ's presence and grace, and then responded in frustration and annoyance.
Again, I do believe the incident yesterday was just a conditioned response we have in our culture to what we "believe" worship should be.
Something else worth noting is that we as Americans/westerners are the ONLY culture that watches the clock so intensely in our worship. Could there be any connection with this and the fact that the church seems to be booming in other cultures and NOT ours?
waiting on the closing hymn,
Burt
posted by Yates Boykin at 6:54 AM
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