Long Church Services

As you can see from the title, I'm here to talk or should I say complain about long Church services especially the ones in my country. I would not write this article under normal circumstances but after what I went through two days ago in church, I can't but rant. It was torture.

Okay, I might be exaggerating but it wasn't a pleasant experience either. All I can say is that it was unnecessarily prolonged which I can say about church services in Nigeria. The long praise and worship sessions, the extended prayers and the boringly long sermons. I think church services are a sought of festival.

I wonder why they can't be straight to the point so that everyone can get on with their life. I always picture a program where they start on time with no delay whatsoever. The praise and worship sessions is short but beneficial where songs that are edifying and based on the word of God are sang and not just any song that comes to the lips. Where the sermon should be the most important part of the service.

I think this is where most churches get it wrong. They focus on all other parts of the service but forget the main reason why people come to church which is to hear and listen to the word of God. We all know when it pertains to this, there is always a difference between hearing and listening.

The sermon should be the longest time of the service but it shouldn't be unnecessarily long so that it doesn't become a repetition of words and points. It could easily become the pastor saying the same thing over and over again and if you're lucky in different ways.

The sermon should be based on God's word and nothing else so as to prevent heresy. Everyone should bring out a pen and jotter to write one or two things down and be in the right attitude, willing to learn. No one can remember everything and as such a believer should write things down so as to revert back to them incase they forget. At the end everyone should have something they have gained so that it wouldn't have been a waste of time on both the part of the pastor and the members.

And then the offering, announcements and the grace should be taken quickly. Just like that we are done with service for the day and we can all go on with the rest of our day. I know that this doesn't usually happen because there are some other things that may have been planned but does it need to be done on a Sunday service, can't it be done on any other day. There are a lot of things to be put in place for something like this to happen and a lot of priorities to be set a right but maybe one day this will be a reality.

I can say for a fact that long services do not benefit anyone particularly children and teenagers. You can go to most churches in Nigeria and you will see that barely one hour after the start of service, teenagers are already loitering around. Now imagine if the service goes on for over three hours. Probably more than half the church would have left already except if you have very loyal members. Even adults would have started leaving.

This was what kind of started happening just two days ago in church. I think they were doing ordination of deacons, that's like commissioning or bringing in a new set of deacons into the church. I am not going to lie, the service was long and boring and where I sat wasn't particularly comfortable. At some point I was tired and tried to sleep but I couldn't. At this point I was already becoming visibly irritated. I tried calling my dad that maybe we should start leaving because I don't know when they plan to end this service but unfortunately he didn't pick my call. I just gave up. Thank God at some point I just slept off and when I woke up they were already sharing the grace. When the recessional hymn was being sang I picked up my Bible and left.

I know what I did wasn't the right attitude to the things of God but if you were there you would understand. The organisers didn't even try to rush when they saw they were out of time. They just continued the service at their own pace.

The sad part for me was that I hadn't eaten in the morning and I was very hungry so that just made things worse. Thank God they finally finished and I hurried back home to eat like a mad man.

In summary, certain churches need to set their priorities aright particularly the old generation churches. They need to stop unnecessary ceremonies and focus on the more important things. This will be mutually beneficial for everyone. Also everyone goes home blessed and edified from God's word.

My Sponsors.

I was supposed to have published this article on Sunday but some things came up and I couldn't. I hope I wasn't too late by publishing it today. January is moving pretty fast and we'll soon be in February. I can already feel the love in the air. Just joking.

Till next time guys.