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Some churches shorten services

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mwkruse
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Columbian.com: Some churches shorten services

Move gives families, busy young people a worship option.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Struggling with shrinking attendance, some churches are shortening their traditional Sunday service, promising to get a generation with limited attention spans out the door in as little as 30 minutes.

These abbreviated ceremonies are aimed at luring back the enormous numbers of young people who avoid Sundays at church. With distractions such as the Internet and a weak connection to the faith of their childhoods, many are steering clear, to the dismay of religious leaders who desperately want them back.

"We are increasingly aware of the time pressures on families, and they have been telling us that the traditional service is too long," said the Rev. Chip Stokes of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Delray Beach, Fla. "We recognize that things are changing, and we have to be more adaptive without losing our core."

St. Paul's recently introduced a 30-minute service designed for children up to fourth grade and their parents as an alternative to the church's 90-minute traditional service. Stokes said he is thrilled with attendance: About 40 parents and children have attended each week since the service started in September. …

This comment got my attention.

But not everyone supports the trend.

"The Lord gives us 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Karen Turnbull of St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach. "And he's asking us for only one hour to come to church."

Uh, I don't think that was God asking. I think that was your tradition talking. The idea that if our one-hour service was good enough for Peter and Paul, then it is good enough for us is misguided. I doubt First Century Christians would recognize much of traditional worship. I'm not making a case for shorter services one way or the other, but let's not confuse "the way we've always done it" for a biblical mandate.

The church I attend has a slightly abbreviated service at 8:00 am that is 45 minutes long instead of one hour. I've wondered how it would work to have a couple of 30-minute services at times during the week other than on Sunday morning.

Does your congregation have shorter services? Short services outside of Sunday morning? What are the benefits and downsides of going with shorter services?

Comments

3 responses to “Some churches shorten services”

  1. Dan Anderson-Little Avatar
    Dan Anderson-Little

    Maike,
    Interesting post–and thank you, thank you, thank you for reminding us that not all tradtions are Biblical and not all that is Biblical has become a tradition. Fred Holper who used to teach Worship at McCormick Seminary used to warn people about talking too knowingly about “traditional” worship as the Presbyterian Church has at least 18 different worship traditions! It seems to me that simply shortening the service to get folks to come to worship is at least in part missing the point. There are some churches that don’t sweat the time issue (and I would bet run over an hour) who do well with young people. To be sure, people are busy, but people also need to encounter the gospel in their own language–which is not only about worshipping in English, Spanish or Chinese, but in cultural languages, which may include technology, styles of music, mindsets, time of day, and on and on. I wonder how much the impulse to shorten worship is a way to avoid the deeper conversation of culture–both within and outside of the church–a “maybe we don’t need to change and they will like us if we make it less time consuming.” As always, thanks!
    Dan

    Reply
  2. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Dan, one of he things I’ve been thinking about is what if we had a short service together with a sit down meal each week? I know Korean churches that do this. I know our knowledge of First Century worship is sketchy but it appears to me to be more about table fellowship than about people gathered in rows watching events. Why not have paid staff that handle the food preparation as part of the worship experience?
    I’m not suggesting this as some Platonic ideal model but I do wonder if a shorter service combined with other elements we have not traditionally thought of as part of the gathering experience might be needed.
    Just thinking.

    Reply
  3. Dan Anderson-Little Avatar
    Dan Anderson-Little

    Mike,
    Yes, I like your suggestion. But what your are putting forward is not the shortening of worship but a recasting of it. This is worship that is connecting in different ways, satisfying the need for fellowship and making worship sensory–both of which were largely absent in “traditional” Protestant worship and which would probably be missing from a shortened service. And instead of a meal, how about a bike ride or community gardening, or tutoring, or a thousand other things. In your suggestion, it is not a meal and a short service, but a worship experience that includes a meal–or maybe its a meal that includes worship. It is ideas like yours that give the church a future–not doing more of what we already do that isn’t very effective only now doing it shorter.
    Dan

    Reply

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