Today was a little outside the norm for me. I wasn't preaching, my youth pastor was, so I didn't even attend services at The Fort this morning. We don't let anyone know in advance anymore when I won't be preaching because people have a tendency to skip church when they know I am going to be gone.
It was kind of funny as well because we got a very concerned person call today worried that I was looking at another church this morning. Don't worry, I ain't going anywhere...you're stuck with me at The Fort!
We decided to see if we could glean any insights by going to a local megachurch this morning. We went to Lutheran Church of Hope. I have attended services at both Willow Creek in Chicago and Lifechurch in Oklahoma City. Let me say right up front that Hope is neither.
We had people pleasantly smile at us as we entered but no one spoke directly to us. I had to ask (TWICE) which way and what it was I should expect. That is nothing like what I experienced in Chicago or Oklahoma City where we started receiving our first welcomes in the parking lot.
After being seated in the massive auditorium (and after finding it), we looked through our bulletin. It was very busy with loads of information. I felt a sense of anticipation though as I sat there.
Musicians and singers began to line up on stage just a couple minutes prior to service. I noticed five screens that were used for projection up front plus two more in the back that were for the praise teams.
Worship began (and it was very good). Didn't know the first song, but that was okay. I enjoyed listening to it. After it was done, there were a few announcements given (the first of which was a video that advertised their upcoming Easter services...and it was done by a local news media personality Eric Hanson). Very nicely produced video. Then a couple more were given by a pastor on staff.
Then we were to greet others around us. There were a couple folks right next to us that shook hands with us. They seemed very friendly.
Music began again and we were off into two more worship songs. During this phase of worship, a 19 member choir joined the other 11 musicians and singers on stage. There was also an American Sign Language interpreter on stage the whole time as well (she was great!) And during the last song an interpretive dancer joined everyone on stage (I found her to be pretty distracting personally).
Then it was offering time (but it wasn't announced, it just kind of happened) while a special solo took place.
Then it was time for the sermon. The speaker was an associate pastor on staff Molly Junjunet. I wondered what I'd think because I really am not fond of women preachers to be blunt with you. But she did a good job.
My only two serious critiques of her sermon were that she spoke entirely too fast (making her hard to follow at times) and her sermon was way too dang long! She spoke for close to 50 minutes! No joke!
Although her content was good...it was too much. She needs to learn to trim the fat!
And here is the other really funky weird thing for me. At the end of her sermon, she simply raised her hand and said, "Go in peace." And that concluded the whole service.
No closing song or prayer or anything. Just a hand gesture and a little saying. That felt really weird! There should have been something more there to close everything out.
Overall, I didn't come back with any great ideas (except maybe a sermon idea) and I was a little surprised at how Hope wasn't as friendly as I thought it would be. They need to work on their greeters helping people (from the parking lot) know exactly where to go.
Plus, at the end of the day, I still don't care for women preaching that much!
3 comments:
I tend to preach 40-45 minutes... John Piper, Al Mohler, and Mark Deever tend to go an hour.
I think it depends on your congregation. I've got a lot of older folks. Now when I do youth messages - 20 minutes tops.
I think it is a misnomer that it depends on the congregation...what I saw was a lot of restless people in that auditorium. We live in the 30 minute sitcom age (and even with that there are almost 10 minutes of commercials)! The attention span in this generation has been minimalized and if that isn't catered to in a sermon then it is to the preacher's detriment because his congregation will not have a very good retention level. And that seems to be the goal, isn't it...retention? I have found that the most impactful, life-transforming messages I have ever preached weren't "long" or even very deep, to be honest!
Most sermons I listen to via podcast are 40-45 minutes. Some are shorter (Craig Groeschel) and some are longer (Perry Noble). For me personally, I think 30 min is about right (except for the first Sunday in July!)
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