Can praise and worship be too long?

Pirch80 · Jan 26, 2005

My thought is if people are leaving during announcements and worship then they really have no business being there then. I'm sorry if a person doesn't have the patience to worship and wait then more than likely they won't listen during the sermon and they won't get what the pastor is trying to say.

Pirch80 · Jan 26, 2005

Thing is with time limits you really got to watch it. Like this last Sunday night I was doing the Praise Team (the people that sing in front of the choir) and it just seemed that tongues were lasting a little bit longer and then during tongues a person came up to the altar and started praying. That's an example of when it's wrong to have a time limit. We ended up worshipping for probably another 20 minutes and I thank God for that. In a service you never expect to get out at a certain time because you're never sure what you might miss out on. Plus it adds unneccessary pressure to people to keep the service at a certain time. To me it doesn't matter how long the service goes (except maybe Sunday night as long as it doesn't last past 11 pm).

cinni · Jan 26, 2005

p/w is important in church but not 2 hours that insane thats the length of one of our church services i gotta admit p/w is my favourite part of church its when ireally feel god the most.

ninja · Jan 26, 2005

I think it sometimes can be too long. But what is too long I guess it depends on the individual

New_Wineskin · Jan 27, 2005

ninja said:
I think it sometimes can be too long. But what is too long I guess it depends on the individual

Definitely . Some people have children and the meeting could be moving into meal time which would make some children a bit irritable . Sometimes plans are made with what they expected to be the length of the meeting in mind . Some come more for the sermon than they do for the music ( definitely not me but some might be in that category ) . I am used to groups taking a minimum of 2 hours for a meeting . But , I have seen visitors used to far less and being confused as to what was going on .

~RENEE~ · Jan 27, 2005

That is all we will be doing in heaven. To quote The Mcgruders song Warming Up 'If you think I shout down here don't wait around for me to change cause I'm just warming up for that meeting in the sky.'

Father Rick · Jan 27, 2005

Yes... it definitely CAN be too long FOR THAT SERVICE.

To explain... I love praise and worship. My best friend is an extremely talented and anointed psalmist and I get to be part of worship services (I mean strictly praise/worship) and seminars where the worship may last several hours at a time. Sometimes in weekend seminars, we may spend 15 hours in worship in 2-3 days.

Now I absolutely love those times... but that is not/cannot be the norm for every service. Ecclesiastes says there is a time for every purpose under heaven. At any 'normal' church service, there will be people at all stages in their walk with Christ (or search for Christ for the 'pre'-believer). Many of the people there haven't learned how to 'preservere' in worship/prayer. There will also be some of us 'old veterans' who can go for hours. My job as a pastor, however, is not to see how deep I can go in every service, but rather see that the congregation as a whole is able to encounter and be transformed by the power of God. For that reason, there has to be a 'balance' ( and I hate that word) of how much can the average person in my congregation handle at one time. And in this process, if I have to choose which direction to lean-- to the good of those who are young in the faith or for the enjoyment of those who are mature.... well, I will choose to strengthen those who are young and work on their level.

That doesn't mean we should ignore those who want to have worship for hours-- just to provide an appropriate time/place for that as well.

Personally, my ideal is an 'anchor' service designed for a broad spectrum audience. This will NOT go for hours in worship-- in fact the entire service from start to beginning may only last an hour to an hour and a half. Then at a different time in the week, have a teaching service-- where there is little or no worship, but indepth biblical/theological teaching. And finally, have a worship/prayer service that is focused primarily on those things with maybe only a short word of exhortation.

sweetrevival · Jan 28, 2005

As far as I am concerned, and I know my husband has other opinions, we could stay in worship for ever and ever. Praise to me is just a warm up for the presence of the Lord and worship is bathing in it full on. So I would prefer to ask "Why do we make praise and worship so short!" Chuckle!!

PS - Sam likes the power songs in praise - he likes the beat - cause the beat goes on! Hey isn't that a song!

Andry · Jan 28, 2005

Just a rhetorical question not directed at anyone specifically, but moreso for those who enjoy your churches P&W song service for an extended period....

Why do you enjoy it so much for so long? Is it because it make us feel good? Does it really accomplish anything more (from God's perspective) if it's 20 minutes longer than usual (or whatever X minutes more)?

Some may say, 'oh well, we're worshipping God.' Well the truth is, he can get more worship from the angels than we can give him in a thousand years. Thousands upon thousands of them, every day and every night worshipping God. So IMHO, there has to be more in our getting together than just having our little songs, fellowshipping together, breaking bread together - and that's all very wonderful - and we may feel good about it afterwards. But it begs the question: what for? What purpose is it accomplishing?

The real task at hand is to be able to come to grips with the fact that once we've finished our P&W part, the sermon part, and the fellowshipping part of the service, is to go out into the world and start impacting the world. And to realize that the presence of God - because the Kingdom of God is within us - remains with us and is no less present than when we were in our little song service that made us feel good. And to take all of the blessings and anointings from our time in the 'presence of God' into the bareness of our world, our jobs, our families, our circumstances, our crises. This is the hard part. And in order to do this, you've got to end the song service at some point, as the purpose of the body of Christ is not within the walls of our churches, it's outside the walls of our churches.

KleinerApfel · Jan 28, 2005

Great post Andry.
You're right that worship is much more than being in church, enjoying music and tingles.

However, a few tingles are well overdue in my church, where the service has been carefully engineered over centuries to eliminate all danger of praising and worshiping "too long."

We have 5 or 6 hymns, interspersed with the other elements of the service involving sitting, standing, kneeling at particular moments, so we have the "mood" broken between each song.

If it's a really, really short song, (by which I mean 4 lines), we might sing through twice. Three or more times would be decadent.

If it's a traditional hymn with more than 4 verses we are very likely to cut at least one out.

Sometimes hardly anyone even bothers to sing some of the hymns at all.

The danger of our type of worship is that we are really not given the opportunity to absorb the beautiful words, relax into it, settle our minds and hearts on the Lord.

Just thought I'd mention the other end of the spectrum on time and worship.

One day maybe the Holy Spirit will decide enough is enough and descend on our entire church. Please Lord!

Meanwhile I love to sing alone at home, and listen to/sing with CDs, and a couple of times a year I visit a friend's more relaxed church, where I find it difficult to enter into the fullness of the experience because I'm so used to being restrained.

Inside I'm dancing ...

God bless, Susana

Mark Downham · Jan 28, 2005

No - because you can cross over into a parallel dimension where a rainbow circles his throne and the praise and worship never stop apart from when the seventh seal is opened and the work of the Cross is revealed and then there is silence for half an hour - the silence of reversed thunder - which is a form of praise and worship - simply reversed.

Mark

Mark Downham · Jan 28, 2005

Father Rick

My job as a pastor, however, is not to see how deep I can go in every service, but rather see that the congregation as a whole is able to encounter and be transformed by the power of God. For that reason, there has to be a 'balance' ( and I hate that word) of how much can the average person in my congregation handle at one time.

This is going beyond insight into revelation - the Church is full of false paradigms and one of them is imposed vision.

In this you can see how to grow up the vision for praise and worship through the congregation - you can very quickly tell who really has the fire of a pastoral anointing in Christ the sheep know his voice.

Blessings.

Mark

~RENEE~ · Jan 28, 2005

The Lord is my banner said:
I'm so used to being restrained.

Inside I'm dancing ...

God bless, Susana

My dear Susana God created the dance to be used as worship to Him. God created it man perverted it. But done with no perversion and unto God dancing brings about freedom. So go ahead when it's just you and God cut yourself a little twostep. You'll be surprised the freedom you feel afterwards.

Mark Downham · Jan 28, 2005

furrysmommy

The dancers ....the dancers dance on the chains of oppression and the dance.... the dance never stops. You laughing leaping heart - dance with all your might it is a form of transformation and prophetic declaration - wounds are healed, people are lifted out of pits, captives are released, the time for singing begins, the heavens open and his glory is revealed to have been surrounding us all the time ....in the dance.

I think I might cry - your dance is so beautiful.

Mark

Andry · Jan 28, 2005

furrysmommy said:
My dear Susana God created the dance to be used as worship to Him. God created it man perverted it. But done with no perversion and unto God dancing brings about freedom. So go ahead when it's just you and God cut yourself a little twostep. You'll be surprised the freedom you feel afterwards.

Amen!

One of my most enjoyable times of dancing before the Lord is while listening to instrumental jazz - yes, that's worship too. You won't find that on Sunday mornings - yet.

Mark Downham · Jan 28, 2005

Andry

One of my most enjoyable times of dancing before the Lord is while listening to instrumental jazz - yes, that's worship too

....and musical instruments begin to prophesy and the Lamb sits down beside the Lion.

Wow - I can hear the music.

Mark

KleinerApfel · Jan 28, 2005

furrysmommy said:
My dear Susana God created the dance to be used as worship to Him. God created it man perverted it. But done with no perversion and unto God dancing brings about freedom. So go ahead when it's just you and God cut yourself a little twostep. You'll be surprised the freedom you feel afterwards.

Thank you for the encouragement.
Dance bringing freedom?
I think of it the other way; freedom releases dance.
I don't feel free enough yet to dance.
I don't even know how. My body won't co-operate.
Odd though, like I said; inside I am dancing!

God bless, Susana

riverpastor · Jan 28, 2005

Does anyone remember Tommy Tenney's book, My Favorite House? In the book Tenney describes over and over God's desire to rebuild the "tabernacle of David".

The question asked throughout the book is: Why the tabernacle of David?

Because David's tabernacle was made of flesh. Flesh which worshipped before the Glory of God twenty-four hours a day. The veil was made of flesh. The courts were continuously filled with praise.

And God said, "That's the house I want again. That's my favorite house. Not Solomon's splendor and gold. Not Moses' tent in the desert. But David's tabernacle - where worship flowed continuously."

Mark Downham · Jan 28, 2005

riverpastor

David's one of the three with no dividing veil - when you entered David's taberancle you went straight into the Holy of Holies - I have been there and I thought this could kill me - this should be fascinating - but it didn't - but I died right there and then - completely reformatted and when I came out I could not even speak - let alone think - the interesting thing was - I only found out afterwards - that noone could look at my face - I was just overwhelmed - walking around simultaneously in and outside of myself and the Holy Spirit was speaking - giving my instructions - I thought I am having a psychotic fugue and then I realised I was actually more sane than I had ever been and I thought the beauty of that - and then I was retranslated again and everything kicked back to normal..ish.

Mark

~RENEE~ · Jan 28, 2005

Susanna

I don't really know how to dance either I just pick up my legs and swing my arms alittle God understands.

Can praise and worship be too long?

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