While one may rightly argue that worship should last a lifetime, corporate worship gatherings/services/experiences typically have specified start times along with relatively fixed end times. In my experience the most common length has been 60 minutes. I have, however, been a part of a congregation that tended toward 65-75 minutes.
Recently, I read an article about Trinity Memorial Lutheran Church’s decision to begin offering a new 30-minute-or-less worship service. This new addition to their worship offerings features:
one song and an opening prayer. Then instead of a sermon, the pastor reads a story from the Bible and the group talks about it. They end with a prayer, careful not to go over the time limit.
So What?
Based on recent reviews of church websites for a worship project, most congregations effectively communicate the start times and style(s) of all services of worship. Only a small percentage go into greater detail and just a subset of those communicate the expected duration of each service. In practice, however, most congregations adhere to a normal length. In some cases that norm is a range of time (e.g, 55-65 minutes) rather than a precise length (e.g., 60 minutes).
- How long are most services of worship in your current congregation? How often does the length exceed that time or range by more than 10 minutes?
- Do you feel a certain minimum amount of time is needed for corporate worship? If so, what do you consider to be the minimum?
- Would you consider attending a service that was committed to lasting 30 minutes or less? Why or why not?