I don't know if many people noticed, but we made a change to the evening service a few years ago. Not the start time... Not the band members... But saying notices in church.
Previously the notices would appear in a slide show before the service began.
Why do i bring this up? I was reminded of the prior practice on Sunday.
I have been guilty of hosting a lengthy diatribe of miscellaneous notable events and happenings. And i have sat through plenty of them in my time. And truly, i am starting to be sick of them.
My solution? Notices by egg timer. If you can't announce all the important events that are going on in under two minutes, you should be slowly boiled alive at the front of the sanctuary.
If the aim of church is to draw people into the presence of the Holy Spirit and have them encounter the Living God, why do we waste 15 minutes telling people things they're probably already aware of, or could be informed about afterwards? This is one sixth of the average service! It is usually given more time than prayer!
Now i know that some things do have to be announced. It is a necessary evil. But, surely, we can do them more efficiently. Can't we?
I know that I can ramble at times but I tried to keep notices short & snappy with the visual doing most of the talking. You can break it to me if I'm being delusional here.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I think that the purpose of church is not solely to draw people into God's presence (aren't we already in God's presence? - sorry, a side note within a side note. I digress). Yes, it is for worship but also for building each other. Some may argue that notices contribute to this. I would argue that they'd have to be pretty good notices.
I think you;ve taken a pretty extreme stance on this. I would have to agree with Liam.
ReplyDeleteLame as they may end up in some instances but they also serve the purpose of building each other up and building community... even showing that we're a community.
In saying that. They also shouldn't go for too long otherwise they are just a nuisance.