I remember as a kid sitting at church on a Sunday and thinking to myself, “Is this ever going to be over?” I just couldn’t deal with sitting in church for an entire HOUR! However, like many of us, as I grew more and more in my faith, I began to understand the importance of worship and began to look forward to Sunday mornings. This is especially true when I was living in Minneapolis and was attending John Piper’s church.
I say all of this because there is a church in Waco, Texas that I drive past often, that offers “30-minute Worship.” Isn’t this taking it a bit to the extreme? Click here to go to their website and read about it.
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3 comments:
Hi Jeremy,
My name is Kevin Harrison and I'm the pastor of the church that developed the 30 minute worship concept, VLC in Waco, TX (www.vlcwaco.com).
Let me help everyone understand the heart behind what we're doing: First of all, we still have our “normal” service which lasts an hour and twenty minutes, but we offer this service for several reasons: 1) We have some people in our area who work on Sunday and it works for them to be able to go to service in this time frame; 2) We have people who suffer from medical conditions who can’t sit for more than 30 minutes at a time; and 3) We use this service for all of our volunteers who serve in some other place in ministry on Sunday mornings at our 10am worship gathering. How many times do volunteers in churches get overlooked as they serve with everything inside of them, but they find themselves missing out on attending a corporate worship gathering? We have determined that if we only do it for our volunteers that it is 100% worth the effort!
The ultimate goal is to get people to come into the door and then work them into our community.
We have understood from the beginning that this service will not be for everyone and that's cool. However, it's been very effective and people's lives have been changed in the process.
I actually find that I have to put more preparation time in to get a message down to 15 minutes. I would encourage everyone to go to our website, www.30minuteworship.com, and listen to an audio message so you can hear for yourself. I would submit that if you can get a person to come to church for 30 minutes, it's better than someone not coming at all!
Thanks for posting this and I pray God will bless you amazingly!
Dear Iowa Dude,
I posted this same response on another blog - here you go.
Clearly your heart is concerned for the right reasons. Bless you for caring, as most would rather stay silent about their Christian beliefs and principles.
One of the reasons for 30 minute worship is that soo many out there would like to get to know the Lord thru church, but they feel like outsiders. Or they feel foreign to the process involved in visiting and selecting a church. 30 minute worship makes it easier and safer for someone to approach a church and then hopefully attend and a become a contributing member of that body.
Sadly, there are MANY Christians who make non-church goers feel like outsiders. When they do attend church, and TRY to get closer to the Lord, they get dirty looks from the "church insiders". VLC in Waco tries to reach EVERYONE and make all feel welcome. The greatness of 30 minute worship is that makes it easy for someone that wants to go to a church - but is afraid to go in.
People who grew up as "insiders" have NO idea how hard it is for an "outsider" to break this line.
Obviously your heart serves the Lord, and for that, you dont stay silent. GOOD FOR YOU! And God Bless you!
-Mark (used to be one of those "outsiders").
Hey Iowa Boy! I'm an Iowa girl! :) I was concerned as well when I past the church, so much so that I googled the church right then on my phone (I wasn't the one driving). I went to their website that broke down what goes on during the service and was even more concerned. However, after reading your blog, because it was pulled up by google, I think it actually is an interesting concept. I was suprised that the church's pastor commented and found his explination innovative and interesting. It does make sense. I'm still concerned that people would go just to get it over. My prayer is that it can be a tool to get some spiritually hungry people a snack, get then hungerier, then give them the "whole meal." Thank you for posting this on your blog, because it cleared up and made me feel better about something that really had bothered me. God bless!
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