Sometimes my attention wanes, but it comes back. I love church & it’s about the only time all week, I rarely want to know what time it is. The rest of the week, I want to know the time periodically.

I’m also discouraged that so many people are equating a long musical set with “Jesus-is-my-friend” style music. While that might be a problem in the evangelical church, that’s NOT what iM asked. He asked for a justification for long music sets, not whether or not “Yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord” is worship-y enough. Let me be clear:

A long music set does not *require* that the music be vapid or lacking spiritually. To suggest that is ignorant at best, and proud and divisive at worst.

I like the way EricW said it: “Liturgical worship can create decency and order in worship. But it can also prevent the full and free operation of the Spirit among its members and stifle the functioning of the body when its members come together in/as church. I’ve seen and experienced the best and the worst of both.” The fact is that long worship music sets can be good or bad, just as short ones can be, just as traditional ones can be, just as contemporary ones can be. This is, IMO, the reason the Bible contains so few rules on how exactly to worship, other than “in spirit and truth”. From that I see much, much freedom, including the long worship music sets I personally love.

It’s what I grew up with. Conservative Amish/Mennonite services generally open with 15-20 minutes of singing, and have one song (5 minutes) between the first and the second message, and another one or two at the end.

But it’s a 3-hour service.

And then once a month we had singing service–45 minutes of singing, 15 minute devotions, another 45 minutes of singing. I think that was the most looked-forward-to service of the month.

But all this was congregational singing of hymns, with no accompaniment.

And 30-40 minutes is too much? Just what do they think they’re going to do in heaven?

Corporate worship [and preaching and sermonizing] has a long and varied history throughout the different expressions of christianity. A hearty and commendable pursuit, I’m sure. But I still sense that the presence of the Spirit of God and wholehearted worship is more likely to be found outside of the walls of a church. If you want a Holy Spirit rush, serve some food to starving and poor people. If you want to really lift your hands and just worship Jesus, help build a house for the destitute. You’ll experience a real worship service if you work with lepers in Calcutta, or sing your songs in the cancer ward of your local children’s hospital. Visit those lonely people dying of AIDS. Dig a fresh water well in Africa and save some lives. One of my favorite worship tunes is to sit with the cranky, unlovable widow across the street and let her talk non-stop for hours about the most irritating subjects. I really sense the presence of angels all around me while she pours out her bitter disappointments with how life has treated her. No one else wants to listen to her. It’s not an emotional high for me… but it is worship. We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

from Amos 5:

Don’t you realize the Lord’s day of judgment will bring darkness, not light –
gloomy blackness, not bright light?

“I absolutely despise your festivals!
I get no pleasure from your religious assemblies!

Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, I will not be satisfied;
I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves.

Take away from me your noisy songs;
I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments.

Justice must flow like torrents of water,
righteous actions like a stream that never dries up.

It’s not that I don’t like music or that I don’t like some modern worship music. But it seems like it’s out of balance now. Plus, there is more to worship than just singing and a sermon. So many contemporary style services give short shrift to other aspects of worship…the public reading of Scripture (other than the verse references in the sermon), common prayer, responsive readings from the Psalms, corporate and personal confession, reaffirming what we believe through the Creeds, Holy Communion (relegated to monthly or quarterly) and so on.

It’s gotten to the point where “worship” for many people doesn’t just include music, it has become a synonym for music. And that’s just not so.

It’s one of the things I love most about that particular manner of worship…I’m actively involved throughout the service, not just for 20-40 minutes at the start and then I more or less sit down and watch/listen to other people.