"As Long as Time Permits"
In his first Apology, written around A.D. 150, Justin Martyr recorded the following description of a typical Christian worship service.
And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given... (chapter 67).
Much could be said regarding this valuable excerpt. The implications, for example, of the mention of "Sunday" as the day of worship are important, considering the objections raised by those who want to extend the Lord's Supper to other days of the week. Furthermore, Justin's ancient testimony sounds astonishingly similar to a description of a typical worship service in the churches of Christ. All of these are important points that probably deserve more attention than the subject I have chosen for this post. But for some reason I am hung up on the phrase "as long as time permits."
Evidently, the early Christians were as time-conscious as we are today. Granted, their services may have lasted two or three hours in contrast to our one-hour services. But the point is, they had a set time for worship and tried to stay within their self-imposed limits.
As a preacher, I'm torn between meeting two needs: worship that is "decent and in order"(1 Cor. 14:40) and worship that fixes on God and Him alone (Jn. 4:24). Worshipping decently and in order means setting certain limits to regulate the services. Setting God as the sole aim of our praise means resisting temptations to "get it over with." Christians must strive for a balance between these two important needs, for this is what our God desires.
I realize that Paul once preached until midnight (Acts 20:7-12). I am also ignorant of the time when those proceedings began, and in addition there is the fact that the church at Troas only had the apostle for seven days; perhaps they wanted to make the most of his visit and strayed from their usual form.
Fifty years ago, it was not unusual for a preacher to go on for one, maybe two, hours. But even then, the common sermon lasted about thirty minutes. N.B. Hardeman, who was commonly referred to as the "Prince of Preachers," preached during the first half of the twentieth century, that time period when we hear tales of epic sermons lasting all day. One piece of advice he would give to his preaching students was, "If you can't strike oil in twenty minutes, quit boring!" Guy N. Woods, another respected preacher from an earlier generation, usually preached for 25-30 minutes. So the two-hour sermon may have been the exception, not the rule.
At the same time, Christian worshippers should not get anxious when worship lasts more than an hour. What does that say about our attitude toward God? Why do we come to church anyway? If the worship is being led effectively, and if God is being praised, what's the hurry?
Besides, the preacher is not always at fault for lengthy worship services. Five minutes are usually alloted for announcements, fifteen minutes are given to the song leader, it takes about ten minutes to partake of the Lord's Supper, and five minutes are given for prayer. If the worship services are supposed to last an hour, that leaves only 25 minutes for the preacher! Now that being said, how many times has the song leader been berated for going over his time limit? When do we ever criticize a man for leading a prayer that is too long? And dare we cut some announcements to make accommodations for time?
Brethren, sometimes we are concerned about the wrong things. Let's strive for a balance between regulated worship and reverent worship. Everything else will fall into place.
"As time permits...." I wonder, did they hang a sundial on the back wall of the auditorium?
