The Abbreviation of Worship and Why We No Longer Sing the Third Verse

I've had the idea to write about this for some time, and now I think that time has come. It has been a bur under my saddle for years now. Whether or not I am the horse in the scenario, I don't know. It is the abbreviating of our worship. We hurry everyday of the week, and it seems to accelerate on Sunday. We come to worship, but keep an eye on the clock while we are there. Honestly what kind of worship happens, as we watch the clock with growing intensity as the noon hour approaches? But I digress, there are other things at the root of this abbreviated worship service. Namely, the elimination of the third verse of our hymns, or any adjacent verses that reduce the total number of verses to three.

To start with, let me just ask, Why? Why do we feel the need to cut our hymns down to three verses? I sat down with the intent of writing about the substance of these verses, which I will write about; but I have uncovered something I didn't anticipate when I started this. The ugly truth is that we have decided that we are going to worship our God from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Sunday; and for too many that statement is followed by "only." Whether we say it in word or in practice, we've said it. Never mind the fact that the whole day belongs to Him.

There is not only a conditional worship based on time constraints; there is a complete lack of preparation for worship. Let me prove it. Did you get gas on Saturday, or did you stop on the way to church? Did you have breakfast at home, or did you stop on the way to church? Have you ever started getting ready for church, only to find that what you were going to wear is still in the clothes hamper? That's called a lack of preparation. So, if we are running late for our prescribed time of worship, what hope of a worship experience do we truly have?

We want to sing more hymns in worship, so we start with five hymns. Then we find out that "we are going too long," so we cut the hymns down to three verses each. Then we start reducing the number of hymns to fit our schedule. I suppose there could be a reduction in preaching to accommodate more songs, but it is fairly unlikely. The point is, we are enslaved to the idea that if the song service goes over five minutes, and the preaching goes over five minutes; then the congregants have been wronged by the unjust taking of ten minutes of their time. By whose standard? I'll leave that for your homework.

More tomorrow, God bless you all.