The Return Of Three-Hour Church...At Least, This One Time

The e-mail asked whether or not we wanted to meet before church, or after. In reality, it didn't matter. What it meant was my Sunday worship would last a total of three hours.

I know I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to religions that are not my own. I have no idea if three hours of worship on a Sunday is a little or a lot. I do know that up until last year, the average time for Sunday services in my religion was three hours. Three hours = three meetings.

In January, the three hours changed to two.

And there was much rejoicing.

I'm old enough to know that thinking two hours of worship is much better than three is all an illusion. It's a mind trick. We think that we'll never reach a point where two hours is too long, that it should be cut down even more until we're only meeting for sixty minutes, or even thirty. But, because we're humans, in time some will wish we only met for an hour or less.

How long is too long? I'll bet that question has existed as long as people have been required to do stuff that takes time. It's only natural. We complain about how hard we have it, no matter where or when we live. I'll bet hundreds of years ago parents told their kids that the kids "nowadays" had it too soft because the younger generation only had to work in the fields twelve hours a day instead of eighteen like the parents did.

Then again, maybe not.

I've taken no formal surveys or quizzes but I'll bet most members of our congregation (including me...) like the change. In all honesty, three-hour church has technically not changed. We're supposed to have two hours of church in the building and the other hour we're to have church study at home, with the family.

Today, I was in the church building for three hours. Three hours = three meetings. It's something we did all the time. And we should still be doing now.