I think there is a feeling amongst some that a congregation ought to leave church in a good frame of mind having had a 'nice' time. (Although this conflicts with my other belief - which I hope to follow up - that going to church means we are made to feel less worthy people than we actually are).
To create a feeling of a good time, modern vicars are - as I have observed before - rather chatty and familiar during their services.
From my point of view, I will leave church happy if I feel [a] that I have done a good job on the organ and [b] if I feel worship has been carried out correctly. Setting aside [a], factor [b] does not happen a great deal especially when the sermon is too long. When will clergy realise that the human mind can only focus for a certain amount of time? They seem to grab (hold hostage) their captive audience and want to give a lecture. If I read a book (i.e. one which is not just a story) I may need to go over a sentence to ensure that I have understood it. One cannot do that with a sermon.
Sermons need to be shorter.
No comments:
Post a Comment