Hello hivians...it been a while here. I've been so caught up in so many activity lately and that has in a way limit my activity here. I would love to say I've missed being here.
Oh yes! Let me quickly share with you how today went...馃槂. I captioned this post not the usual Sunday service because it really wasn't. We wanted business as usual,you know, come to church sing when it time to,dance when it's time (well am not a good dancer,am this shy type..let's keep this a secret馃榾)...give your offering and tithe,listen to the sermon of the day and then close for the day.
This is the normal routine for the service although I love it when it's more than just a routine,what I mean is I like it when service take a new dimension and everyone is blessed being in the service without observing the routine,I mean who wouldn't like to taste something new, even the bible say "no one having tasted the new desires the old"...kojo!
My challenge in today's service is this,the service took longer than it should. My church is a student and a youth church and we ain't really accustomed to staying late. We run two services every Sunday and the message are always short but powerful. Today's case was a bit different because we didn't really hear a sermon today,what we had was more like a lecture on church doctrine taken by a senior guest minister
The funny part was that when the preacher mounted the pulpit and used about 15mins to greet and say Hello to the church. Normal sermon was support to be for 20-25mins but 15mins was already gone. It was then we knew we were in for it this time. I think time management should be taken seriously even in church. Don't get me wrong,I'm not saying we shouldn't allow the spirit to flow by being strict with time,the truth is we know when the spirit is at work,we can discern it accurately and tell when it's just a man doing his thing.
So as I was saying,15mins was gone and then after the greeting,the next thing we heard was,we are going to be discussing 45 topic really?...you need to hear the uproar in the church,we were like how? How are we going to discuss all these with the about 10mins left. Well what do we do,as obedient children of God (lols) we sat to listen. So he started,we took the lesson one by one,topic by topic and as we progressed,the congregation began to diminish as people began to leave.
Well an average Nigerian doesn't really have enough time to spend in church,once it's 12am or some minutes to,they feel it's enough for the day,well I think we should try and exercise a little more patience anytime we are in God's presence as you never can tell when the master will be visiting,my candid opinion though..
The congregation reduced so much that it was very noticeable. We could only find few workers left on seat plus few non workers who might have been well trained or disciplined enough not to leave the church until the grace is shared. So we continued until we finally ended the service around 1:00pm instead of 11:30am or thereabouts. It was this very moment I knew that nigerian do not respect anointing when it comes to preaching or teaching elongated sermon.
The frustrating part was that no one could write to the man to tell him how many minutes he had left and that is because he was a senior minister,although he was a guest but his rank was way beyond the presiding pastor of the church,so he was given the honour to teach as long as he wants to. Mehn! we stayed and hoped it ended soon.
The last straw that broke the Carmela back was when he asked if there was question after the long sermon.... really?.. Am sure you will be surprised to hear that we had some handful of hands up that eventually came out to ask their question. You need to see reaction from those who was expecting to hear "let us share the grace" immediately after the long sermon.馃槂.
In all I was blessed but the time taken was just too much,I just hope we can do better when it comes to preaching. Am fine when we see that the Holy Spirit would want us linger a bit more but am not well pleased when I see that it's just someone trying to take more time than is allotted.. we can be better. Thanks for reading through.
Regards
