Opening Remarks

[deacon blues]

I've got to tell you, I cannot hardly take anymore of these long drawn out opening remarks to sermons especially at special meetings like camp meetings, conferences, etc. I am all for giving honor to whom honor is due, but these long diatribes honoring EVERY SINGLE OFFICIAL and friend of the preacher that goes on for 10 minutes drives me up a wall!!!!!

Protocal is important. Thank the pastor, the Dist. Supt., the Dist. Board, sincerely and genuinely. But these long drawn out ego stroking volumes of flattery are just plain stupid! If an official is going to get their feelings hurt that they weren't mentioned, if the pastor is so shallow he needs to be praised in front of his people, if you have to feed everyone's fragile sense of self worth with a few tokens of praise or you won't get invited back, then its probably not worth it anyway.

Again, if you are truly expressing sincere gratitude and appreciation for the pastor and the leaders, that's one thing. Its easy to listen to those kinds of words. But to the listener who wants to hear the Word, to the hard working saint who is running on six hours of sleep the night previous because of overtime, to the family who has to drive 45 minutes to get to church, GIVE 'EM WHAT THEY CAME FOR---------THE PURE, UNADULTERATED WORD OF GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep the puffery and the bootlicking to a minimum---keep the focus on the LIVING WORD!

[RandyWayne]

Now tell us what you really think!

Actually, I am in agreement. It has been many years but I remember 6+ hour services at our family camps and felt like I was sitting through a looonnngggg commencement ceremony at a college graduation! Granted, the people around me were in a heightened state of emotional bliss the whole time and made sure to clap and 'amen' at all the right times..... but I just wanted something of substance. "oh Lord, give me something of substance!"

[OP_Carl]

Originally Posted by deacon blues

I've got to tell you, I cannot hardly take anymore of these long drawn out opening remarks to sermons especially at special meetings like camp meetings, conferences, etc. I am all for giving honor to whom honor is due, but these long diatribes honoring EVERY SINGLE OFFICIAL and friend of the preacher that goes on for 10 minutes drives me up a wall!!!!!

Thou art truly a prophet. Or an eavesdropper. For I have said this very same thing, practically verbatim, on several occasions.

It is nauseating and insulting to me. Preachers that get up as early as I do are as scarce as chicken teeth. My time is precious. What is accomplished by this bloviating?

When this goes, on you should consider yourself free to avail yourself of drinks, snacks, or even, when available, a meal. Make paper airplanes. Discuss the deeper meanings of the Word with your neighbors. Revelation, for instance.

I use this time to catch up with old friends, and scout out marriage prospects for my one-year-old.

[revrandy]

It's the Entertainment Industry that has affected the Church...

It's like an award ceremony and who you'd like to thank for electing you to preach...

[rgcraig]

Originally Posted by OP_Carl

Thou art truly a prophet. Or an eavesdropper. For I have said this very same thing, practically verbatim, on several occasions.

It is nauseating and insulting to me. Preachers that get up as early as I do are as scarce as chicken teeth. My time is precious. What is accomplished by this bloviating?

When this goes, on you should consider yourself free to avail yourself of drinks, snacks, or even, when available, a meal. Make paper airplanes. Discuss the deeper meanings of the Word with your neighbors. Revelation, for instance.

I use this time to catch up with old friends, and scout out marriage prospects for my one-year-old.

[COOPER]

Originally Posted by OP_Carl

Thou art truly a prophet. Or an eavesdropper. For I have said this very same thing, practically verbatim, on several occasions.

It is nauseating and insulting to me. Preachers that get up as early as I do are as scarce as chicken teeth. My time is precious. What is accomplished by this bloviating?

When this goes, on you should consider yourself free to avail yourself of drinks, snacks, or even, when available, a meal. Make paper airplanes. Discuss the deeper meanings of the Word with your neighbors. Revelation, for instance.I use this time to catch up with old friends, and scout out marriage prospects for my one-year-old.

[COOPER]

Originally Posted by deacon blues

. I am all for giving honor to whom honor is due, but these long diatribes honoring EVERY SINGLE OFFICIAL and friend of the preacher that goes on for 10 minutes drives me up a wall!!!!!

OF GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep the puffery and the bootlicking to a minimum---keep the focus on the LIVING WORD!

As a Bass player, standing there waiting to be seated while they did this was a trip.

[mizpeh]

It's like when commericials come on TV, time to go to the refrigerator, bathroom, call a friend....anything else. Is there a word of God against these type of things?

Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man. For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my maker would soon take me away. Job 32:21-22

[CC1]

Originally Posted by deacon blues

I've got to tell you, I cannot hardly take anymore of these long drawn out opening remarks to sermons especially at special meetings like camp meetings, conferences, etc. I am all for giving honor to whom honor is due, but these long diatribes honoring EVERY SINGLE OFFICIAL and friend of the preacher that goes on for 10 minutes drives me up a wall!!!!!

Protocal is important. Thank the pastor, the Dist. Supt., the Dist. Board, sincerely and genuinely. But these long drawn out ego stroking volumes of flattery are just plain stupid! If an official is going to get their feelings hurt that they weren't mentioned, if the pastor is so shallow he needs to be praised in front of his people, if you have to feed everyone's fragile sense of self worth with a few tokens of praise or you won't get invited back, then its probably not worth it anyway.

Again, if you are truly expressing sincere gratitude and appreciation for the pastor and the leaders, that's one thing. Its easy to listen to those kinds of words. But to the listener who wants to hear the Word, to the hard working saint who is running on six hours of sleep the night previous because of overtime, to the family who has to drive 45 minutes to get to church, GIVE 'EM WHAT THEY CAME FOR---------THE PURE, UNADULTERATED WORD OF GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep the puffery and the bootlicking to a minimum---keep the focus on the LIVING WORD!

Sometimes it is not even this kind of "puffery". In the last few years I have heard a few sermons where I thought the preacher was about ten or fifteen minutes well into the sermon when he would then announce he was going to get to his sermon!!

Apparentlt the first few minutes were somehow not part of his preaching time in his mind. LOL.

[Monkeyman]

My church has wi-fi in the sanctuary, he he he, so I "look" for altar call songs on my laptop. I might give it away though when I crack up at one of Cee Cee Won's dumb posts!!