Do you think that a lot of churches are more concerned with the flow and liturgy of worship and finishing by a certain than actually being in worship?

A friend once complained that if somehow they go over five minutes in the service, all hell breaks loose. I couldn’t tell if she was exaggerating or not. While I understand the frustrations of other people (particularly those who volunteer in the nursery, God bless their hearts) but surely, there’s should be room for the Spirit to move us and move in us, right?

What exactly is worship for us in our churches today?
Do we put more effort into making worship about ourselves and our preferences than about God?

Dan Kimball writes that he no longer likes calling worship a “service” because that’s how many of us treat it. Instead of a service to God, it’s a service to us, like checking into a mechanic, getting our car ‘serviced’ and then going our own merry way.
Maybe not in those exact words, but is that how many of our local churches view worship?

I feel like a lot gets lost in the way we do things. More attention is paid into the order of worship than worship itself. And God forbid that we try a new way of worshiping God in some of our local churches.
Or may be it’s just me and something that I’m going through personally and spiritually, though I can’t name what I’m going through. Perhaps, since I can’t figure out why my heart is restless when it comes to worship, I find it easier to blame the churches that surround our communities.
All I know is that after conversations with clergy friends about worship and church, I’m always left with the thoughts “is this really it?” and “there’s got to be more that we can do” and of course “what” and “how.”