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  • I'm Ben Arment. My wife Ainsley and I are former church planters and have two boys, Wyatt and Dylan. I'm the founder of The Whiteboard Sessions and now STORY, which you can experience at StoryChicago.com.

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60 Minute Services

Nelson Searcy advocates 60 minute services in his new book 'Launch.' Our services have been capping out at about 1 hour and 15 minutes... but we've been working hard to 'trim the fat,' so to speak, and get it down to 60 mins for the town center location. We don't even have to cut worship or speaking time... just the fillers that add minutes here and there. It's all about an efficient, flowing service that leaves breathing room for the important stuff.

Comments

Ben,

We've used a few tools to help us cut our service time down also. We also run about 1:15 but at the first of the year, I started using a tool from the Toastmasters called a "pacesetter" which is a device you can program and attach to your belt. It delivers a vibration at up to three points in your sermon. I use mine for the open, body, and close and program it for 25:00 max. At the end of the time, it vibrates in two quick pulses to let you know you're done or should be soon. This little device alone has shaved about 5 to 6 minutes off my messages and made them more concise without a lot of filler. I'm really pleased with it.

FYI
Scott

Ben,

If you stick to the business at hand you can put a LOT of music into 20 minutes, and then preach for 35. That gives you 5 minutes for prayers and greetings.

We don't pass an offering plate, we use an offering box in our foyer.

I publish a 8.5x14 (tri-fold bulletin every week, but a half sheet (8.5x5.5) will probably announce everything you would REALLY need, and you can cut out your announcement time.

Dave

interesting... scott, i thought you were joking at first. that's unreal.

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