Gee, since my congregation brought on a somewhat-long-winded interim pastor last summer (our transition time continues through the spring), I don’t know that any of our services have come in under the big 6-0 … even those weeks when our Luther Seminary intern is preaching.

Praise band Sunday was today, meaning I’m with a mike at both services. With the early service beginning at 8:30, by 9:30 we’d not yet had the distribution of Holy Communion. Our education hour is supposed to begin at 9:30, with second service at 10:45. With 10 mins. (?) singing time for kids in second grade and younger preceding actual class, having one’s time condensed even further, most weeks, often leads to frustration for this first-grade Sunday school teacher … and a general feeling that no one there outside of the Sunday school circle really cares about how these marathon services can affect the effectiveness of Sunday school.
And when a congregation member agrees to read the Scripture lessons for a given Sunday, they are mailed a “Celebrate” insert earlier in the preceding week so as to be aware of what they’ll be reading in front of people Sunday. An accompanying note, something new since our interim came aboard, states that when a Scripture reading covers eight or more Biblical verses:
The week’s reader is advised to skip the helpful explanation - printed in italics in “Celebrate” prior to the text - or to paraphrase the italicized portion so as to keep the services from extending too long.
Yeah, because reading two or three sentences of helpful, explanatory words prior to each Scripture reading means that some weeks there might not be enough time for a sermon that, on average, feels like it goes for 25-30 minutes …

My condolences on the fact that your church doesn’t practice good stewardship of people’s time.

I think if I ever went back to Judaism, I’d probably join a Reform temple.