Is your church too noisy before the service starts?

Recently I had an all-too rare but most welcome experience in a church I was visiting, not as the preacher but as a member of the congregation. For about five minutes before the service actually began, there was complete and total silence in the building, broken only by the sound of a few people entering quietly.

It was such a refreshing change from the noise that often precedes worship. I must confess, I get weary of sitting in church, trying to gather my thoughts and hearing people talking loudly about the progress of plants in their greenhouse, the success or otherwise of their favourite football team, the latest antics of their grandchildren or whatever else it might be. I’ve been in church services where the person leading the service has to raise their voice over the hubbub of the congregation and call every-one to order so that worship can begin.

But those moments just before corporate worship begins should, somehow, be ring fenced to help us prepare our hearts to focus on God and not on ourselves and the world around us.