" The village'

Alan is away now til Wed, having left this afternoon. Off to the Severn., they probably won't arrive til the early hours of tomorrow morning!

So, this evening for the International meeting, we met here to watch the film "The village"..it's not a Christan film, but is a great one to look at & talk about after..I won't give it away though, but it's a great one to provoke discussion.

We met this morning in a church here in Bordeaux. All the protestant churches in the area were there, about 300 folks all together. It was good to see everyone together.

However it seems to be that songs & music are beginning to take over, and the preaching of the word is being pushed out..You get a 10min sermon if you're lucky!

Is it just here in Bordeaux or is it elsewhere as well? The instruments were played very well, the choir sang well, the pianist/singer, who has released a CD was good,though I felt a bit as if I were at a concert!

Yes of course there's place for singing in worship, but faith comes by hearing, & if preaching is no longer part of that worship then we are in a very bad way. How can people be saved if they don't hear??

Someone mentioned that the sermons should be shorter so we could sing more songs!I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Are we becoming so intoxicated by music that it's taking precedence over the preaching?
One young man fell asleep & out of the window because the apostle Paul preached for so long & it was late.It seems the days of a 30-40 sermon are disappearing..having said that I have never hear a message longer than 20 minutes here (unless it's Alan preaching)

Preaching should be central to our worship.(& the songs should reflect the sermon..very rarely does that happen)
Imagine taking a neighbour to church & they don't get to hear any preaching! How can they learn to be saved if they don't hear? How can we learn to put God's word into practice each day, if we don't hear?

I fear for our young people that they will be so taken up with the music, that they use this very reason for choosing a particular church, rather that the preaching...