62 – The Gift of Time
A weekly blog of Creative Ideas for Leading Worship
The Gift of Time
A timed silent prayer
Most of us are time-poor, attention-fragmented, and permanently half-distracted. We rush into worship, glance at the order of service, and silently calculate how long everything will take. Ironically, in a space meant to open us to eternity, we are often counting the minutes.
So, here’s a simple but quietly radical idea for worship – make time visible, shared, and sacred.
Introduce a large, clearly visible timer or hourglass into your service. It might be a digital countdown projected on a screen, a physical timer placed near the lectern, or a substantial hourglass turned in full view of the congregation. Then, intentionally designate a block of time – two minutes, three minutes, even up to five – for shared silence, prayer, or focused reading.
When the timer starts, nothing else happens.
No music. No words. Give no instructions beyond the initial invitation. Make space for the gentle, slightly unsettling experience of being present together, watching time pass.
This activity works because it makes an invisible spiritual discipline visible. Silence becomes something we do together, not something individuals are left to negotiate internally. The ticking clock or falling sand gives permission to stay put. It reassures people that the silence has a clear beginning and a clear end, which paradoxically makes it easier to relax into it.
In many congregations, silence is uncomfortable because it feels unstructured. People wonder, “Is this still going?” “Did something go wrong?” “Should I be doing something?” The visible timer answers all those questions without a single word being spoken.
The congregational action is simple – shared, focused silence defined by the running timer. Some people will pray. Some will breathe. Some will sit with a phrase of scripture. Some will simply notice how noisy their own thoughts are. All of that is fine. The point is not uniform experience but shared presence.
The physical object matters. A large digital timer feels modern and precise. An hourglass feels ancient and tactile, a reminder that time is something that slips through our fingers no matter how tightly we try to hold it. Choose the object that best fits your context and theology. Either way, make it big enough to be seen easily. This is not a subtle symbol. It is a statement.
Theologically, this practice pushes back against productivity-driven worship. It says that nothing happening is still something happening. It embodies trust – that God is already at work, that silence is not empty, that we don’t need to fill every second to justify our time together.
Pastorally, it can be surprisingly effective. People who struggle with prayer may find timed silence less intimidating than open-ended quiet. Those who live with anxiety sometimes find the clear boundary comforting. Those who are exhausted discover how rarely they stop.
If you try this, be brave. Name the silence. Set the timer. Let it run its full course, even when it feels long. Especially when it feels long.
In a world that monetises attention and accelerates everything, offering the gift of time may be one of the best acts of worship you can lead.
Ngā mihi
Philip