Christ's instructions to the Church through the Apostle Paul reads:
1 Corinthians 1:10
"Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."
 

At front of the majority of today's 21^st century church properties
are marquees & signs that read

Traditional Worship Service:      ??:?? AM
Contemporary Worship Service: ??:?? AM

NOTE THE WORDING, "WORSHIP" SERVICE

My wife and I have been in church service after church service across this nation
that had 20 to 40 minutes of standing while singing choruses,
not hymns and not even real songs but
only singing choruses!
(We visited a small local church a couple of weeks ago
and even the healthy, young folks began sitting down.)

The Pastors of these churches preached less than 20 minutes from the Word of God!
Most messages were only 10 to 15 minutes!

When and where in the Word of God did Worship become music
"preferences"
usurping the place of study, instructions and / or preaching the Word of God?!

Add to this reality the fact that the "vast" majority of churches
no longer have an evening service and the
"vast" majority of members never open the Word of God until
they go back to church the following Sunday.

Is this tragic or what?!

Reader, there isn't a First Day of the week music and entertainment service recorded in the entire NewTestament.  In every occasion mentioned they met to hear the teaching of the Word of God.  In fact, music is only mentioned thee times in the New Testament concerning the Church:

Ephesians 5:19 
"Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns -- and -- spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."

Colossians 3:16 
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." 

Just before our Lord's crucifixion, He and the Disciples sang a hymn:

Matthew 26:30 
"And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." 

Mark 14:26 
"And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." 

In Ephesians and Colossians, please note the order of music:

"Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual songs"

Just before our Lord's crucifixion, note what it was Christ and His Disciples sang:

"...when they had sung a hymn..."

Pastors are ordained to preach the Word, not entertain, 2 Timothy 4:1-5:

"I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: [2] Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. [3] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; [4] and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. [5] But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

Small and large congregations are divided over music and not sin issues, shame on us,

"Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment," 1 Corinthians 1:10; "But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. [18] For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part, I believe it," 1 Corinthians 11:17-18!  

Let's look at the results of the late 20^th and early 21^st century worship services, roughly 40 years +/-:
    *Worship services are casual in opposition to formal, regal, dignified or even -- respectful.
          
          Compare worship services with the following:
          
          **NASCAR's awards event in sin city, Las Vegas, was black tie and tuxedo attire!!
          **Christmas meals for businesses is, as a rule, business dress -- including a tie!!
          **Job interview, dress up to impress.
          **Go to Church for a worship service with the King of Kings and Lords of Lords, men
              and boys wear levies and a casual shirt; women and girls wear slacks that are so tight and
              short skirts that are so short that the Pastor doesn't dare to look beyond his pulpit.  A
              number of years ago my wife and I were visiting a very large Church Family.  After the
              morning worship service I was engaged in a conversation with an individual that I knew
              when a teenaged girl walked by with a skirt that was so short that modesty was
              impossible.  In mid-sentence I interrupted myself with "good-grief!"  The man replied
              with, "she's my daughter, isn't that awful?"   And, he was a Deacon!
    *Casual dress and worship hasn't improved Church attendance.  It's down and continuing down.
    *The vast majority of Churches only have one, poorly attended, Sunday worship service,
    *local churches are closing,
    *Christians and Christian families are doing everything on the Lord's Day (Sunday) that they do
      on the other six days of the week,
    *the divorce rate among Church members is exponentially trending upward, in most regions it is
      the same as the unsaved crowd while in other regions it is higher than the unsaved crowd.  
     
    QUESTION: Am I reporting a progressive trend here?

I'm not going to dwell on the following issue because God's Word explains this issue very well:

Job 12:12 
"Wisdom is with aged men,
And with length of days, understanding."

I'll be blunt.  Those of us with the silver hair (and many with little and no hair) who are growing very close to our three score and ten years of age, and, the many of us who are way past our three score and ten years know what works, what God honors and what God blesses because "wisdom is with aged men, and with length of days, understanding [Job 12:12].  We are a part of God's "ancient landmarks" to and in the local Church.  Your younger generations didn't "just happen", we gave birth to you.  And, as for the vast majority of church facilities across this nation, God gave us "old folks" the vision, the manpower and the finances to build and pay for the facilities that you've inherited.  We old folks remember very well the successful, growing community Church family ministries, the successful Christian family marriages, the Christian colleges and seminaries and the growing and flourishing home and foreign missionary agencies.   Today our Christian Church Family ministries, Christian marriages, colleges, seminaries, home and foreign missionary agencies are but a mere shadow of what they once were.  Many of you that are in your 20s, 30s and 40s don't have a clue what I'm talking about because I'm almost 70 years old and have been married to the same woman for almost 50 years.  You, on the other hand, have grown up in an age of spiritual disasters, failing churches, failing and failed marriages & broken homes.  Anger and frustration is all that you’ve witnessed or experienced and failure is simply considered normal Christian living.  As a general rule, you are the folks now running the Church, Her ministries and are responsible for the "Contemporary Worship Service" signs all across America.  To your praise, you're doing anything and everything possible [that you can think of] to increase membership because attending Church for the purpose of hearing the Word of God preached as the primary purpose and goal is no longer sufficient in today's society.  Can I substantiate that as a fact?  Questions:

Do your Churches have an evening worship service any longer?

If your Pastor preaches longer than 20 minutes, how attentive are you?

How long would you remain in the membership of your Church if one Sunday morning your Pastor stood behind the podium and said,
       "Greetings in Jesus name and welcome to our worship service.
         Please bow your head in  prayer.
         Please stand as we read today's Scripture text found in ______________ .
         Please be seated."
And with this introduction he proceeded to preach what the Lord told him to preach for the remainder of the allotted time.  When finished, he closed with prayer; walked down and stood at the front of the sanctuary and asked folks to make decisions, i.e., accept Christ as Lord and Saviour, repent of sins, indicate that they would like to join in the membership, and etc.  Upon his conclusion of the "morning worship" service, he then announced that he would be back at 6 PM for another worship service.  Question, would you return for that worship service?  At the conclusion of that evening worship service he announced that, as long as he remained as the Pastor of your Church Family, from that day forward, there would be two worship services, an AM and a PM service.  Would you attend two worship services to hear the Word of God preached two times every Sunday?  

Some other questions?  After you leave the worship service on Sunday morning:
         *How many seconds, minutes or hours do you spend studying the Word of God from 
           Sunday afternoon through your return the next Sunday morning?
         
         *Do you return to your Church during the week for an organized Bible study?
         
         *How many seconds, minutes or hours do you spend studying the the Readers Digest,
           Ladies Home Journal, Teen Weekly, and other secular books and  magazines 
           from Sunday afternoon through your return the next Sunday morning?
         
         *How many seconds, minutes or hours do you spend studying your TV programs from 
           Sunday afternoon through your return the next Sunday morning?
         
         *How many seconds, minutes or hours do you spend attending sporting events, gulfing,
           going to the "Y" or another health club -- etc., etc,  etc., etc,  etc., etc.  from Sunday
           afternoon through your return the next Sunday morning?  Do you begin to lose your
           interest 20-minutes into a NASCAR race, football, basketball, baseball game or
           hockey match?  How long is an average NASCAR race or NFL football game?  How
           long is your average worship service?
         
         *AND YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE AT THE TOP OF YOUR
           SPIRITUAL AND CHRISTIAN LIFE?
         
         *You really believe that listening to a 20 minute sermon on Sunday morning is going to
           empower you to know God and His Word sufficiently well to enable you to live a
           successful Spirit filled Christian life for the remainder 10,060 minutes that we live in a
           24 hour day (1440 minutes), 7-days a week and 52 weeks a year?

          Are you ready to admit that you're more interested in entertainment
      than in Worship?

TWO CLOSING QUESTIONS FOR YOU:

Have you displaced or removed the ancient landmarks?

What is your attitude concerning your elders
respectful, appreciative, as a student, encouraging
or
insolent?

"Wisdom is with aged men, and with length of days, understanding"
Job 12:12