People have been "coming to their own conclusions" for centuries and continue to get it wrong. Now some have been given from on high by the Pope which were also wrong, such as moving the Sabbath to Sunday and saying the Crucifixion happened on "Good Friday" just to negate Jesus' own statement as to how we would know he was the true Messiah.

Nice to give a detailed example of just one church, which happens to be different from any church I've ever attended or even heard of. All churches I've been to in over 60 years have services that average an hour, though some individual services may run over, if the preacher has a lot of points to cover in his sermon. The only real mention of tithes and offerings is when the offering plate is passed.

Tithing to the church with actual money is required by the Bible. Your paying in kind sounds like some local girls who told me they didn't have to "pay" rent for their apartment.

Reading and discussion are what goes on in Sunday school. You should try an ordinary Southern Baptist church, regardless of what you may think of the upper management in the convention. The churches are pretty independent of the convention, but are similar in beliefs and order of service.

As someone who typically doesn't enjoy long music times, I get why people get frustrated by this, but I've had many friends who are worship leaders and musicians and there is a spiritual warfare element to this time.

It's to bring the whole congregation into a place to receive. You or I may be ready after 5 minutes if we're walking closely with the Lord, but highly distracted, frustrated or hard-hearted people in the congregation may need more time to soften and become "present" and open.

It's also a primary aspect of our relationship with God to give back thanks and praise and worship to Him for what He has done. It's as much of a "tithe" as finances or acts of service.

My wife and I searched different local churches for 5 years. We've exhausted all within 30 miles. The only thing we said we would not accept, hands down, was a church that focused as much on tithings as they did the Bible. 1 church had a 1.5 hr long service. 1hr of it was the church band playing music, 10 min of follow up on last week's financials and reminded to pay tithings, which followed that sermon. Now, we self educate through reading passages out loud to each other, and having discussion time to come to our own conclusions. No church has ever lifted me like this has. I don't need to sing hymnals or progressive Christian rock to send praises to the Lord. And I give my 10% back, just ask the community I work with. It's not money to me, but it is to them since they don't have to spend it.

Try an LDS Church. You'll like that one.