Been to church lately?

In the days before Pat Boone became famous for his singing performances, he spent some time preaching.  From his book, A NEW SONG, he mentions being invited to preach for a Church of Christ in Monroe, Louisiana.  Boone began his message to the church that day:

"Isn't this ridiculous?  We could have stayed in bed and slept this morning.  Instead we came here to this building where we have now closed all the doors, sung songs and prayed--as if we actually thought someone was going to hear us!

"We have passed bits of bread and cups of grape juice around as if they had some significance.  When we get through here we are going to go out thinking that somehow or another we are better fitted for the tasks of the coming week, which will have no relationship to what we've been doing here.

"Not only that, but some of us will no doubt attempt to persuade other people to join us in this silly charade!

"What's more (and this must be the most incredible of all), we have taken money out of our pockets which could have been spent on other things to help maintain this beautiful building in which to play this shadow game!

"When you stop and think about it, it's an absurd thing to do, like the kids playing school on the back steps.......that is, unless we really do believe that God Himself is in this place, that he does know our thoughts and answers our prayers."

Have you ever heard such a sermon?  A sermon that challenged the aspects of our worship practices and seemingly made fun of the things we do to demonstrate our allegiance to Christ and the church.

Without being judgmental toward my Christian family, or any others professing to be Bible believing Christians, I think this glimpse into Boone's sermon could open our eyes to see how easy it is for us to go through the motions of our worship assembly, without accomplishing its purpose of expressing a deep and intimate relationship with God.  Do we really believe that God himself is present when we worship?

The point was driven home even further when I attended a Bible class where we studying, through a series of DVD's by Dr. Charles Stanley, and he referred to one of the reasons we don't remember much from even the most powerful sermons.  The reason, he says, is because when the worship service is over, the main thing on everyone's mind is .......LUNCH!

I have mentioned Boone's sermon and Stanley's videos in an attempt for each of us to examine our own worship experiences.  I'm saying our worship will be more experiential, more beneficial to our lives as Christians, and more pleasing to God, when we really believe that God is present, his Spirit lives in us, and the message of the gospel of Christ is "front and center" in all we say and do.

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