Yesterday was a test for me. I almost walked out of church again yesterday when they fired up the band. It was so loud that I found myself covering my ears at times. Every other week my church has a "celebration" service, I'm not really sure hat that means other than to have loud music that no on knows.
It went downhill from there. One of the teachers (female) read the Old Testement lesson. She did a pseudo-dramatic reading that really rang quite hollow. I found myself just bothered by the whole affair, but as per usual it was good that I was the service. The sermon was one I needed to hear. It resonated with me and some of the struggles I've been having lately. The same struggles I always have, but for the last few weeks they have been more acute then usual.
As I drove home from church yesterday I found myself having a dialogue with me. I asked myself why do those kind of services really bother me and the best answer I came up with was this: it bothers me that the church has, in a way, moved to the "give em what they want" mentality, but its more then that; its this: going to church for me is a time to relax and be out of the world for an hour or so (more if I go to Sunday School) its a time for me to get my spiritual self recharged and ready to go for the week and the music plays (no pun intended) a big part in that. I don't need loud guitars and unfamiliar songs to get me excited about my faith. I need something concrete I can hold onto, the music we had yesterday was more distracting to me then anything else, I just wasn't able to connect to God the way I feel I need to make it through the week.
At least the pastors were wearing their clerical collars.
1 comment:
There are some solid Lutheran churches in the Indy area that don't have contemporary worship, did you ever think of checking them out or is there something drawing you to stay where you are? I don't know you, so maybe there's more here than meets the eye.
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