In All Fairness

In all fairness, as I read through my last post, it seemed as if I was making disparaging comments about my specific church. I was not. My church, Agape, which does live up to its name as well as any church I have attended, is the least showy, least predictable, most humble, and Jesus seeking church I have been to. I just am nonplussed by the whole Sunday morning “Sabbath.” I doesn’t seem so restful to me. It mostly seems like just another day with church instead of work or class.

Part of my church skepticism comes from the fact that I greatly dislike worship music, and I am iffy about hymns. Although I think that for the most part, hymns do tell a much more significant and thorough theological story than current worship music, I guess I just am too concerned about the loss or neglect of other forms of worship: prayer, dancing, writing, silence, drawing, painting, living, loving. I am not against theological music, and I love some worship songs, and several hymns, I just think that sometimes the “performance” gets in the way of the rejoicing and worship that that same “performance” is supposed to facilitate.

So much focus is on the sound equipment, the correct worship set, the musical talent of the worship team, and so little focus on any given Sunday morning is on the people who are in the pews waiting for Jesus to show up. If the music isn’t right, will he still come?I am pretty sure that Jesus doesn’t give a shit if everyone is singing in tune, and that God appreciates even the most tone deaf jovial utterance. The grunts and undulations of the most severely handicapped person are just as pleasing as the trained and amplified vocal stylings of the lead worship singer.

This post to say that while my church doesn’t have it all right, they have a fair bit of God-seeking and people-loving that many churches are too scared to embrace. My church, Agape, does MANY THINGS RIGHT. This church reaches out to the downtrodden, to the outcasts, and to sinners saved by grace like me. Our praise set is one of the least showy I know of, and the congregation actually functions as a community. I just can’t bring myself to love the Sunday morning assembly. I can’t stop thinking, am I singing well enough to help Jesus find our church: “Pass me not, Oh, Gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on others though art calling, do not pass me by.”