I've heard that the ultimate religious “no-no” right now is for worship to be boring. Hmmmmm. What makes something boring?
While waiting to see a doctor I was looking for something to read. Pickin’s were slim! Finally decided to thumb through an edition of People Magazine. There were lots of photos of people. There were tidbits on lots of Hollywood folk. This magazine is in the top ten of most popular in America.
I didn’t know the TV shows they were writing about. I didn’t care which unmarried “star” was having who’s baby. I wasn’t interested in who’s “pot belly” was seen hanging out at the beach. Frankly, I found the magazine, ... boring! It didn’t have any information that related to my life and my interests.
When my kid’s are home, on the rare occasions I even try to watch the TV in my own living room, I can clear the room in a matter of minutes. All I have to do is tune to the shows that I like to watch.
I’ve read that in the “old west,” a newspaper was considered gold, and would be read over and over again by cowboys on the range because any written information was so scarce. I’ve read that in the late 1800’s, nearly any religious group having a “tent” meeting or brush arbor revival would have half the town in attendance because there was so little prepared preaching to hear.
We live in a time that has been dubbed the “information age.” Perhaps, the “assault of too much information” might be more appropriate. Everything around us is throwing information at us and trying to get our attention. Therefore, the modern thinking is that when we show up at church, our attention has been worn to a frazzle, and audiences need even more stuff thrown at them?
Sitting in a motel room I have scanned “hundreds” of channels without finding any program I was willing to watch.
On the other hand, I have sat on a hard pew of a country church and worked to hold back tears as a mere dozen folks with little musical ability sang “when I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died.” If our hearts are turned to God, our minds reflective of our spiritual needs, and our ears listening to what will last for eternity, how can that be boring? “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD.’“ (Ps. 122:1) Perhaps boring, like beauty, is in the eye, or ear, of the beholder.
- Tim Orbison