I visited a new church recently and was bored out of my mind. The most predominant sensation was stifling oppression. The second was embarrassment, for them.
The song leader apologized for being tired. I wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t said anything. They had no musicians but insisted on singing anyway. The choruses weren’t bad but if I were new to church and hadn’t known them, would have felt even more out of place.
The pastor was a better than average speaker but he said absolutely nothing new and none of it was relevant. There was no practical use for anything he said and there was nothing stimulating in the way it was presented. The only “do” point was attend church and he made the point by criticizing the cyclists he passed on his way to the service. Obviously, they couldn’t cycle without missing church. I guess it never occurred to him that service times are not God breathed and could therefore be changed.
The most interesting thing in the entire message was a joke about a preacher and a taxi driver both of whom went to heaven. The taxi guy was heavily rewarded and the preacher got nothing. The reason? When the preacher spoke people slept. When the taxi guy drove people prayed!” Sadly, that pretty much epitomized the service.
For those who live elsewhere, the largest percentage of taxi drivers in South African are black and known for excessively dangerous driving. So the comment was more of an racist point than a spiritual one.
