church boredom and how not to think about God

Church services are invariably connected with boredom. Growing up in Pentecostalist circles, the services I attended were sometimes boring because of the number of words spoken, mainly by persons other than the people of God!! And there was nothing to look at, no pictures, no symbols, no smells to enjoy as in Orthodox worship for example, little sound (except that of the preacher's voice), no colours or candles. Being partly sensory, children especially need the sights and sounds of the Faith enacted before them. We all do. Holy sensory-rich rituals arising out of living faith is most necessary and each is dead without the other.

When we get bored, though, maybe we should just learn to sit with our boredom and not try to use the modern panacea of entertainment to suppress it. Sometimes, the Lord is in the midst of boredom and we may miss Him if we try to avoid it.

Nowadays, it seems that churches are so overly sensitive to what outsiders think that they have to adopt the modes and manners of the current 'plausibility structure' (Berger), which in part has led to the model of church services as entertainment. We are frightened are they that people will get bored with 'normal' church services that we forget that primarily the church is here not to entertain or soothe people's fears. The congregation assembles to proclaim and listen to the Word given by all available means participating in the drama of redemptive love outpoured.