Parable of the Talents

Today I gave devotions for Chorale at the leading edge of an interesting week. Dr. Guy was gone today and will be gone for all of next week’s rehearsals, just one week before our first weekend tour and weeks before our Sprin Break tour. We have an interesting group this year–one that has the potential to be better than any other year, but one that constantly rebels against the Chorale model of discipline. I brought something today in devotions that I hoped would capture the essence of what Chorale is, and reiterate that regardless of how some feel, to me and those its most important to, it’s not a choir. It’s a ministry and a body of believers engaging in corporate worship.

I read the parable of the talents from Matthew, and instead of going the whole route of relating the monetary talent to our ability talents, I related the talents to the time we have this next week. Explaining that the Chorale is much bigger than any one person, including Prof Guy, I drew the relationship between the week we have to work, and what we are working to accomplish. I then related each part of the room to a different option. As I see it, there are three options as given in the story: go to work and make a profit, invest the talent in the bank, or bury it and do nothing. From there I equated what each option meant for us as a choir, and what the results of each would be.

The real point of the devo was to install what I’ve been calling an “operative phrase” within the Chorale–basically something that is quick and simple to mention, yet something that effectively reminds the group of the idea behind the devotion. It’s kind of like using imagery in sermons (thanks Rob Bell) to help reinforce the main points. The phrase was “don’t bury it,” or more specifically, “don’t bury this week” (again, thanks Rob). I think the point caught on with a lot of people. I praise the Spirit that I was able to be a vessel to deliver His message, and that people responded to that message. What a great day.

Mars Hill Bible Church

I can’t really adequately say everything I am thinking right now, and I’m not even going to try. I had a really great weekend, had several very good sessions at the worship conference, and had a lot of fun as well. But the pinnacle of the trip was definitely today, thanks to Mars Hill Church (and the Kalamazoo Air Zoo).

I was just so amazed by this church–a mega-church that isn’t like any other mega-churches. They don’t have a fancy building, a big production or any of the razzle-dazzle we associate with churches like Willow Creek. Their church is the majority of a strip mall that they’ve turned into a church. The sanctuary is big and open, with simply the rafters overhead and plain green walls on the outside. It’s setup in arena format, so the stage is in the center with seats on all sides.

After a long weekend of worship conference, I walked in to Mars Hill expecting a lot of flash and bang, and what I got instead was incredibly stunning. My experience actually started about a quarter mile away, when I met a huge traffic backup all the way from the church, up the offramp to the shoulder of the highway. I guess I didn’t need those directions to the church after all. From the exit, it took me twenty minutes to get to the church (which I could see the whole time.. it was right there on the other side of the interstate). Then I got in and walked right into a packed-out 4000 seat sanctuary. Everyone was standing and worshiping… to hymns being played in a very distinct hoedown/bluegrass style. Lyrics were displayed over the stage in plain black backgrounds with white letters. There were no special lighting tricks or other emotional grabbers; in fact, the only technological masterpiece there was the sound system, which was immaculate and incredibly perfect for what can in no way be an easy space to amplify.

After the great worship, Rob Bell got up on stage. But he didn’t get up and start preaching right away. He started giving announcements. Announcements!? I thought the boomers had completely eliminated these babies! Nope, not only did he give them, but they were almost ten minutes long. He started by telling how there would be a members meeting afterwards to amend the church constitution, then invited the children’s ministry director up to speak. She got up and addressed the need for volunteers in the children’s ministry–then asked for 293 people to step forward and help. 293 MORE volunteers. Rob Bell then proceeded to say how he felt about the subject. He told the congregation that the spots needed to be filled, and they needed to be filled now. It’s part of your calling as a Christian and as the body of Christ.

Next, he showed us a soccer ball from a Rwandan village. It was made of trash, wrapped together with some pieces of string and yarn. I believe the exact statement went like this: “This is a soccer ball from Rwanda. It’s what the children play with every day. And it’s completely unacceptable.” Apparently part of Mars Hill’s outreach is to a city in Rwanda, where the church has basicaly adopted the entire village. They had taken 1200 orphaned or needy children and began supporting them, and still needed to adopt 100 more. Oh, and the soccer balls? Well, the 5-6 grade ministry felt a burden to send some soccer balls to villages of Rwanda. So the kids themselves began contacting sports organizations, shipping companies, and went door-to-door taking collections. And they raised and donated 1500 soccer balls to send to the country. Wow.

We listened to a mostly good sermon by Rob Bell, who is a phenomenally gifted speaker, and then had communion as a church. What? 3500 people had communion? Mega churches don’t do that! This one does. And not in any special way, either. There were centers located throughout the room, and people just got up and took communion when they were ready. The band played a few more songs, and then Pastor Bell got back up to close. He mentioned that there were still 100 children needing adopting, and told the congregation that they would all be taken by the end of the day. He then mentioned that offerings could be given in the joy boxes on the way out the door–and as he mentioned it, a cheer went up from the congregation. People were giving joyfully? No way… it can’t be!

Now, I am sure that this church is not perfect. But it does have some striking things about it that most churches just don’t have. For starters, a pastor who is willing to call his congregation out on things when they need to be. Not by preaching a sermon series on topics, but by just getting up in front and saying ‘this needs to be done, and you, as a follower of Christ, need to do it. Now.’ A warm, friendly congregation. People who gave joyously, and not because they had to, but because they wanted to. A church that is reaching out to not only the community, but the world.

I had finally convinced myself that I wasn’t called to church ministry–at least not in a traditional sense. And maybe I’m not, it’s something I need to pray more and more about. But one thing I can tell you is this church fired me up this morning. Suddenly I believe that there is actually hope for the church as it is today. And I do know that somewhere deep down inside is a dynamic, engaging, truth-bringing speaker. I’ve just never figured how to bring him out when I actually speak, say, in front of Chorale, when I give very straight-forward, cut and dry devotions. But the possibility is there somewhere. Who knows. And who knows where I’ll feel myself being led in the next year or two? Unfortunately, it’s looking more and more likely like that place is seminary (dangit…). But hey, it’s not really my life, is it?

The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated…

Yes, you are actually seeing it. More than two months after joshmorton.com mysteriously stopped updating, it’s back. I don’t have much to say on the topic… I wasn’t trying to make any point by not writing, nor was I trying to make people tell me how much they like reading my site (three of you did, though). I just lost interest in writing for a while. If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t read any blogs in two months either, so at least you can rest in the fact I completely gave it up, and you all got to share in the joy of it just like I did I changed the look just to make the distinction that things have changed. It may not be a permanent look, but at least it’s different.

Some of you may know that I’ve been attending a worship symposium at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. Currently I’m sitting in the back of my truck, on top of my blankets, drinking a bottle of water and chillin in the parking lot of the AmeriSuites Inn. I’m here for my Worship Capstone class, but the school has been gracious enough to make us pay all our expenses on our own, so the truck and I are getting cozy this week. The two girls in my class have a hotel room here at the AmeriSuites, so after the symposium each night I’ve just gone up there and chillaxed in their hotel room. They have an empty sofa bed, but far be it from us to even entertain something so non-IWUpriate (that means IWU appropriate). Actually, it’s been failry cozy in the back of the Rodeo, and tonight is the warmest night yet, so I’m doing pretty well. Honestly, it’s almost warm enough to sleep outside. Almost.

The Calvin Symposium on worship started out pretty slow, but got quite a lot better today, and it has been a lot of fun hanging in GR with Mary and Sarah, and away from the IWU bubble. It has also sparked a lot of thought, especially in the afternoon today, and I want to share one of those thoughts with you. Hopefully my return to blogging will not be short-lived, and I will actually share some of the other thoughts I’ve had over the week.. But for now let’s be happy with just one.

This conference has about 1600 people attending, many of them from the midwest, but also a very large portion from around the country and across the world. By virtue of the fact they were recognized during the opening chapel, I would guesstimate there to be 60-80 Japenese attenders, and Calvin has claimed to have over 50 countries represented. There have been some well-known people here, including Brian McLaren and Eugene Peterson. What really struck me today though was the diversity we had in our evening worship. Now, to be honest I haven’t been all that impressed with the worship services, especially to say that this is a worship symposium. The audio is abysmal, the music is boring, and the speaking has left much to be desired. But tonight an interesting thing happened. Tonight’s liturgist (she explained she had never been called that before, which was quite humorous) was a black lady who plays a prominent role in a church here in Grand Rapids. Worship was led by a Calvin’s gospel choir, which was of course 85% white (but did at least have a black director), and the message was delivered by a black man who grew up in both Antigua and Great Britain, which means, of course, that he has an incredible accent that is just great to listen to.

But through the course of the service I saw a culturally diverse group of people worship together. It lacked the contemporary style of music I like (read: David Crowder and Chris Tomlin), but managed to incorporate many different American cultures into its feel, without the painful feel of trying too hard. It wasn’t an attempt at blending church cultures together. It was just a multi-cultural service. Now, you must understand I am speaking of just the cultures within our own country, but there are so many that we as a country must be understood as very culturally diverse.

I have never been much on racism. In fact, I’ve believed for a long time that the best way to defeat racism is to stop telling everyone that they have problems with it, and then we’d actually forget that we are supposed to be racist, an then maybe we could all just get along. I know it’s wishful thinking, but it worked quite well in the utopia of my mind. Anyways, I realized just how much we’re missing by being so racially divided in church. I still think that churches are missing the point if we’re trying to be ethnically diverse just for the politics of it; but churches that are striving to be diverse because of the beauty and unity of God’s people worshiping together are on the right track. It was such an indredible thing to see the diversity of worship tonight, and I wish desperately the church would understand that.

Actually, I’ve noticed my views on diversity have matured a lot in the past few months. There was a time not so many years ago where had I been asked to put a committee together (you can choose what reason I’m putting it together for), I would have found 6 people just like me and grouped us all together. But I realize how much more creative, insightful and productive a diverse group is, there’s no way I would ever pick 7 of mes again. I’d split the group fairly equally in gender, ethnicity, socio-economic standing, and even doctrinal differences. The wealth of diversity is just so rich–there’s no way I would ever want to pass it up for the dullness of similarity.

I just hit a wall, so this discussion is over for now. But along the way I did start pondering about Jesus and who he picked as disciples, so you may see a return to that idea someday. For now, welcome back to joshmorton.com, and long live the blog.

Some exciting things

Some exciting things are happening, and I will tell you all about them soon. I can’t right now just because it’s so early in the process, but very soon I will be able to publicly reveal more information. In the meantime, it’s off to Kaintuck for Thanksgiving with the extended fam, and it sounds like it will be more extended than normal (I’m taking a tent to sleep in).

For now, enjoy a random picture I have selected for your enjoyment:

Sometimes, when you’re hanging with the guys, you do something that’s funny. Often, it comes back later and causes great pain and humiliation. For Nathanael, this is one of those times.

What is Advent?

I wrote this article for class. It’s pretty hard to get Advent down in 150-250 words, but I did my best (in exactly 250). I figured I’d share it with you since I haven’t written anything in forever.

As we approach the Christmas season, you will begin to recognize much of the liturgy we use for the season, particularly that associated with Advent. The word “advent” actually comes from the Latin word “adventus,” which means ‘a coming.’ The whole Advent season is remembering the coming of Christ to Earth as a man. The Christmas season itself focuses on Christ’s birth, but it is the beginning of a focus on Christ’s life from now until Good Friday and Easter, when we celebrate Christ’s death and Resurrection. If you’ve spent many years in the church, chances are you know exactly what we do to celebrate Advent. We light candles, read specific Bible passages, and focus our thoughts on the meaning of the Christmas season. But do you know what the colors and candles actually represent?
Generally, the Advent Wreath is at the base of the candles. It’s circular shape reminds us of God’s eternity, that he has no beginning or end. The green of the wreath is a symbol of the new life we are given through Christ. Each of the four outer candles symbolize a specific week before advent. Three are purple, to symbolize Christ’s royalty, and the third candle is traditionally pink, symbolizing our joy at the Advent. The white candle in the center is the Christ candle, and is lit on Christmas Eve or Day. It is located in the center to remind us the central focus of Christmas is the incarnation of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

I Write the Songs…

In The Republic, Plato quoted Damon of Athens as saying “Give me the songs of a nation, and it matters not who writes its laws.” For thousands of years, music has been at the forefront of culture. While we know very little of what the music was for thousands of years, we do know that it showed up fairly early in the history of humanity, and has played a prominent role in our lives ever since.

The church scene is in a very interesting place right now. The praise chorus movement of the last 30 years or so has almost completely obliterated hymns in some circles, and has caused a general uproar by everyone (I haven’t told you anything you don’t already know). What is interesting to me is where worship in the church is going. Generalities are usually frowned on, especially in the academic realm, but I can’t help but generalize church worship into two separate movements fueled by my generation–the ones who are quickly growing up and taking the place in the church that boomers held for so long. It seems to me that people my age are either headed down some sort of seeker sensitive/emergent road, or they are looking for something that feels much more liturgical and less new age.

I have discovered a new passion this year: I believe that people who call themselves Christians should know what they believe and what it means to be a Christian. Specifically, I feel like the church desperately needs a movement to solid theological understanding, and a replacement of ’emotional worship’ for ‘purposeful worship.’ Honestly, as much as I despise the thought of coining this phrase, there is no getting around its effectiveness in relaying my point: I believe the church needs to get back to ‘Purpose Driven Worship.’

A thousand years ago, everything had explicit purpose when it was done in the church setting. Cathedral architecture all reflected theological understandings in ways meant to convey that theology to the common worshiper. Floor plans were designed to teach. Stained glass windows all contained Biblical teachings, often stories from the Bible. In a world where the overwhelming majority of people were completely uneducated, the cathedral was a basic way to educate the Christian and remind them of what it meant to be a follower of Christ.

Today it is not a fundamental education that is lacking from our society, but rather a religious one. Most people go about their lives, blindly believing whatever it is they have been told by parents, friends, media, society, and the like. Not only do they have no clue what they believe, they don’t even know why they believe it. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we should cram years of theology down a new believer’s throat as soon as they become a Christian. Jesus himself said we should have faith like a child. But faith is not negated by education, rather I believe my faith as increased as my theological understanding has grown. God’s desire is not for us to be content with the basics. James tells us that God will give wisdom generously to all who ask for it, and Paul mentions more than once (okay, Paul mentions it, and whoever wrote Hebrews mentions it) that we should not continue to drink milk, but should move on to solid food. I just can’t stress enough how important it is that Christians continue to develop their spiritual life, not just by praying for it to happen, but by putting forth personal effort to make it happen.

One of the major benefits of a highly liturgical service is the meaning that everything has. Because everything is planned out ahead of time, the words to be spoken written with deep care, the rituals performed with highest consideration, you get a service that has purpose. It tends to emphasize the corporate aspects of worship, and also helps to de-emphasize the individual who is leading the service. Together, all of these things will hopefully draw the attention to the words being spoken and the actions being performed, rather than on feelings and emotions.

So… what does this all have to do with Damon of Athens? A lot. I recently read a study on the most popular worship choruses of the past fifteen years and their theological content, focusing specifically on trinitarian worship. Of the 72 songs, two of them mention all three persons of the Trinity by name, and a third does indirectly. Does anyone see a problem with this? Plato and Damon believed that songs were the most impactful part of culture on their society, and the same holds true today. Like it or not, believe it or not, what we’re singing is shaping and forming our beliefs, and according to the 72 most popular praise choruses of recent, apparently we don’t believe very much in a triune God.

My point is not to bash praise choruses, although I think it is deserved. My point is to try and show just how much of a need there is for solid theological teaching to all Christians, regardless of how old they are, what denomination they attend, or where they live. We serve the almighty, infinite God of all things. Don’t you think it’s worth the effort to get to know who he is?

Dr. Maher

I’m not sure how many of you are still reading since I haven’t written much in a while, but for those of you who are you’ll be happy to know I have four post-it notes of topics to write on, and they’ll be receiving attention starting tonight. These ideas spawned from lunch with a very dear friend of mine, Dr. John Maher. I had music theory with him way back in my Freshman and Sophomore years, and always was a big fan of his. Somewhere along the way last year, we started getting to know each other on a more personal level over the course of several lunches, and now we try to meet for lunch a few times a semester to enjoy each other’s company and usually to have some very engaging discussion. I can’t express to you enough how much our lunches together mean to me, and how thankful I am for them and the relationship we’ve built over the past couple of years.

Today at Subway, we had some really great conversation about the things that were on our minds, mostly about religion and the church, and it spawned a lot of thinking for us. My four post-it notes have 12 different topics we touched on today that I would like to write on. Some of them are really in-depth topics that would require a lot of research and hard work, many are things I need to think on a lot more, and a couple are simply opinion issues that I have strong opinions about.

I can’t promise you which topic I’m leaning towards writing about tonight, but something is coming. And it will be deep. And it will be worth reading (I hope).

Lessons from the rooftop

Tonight after dinner I went to help Aaron Gouge finish up part of a roofing job he’s doing. He realized that it was supposed to rain tonight, and he wanted to get at least one half of the roof done and tarped so the rain didn’t damage the house he was working on. For about the first hour and 15, everything went fine. We worked under the light of our headlamps; I fed him shingles, he nailed them down, and we listened to oldies (which apparently means 60s and 70s now) and talked. Just as he was getting to the last few shingles, we saw our first flash of lightning, and began our very much audible prayers for the rain to hold off long enough for us to finish. The storm continued to roll in, lightning flashing every now and then, and we finished the shingles and moved right to putting down the tarps. As we began laying them down, it started to rain, and we ran out of tarps with about 18′ of roof left to cover still. Crap.

So we quickly picked up and headed to the townhouse, where I knew there was an extra tarp in the closet that was long enough. During the short drive, the storm quickly turned from a rainstorm to a fairly violent thunderstorm, and by the time we had the tarp back at the site, it was pelting huge fatty raindrops and lightning was flashing about every three seconds or so. Aaron and I have always wanted to climb up onto a roof in the middle of a severe thunderstorm, and that’s exactly what we did. We climbed up, layed down the last tarp, and went about dropping bundles of shingles to secure it to the roof. All I remember was a lot of lightning, a lot of running on a wet roof (not really intelligent), and a lot of very loud prayers for mercy as we quickly dropped the last bundles and ran back across to our perfectly conductive aluminum ladder and scurried down to the safety of Aaron’s car. We were drenched from head to foot, full of adrenaline, and somewhat amused at what we had just done.

So, we learned a few things tonight. The first one is an easy one. Don’t do roofing projects during severe thunderstorms. Simple enough, right? Secondly, if you must do a roofing project during a thunderstorm, make sure you have enough tarp to cover the entire roof. And thirdly, always make sure someone is holding on to the tarp during a thunderstorm. If no one holds on to it, chances are it will blow away.

If you need more lessons about the perils of rooftopping during thunderstorms, let me know and I will be more than happy to sit and chat with you about it sometime.

Where, o where could I be?

I contemplated a lot of other things to write about today.. there was the thing Combs did, or inspiration by Amy blogging about blogging, and I even took some random pictures of me just now hoping to get one worth showing. But alas, nothing happened. So since I spent part of the night thinking more about my future, I think I’ll go with that. I should preface this writing by saying it depends on whether or not I can pass Health and Wellness, which right now is not looking very promising. I loathe gen eds.

So here are the options, as I see them (in no particular order):

1. Go to grad school for ministry. I have looked and am looking strongly at going to Fuller (in Pasadena) for grad school. There I would get an M.Div with a concentration on Worship, and see where that leads.

2. After going to Fuller, I could join the Navy as a chaplain, or pursue further schooling with the intent of teaching at college.

3. I could go to grad school for a technical degree, such as Purdue’s MFA in Technical Direction. This would give me great experience in the technical arts, and would open up the door for jobs such as a technical director in a performing arts center, or would go very well if I chose to make it part of my Worship education. I would love to one day teach in a Worship program, teaching the practical side of the field. Sound and lighting, set design and construction, maybe a little music; something like that. This option either leads to a job somewhere, or (crap!) more schooling.

4. I could just find a job somewhere. It probably wouldn’t be anything incredibly stunning; but it would be a job nonetheless. It would pay bills, and hopefully set me on the track towards financial stability. It would also get me out into the world and out of the IWU bubble/college bubble.

5. I could learn how to fly. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and still want to do. I could go into the Navy to do this, or find a school somewhere to learn. I’m not sure what exactly it would lead to, but probably a job being a pilot somewhere.

6. I could take some time to explore the world. It’s a costly option because this one doesn’t come with Stafford loans, but it would be an incredible experience.

7. I could fail Health and Wellness and stay at IWU for another year. This is very unlikely, because I would probably just quit if I went through four years of college (and even managed a B+ in an upper level Bible class with Wilbur Williams) but couldn’t graduate because of the easiest class in the entire catalogue.

8. Something else.

Right now, all of the options sound appealing depending on the day and what mood I’m in. Generally the grad school options sound the best, though I can’t decide which one I like better. I certainly would enjoy getting my M.Div, but getting the MFA sounds like a lot more fun. Life isn’t all about fun, but if I had to choose what to do in school for the next couple of years, I am leaning towards the one with classes that make me actually want to go to them.

It’s late and I’m tired. I’ve probably said something outlandishly wrong, and I apologize. I’m not sure what it is, but entries like this always get someone riled up about something. Four words if you’re that someone: send me an email.

My Worship Philosophy

Even though I have other homework due sooner than this, I decided tonight to begin working on my philosophy of worship. It’s for History & Philosophy of Worship class, and it also is probably one of the most important things I’ve written to date, and will be for some time. It will no doubt have a large impact on what happens in my near future, whether that is finding a career, going to grad school, or moving to Hungaria.

The outline I have so far breaks the paper down into three main parts, with several sub-sections. The first sections is about the Biblical foundations of worship. That is the hardest part of the paper, will require the most research and study (if I was writing this before taking a class on Bib Foundations it would all be so much easier… :), and is probably the hardest part to write and read. The next section is on corporate worship, where I will break it down into music, art (visual and drama), technology, liturgy, ritual, and worship as a lifestyle. For now, these are the sections I will be writing in the days to come. Finally, I will write a section on personal worship, and I’ not really sure how it will divide up yet, so you’ll just have to wait on that one. Today I want to start with Worship as Technology. It’s been on my mind a lot this weekend, and I want to get at least some of it out.

Please feel free to give feedback, good or bad. I especially value you helping me know where I’ve done a good job explaining my philosophies, and where I’ve left you unclear or wanting more (if you disagree with some of my philosophies, that’s great; but you’re probably not going to change a whole lot by telling me).

Technology as Worship

Including technology in a philosophy of worship is without question the most recent ‘category’ of worship. Only in the last 50 years has it played any role at all, and only in the last ten has it become overwhelmingly significant. I believe technology has a role in worship that it fits, and should play; but I also believe that its role has been largely misinterpreted and misused, especially recently.

I believe technology has two specific roles in worship. The first is that technology serves as a aid to corporate worship, and the second is that it serves as a platform to which we can make worship more understandable to those who are new or unfamiliar with what exactly our corporate worship is, and what it means. To say technology is a means of worship in and of itself is errant, but rather it is a medium of worship, no different than the altar was a medium which the Israelites used as an aid in their worship to God.

The foremost goal of technology in worship is to completely disappear from thought or conscience of the worshiper. If the worshiper is focused on how great the lighting is or how terrible the sound is, then technology has ceased to fill its role in worship and has become a distraction. This is the reason why I believe it is so important than hours of planning and preparation come before any worship service ever occurs. Technicians must realize importance is in the message, not the media. A certain video may be cinematically thrilling, but if the message is lost in the camera work or the acting, then all that video has done is become a hindrance and distraction to the worshiper. I do want to clarify here that for those working with the technology, their worship is very much in the technology because their efforts to do their best and present the best offering they can is their worship. But for the uninvolved worshiper, a perfect worship service, technologically speaking, is one where the technology is never even noticed.

The secondary goal of technology in worship is to serve as a way which unbelievers or new believers can relate to and understand. To just throw an unexperienced person into a worship service is like putting a passenger in the cockpit of a 747. You may have seen planes in the sky, or even flown on them, but if you have no training in how to fly it, the cockpit will look like an imposing myriad of buttons and switches. In this case, worship serves as a ‘flight simulator’ of sorts. It simplifies everything down to just a joystick, something easier to grasp and much less terrorizing to dive in to. For an outsider who is unfamiliar with what is happening, technology can serve this purpose well. Putting song lyrics or Bible verses on a screen will help focus in on the activity being performed. (I preface this next statement by saying I have nothing against hymnals, and I grew up singing the old hymns and I love them) By eliminating the need to find a hymnal and understand how to use, or keeping a person from searching for a pew Bible, the media has successfully skirted the first obstacle for someone in unfamiliar territory. That is not to say that worship should be a comfortable thing, for I believe it should be the exact opposite; but there’s no reason a worship service need scare a person away just because it’s hard to understand what is happening.