Words and phrases

Thinking about a recent article on the Eagle and Child I had a number of words running through my head:

Stately

Majestic

Tedious

Uninspiring

Exciting

Alive

Frothy

Emotionalism

Sophisticated

Theatrical

Hypocritical

Pretence

Joyous

Spirit-filled

Banal

Repetitive

Historical

Substantial

Irrelevant

Heavy

Inspirational

Involving

Fripery

Shallow


All these have been applied by various people, usually from churches, to the worship styles in *other* churches. All have been true at various times and in various situations. I'm wondering if it really matters how OTHER people worship.

It certainly bothers me how I worship.

I just wonder why we get all het up about how other people do it? God doesn't seem to be especially bothered. Maybe it's our insecurity? Maybe we're afraid we'll be forced to be *like them*. Maybe it's our love of making rules up for others to obey? Maybe some of us were given a hard time in other churches because we were different.

I'm hanging on to my inspiration that the Body of Jesus is more than the sum of it's parts. That we all need to rise up from our situations, rather than merely diffuse sideways. We can sing "I don't wanna go back to Egypt" but I wonder if we would all recognise each other's 'Egypts'?