A dream come true...

I had a dream come true on Sunday. It was so beautiful that I had to excuse myself to the bathroom afterwards to get a good little cry because I was so happy. I also received a hug from Juanita.

I went to a church service that I have been hoping, longing, waiting etc to go to for …. So long I can not remember when I began hoping. In all honesty, it was better than the services at L’Abri. It was a dream come true. I did not pretend to enjoy the worship or the sermon. I have learned from this experience, however, that what I thought I wanted in a church is not necessarily what I actually want. In other words, my idea church was much different than this experience. In fact I walked into the building knowing I was going to hate the service.

The reason has to do with my little idea that everything pre-WWI was better. That is one of the things I love about the Catholic service: it has been the same though many ages. This church was all about engaging the media and modern forms of worship. Anything modern means impersonal concern for progress at the expense of all that is human. Anything in church vaguely having to do with media engagement is merely a desire to manipulate people by giving off a message “hey, we are cool too. So be a Christian.”

Instead of engaging with the media that is all about image and portraying the lie that everything is perfect, this church engaged in it as a means to reach the people who live in this culture. It was not a means to attract them, it was a means to communicate with them. This means the sermon was relevant! Oh my goodness. What a difference. I was not pretending to enjoy it, I was starving eating every concept. I was not trying to rephrase it to put it into real language, I did not even notice that it was a sermon till the end. As far as trying to understand the theological concepts and apply them to the everyday life, they were already translated, and I know anyone listening could grow from such words.

I was shocked that I enjoyed the service so much. I am beginning to wonder now what a good service is all about. … I don’t know, but now I have a new experience to confirm that my desire to be involved in a church in the twentieth century is not impossible.