June 04, 2014
For Your Protection
Last Sunday my kids and
grandkids visited a church in the metro area. They were expecting a
contemporary service, but they didn’t expect the bulletin to offer ear plugs to
anyone who requested them. Even more startling was the caution about infants
needing ear protection. Certainly we are all responsible for our own choices; however,
it seems like the leaders of high-decibel churches are merely trying to absolve
themselves of any responsibility for damaging eardrums by offering earplugs. “Don’t
you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in
you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him;
for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Cor 3:16-17 NIV).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Judging by people’s general expressions in worship and about worship, sometimes I wonder if I even belong to the Lord. Putting their hands in the air and waving them around and clapping and shouting for joy and such! Oh my! All that emotionalism! And the Psalms being full of it, too, doesn’t help. Nor does David dancing stark naked down main street before the Ark of the Covenant. People equate emotionalism with being really into the Lord, or something like that.
-----I’ve noticed by my experience that folks sometimes like to point out all this emotionalism. At that Pentecostal church I attended in High School, they would laugh and talk about how loud they got during a worship service. And they always seemed to be contemplating when the next time the Spirit would fall so heavily upon them as to cause a Jericho March. With so many cute High School girls being there, I kept looking forward to the next David Dance. But I couldn’t have been so lucky. It was like more decibels meant more Spirit. Other churches I’ve been to exalted decibels, too. The only reason I went to a Baptist church during college was to see if any cute girls were there. There weren’t. So I didn’t learn their decibel attitudes. And even this Presbyterian church I’m going to lauds decibels occasionally.
-----The first and probably foremost purpose behind these precautions to use earplugs is the avoidance of liability. But I can hardly think such warnings are not proudly disseminated, “We’re so rejoicing in the Spirit here that you‘ll need earplugs!” With a little adjustment to the mindset of the mega-church, this pride might partly hope some word gets around to all the younger folks, “Dude! The music is so awesome at the church down the street that they’re passing out earplugs!” Oh, how I love the intricacies of the human mind! All those backroom motives that are never to breach the lips as audible words! I’ve even noticed our church staging cute High School chicks in the praise team. Once the cute boys start coming to where the cute girls sing, then more cute girls will start coming to where the cute boys are going. You know how that works. Lots of loud! Lots of Spirit! Lots of cute! Now here we grow! Anyhow, me and the Tin Man’ll get hearts in heaven.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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