"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher

There are a very few downsides to life on Baker Rd., and one of them I still struggle with is our digital limitations. I don't like internet via satellite and the restrictions that come with it for speed and data. I didn't realize how slow our connection is until we were at Steve & Michelle's last week and used their cable internet. And we can't stream anything without quickly using up our data allowance for the month. Want to watch a You Tube video to learn how to _____? Nope. And I really miss Pandora. Some days I need my Joan Jett station, never mind Opera Arias and Spirituals.

We didn't get the forecasted rain, which is really too bad. I want fire restrictions to end so I can get my huge slash pile burned, which will, in turn, allow me to finish the goat enclosure. They won't open burn season until we've had several good rains. The upside is that I can continue to work on other outside projects, including building the goat barn and splitting all the firewood. Where am I going to stack 5-6 cords of wood?? It has to be covered with a tarp, so I'd rather not have it in view from MoHo, but I also don't want to have to clear more land, and if it's too far away hauling it to the woodshed is a hassle.

One of the blessings of the Reformation was the return of worship to the people. Until Martin Luther church services were boring, irrelevant events that people mostly slept through. They were held in dark buildings lit and "heated" by candles that made for an environment that was either numbingly cold or closed and stuffy. But the worst part is that the Roman Catholic Church insisted that services be conducted in Latin, a rule that lasted all the way up to the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960's. Because by about A.D. 400 nobody but the Catholic clergy spoke Latin the people sat through a very long service and understood nothing of what was said. Songs were all sung by the choir, in Latin, and...imagine this...there was NO PowerPoint with animated backgrounds of ocean waves or mountain meadows.

How engaged would you be in a church service if you sat on wooden benches, everything happened in a foreign language, and it was all done by someone else? But not attending wasn't an option because, well, it was the Roman Catholic Church, and if they said "Come!" you went. Or paid the consequences socially, economically, and sometimes legally.

Along came Martin Luther who turned everything upside down. The churches of his revolutionary movement conducted services in the language spoken by the people and, gasp!, he introduced congregational singing of worship songs with melodies often familiar to the people because they were drawn from folk tunes. Then the pastor preached a sermon in their language taken from the Bible which was, again, read to them in their language. No wonder the Protestant Reformation grabbed the hearts and minds of the people! Suddenly they could interact with the Bible and the things of God.

In the six centuries since then things seem to have slipped some. As we've visited churches in our search for a home I've been struck by how much our worship services have returned to a spectator event. We're still way ahead of the pre-Reformation experience, but we sure haven't built on Luther's good start, even with PowerPoint backgrounds. Almost without exception the churches we've visited have two basic elements to every worship service; we sing four songs led by a band, listen to a sermon, and then sing one or two more songs. The quality of both music and preaching varies, and the number of songs varies from one church to the next, but not from one service to the next. At one church we knew exactly when to stand or sit because we'd sing four songs before the pastor came up to preach. Never three or five, always four, that last one dragging on at dirge pace while the offering buckets were passed.

Side note: That's why in the Catholic church the bell is rung as the communion bread was consecrated by the priest. This is the moment, they believe, when the bread literally becomes the body of Christ, so it is important that people, many of whom had dozed off while the rest were mentally asleep because they couldn't understand a word of what was being said, be alerted to this transformation.

Predicability is the enemy of engagement.

With all the hand wringing about reaching Millennials, how has the church not noticed that worship services are still predictable events led by the same people up in front for us, the "audience?" Where is the sense of participation, never mind variation? Yes, we sing the songs, but in a prescribed, almost choreographed way. When was the last time we spontaneously sang that last verse again just because the words were so good, or did the chorus a cappella, or did anything except exactly what was programmed into the slides and rehearsed by the band?

Last week I had lunch with Josh, the former student/colleague who now pastors a church in Phoenix. We talked about this and he asked, "What else could you do in a service?" That he asked that question says something about the depth of our worship service rut. So I offered some suggestions about things that would add both variety and a sense of community and group participation in a worship service.

• Scripture reading by someone from the congregation recruited and practiced ahead of time.
• A report from some church ministry, like: the 5th grade S.S. teacher on what they're doing in his/her class. Hey, you could even show a 2 minute video of that class! 
• A children's time. (Please do not make this another fixed element of every week's service. It loses quality and effectiveness when it's overdone.)
• "Special music" (OK, we agree that's not a good term) by an individual or group.
• A "pastoral prayer" offered by one of the elders, an opportunity for them to do some visible ministry on behalf of the congregation beyond their unseen monthly meeting behind closed doors. Elders are, after all, called pastors at least twice in the NT.
• A brief interview with someone - a visiting missionary, a faithful servant ministering in the church, a musician, someone from the youth group....

You get the idea: variety consistent with a vertical focus that also increases the sense of community and participation vs. spectatorism. (Yes, I just made up that word.) I think the result would be greater engagement, and even a sense of anticipation. 

Why are frying pans round? BACON, the best thing to put in a frying pan, is long and narrow, meaning it either curls up the sides or is way too small for the pan. And sliding a spatula under the eggs would go easier if there was a side to push against. 

We need a rectangular frying pan.