Shouldn’t Church Be Exciting?

I remember when Bill Gaither’s song, Get All Excited, was a foot-stompin’, energetic new gospel song that we loved to sing. We even clapped our hands and stomped our feet (well, some of us did). I love exciting singing. After all, shouldn’t worship be exciting? Shouldn’t church be exciting? I mean, as Christians, we have so much to smile about, don’t we?

When I served as a worship pastor I discovered that church isn’t always as exciting as people want it to be. There was certainly pressure to make it that way.  But the truth is that there are times when we need to weep for our sins, to repent, and surrender ourselves to the mercy of God. There are times when life is hard and troubles abound and we need comfort and solace. There are times when discipline and confession are necessary and we must do what is hard. Those are not exciting times. They are more uncomfortable and painful times, yet they can lead to some amazing revelations of God’s power and grace.

I frequently hear people, especially young people, say that church is boring and unexciting. Boring? Are you serious? That’s a troubling notion to me. I find it hard to comprehend that anything dealing with learning, worship, and doing life with God’s people is boring. It may not always be exciting, I’ll grant you that, but never boring. Could it be that we measure the value of our worship gatherings by the same excitement meter used to rate the adrenalin rush of base jumping or being a finalist on American Idol?

Maybe it’s time to take a good look at what’s behind the need for more and more excitement. Dr. Joe McKeever has written an interesting article entitled The Excitement Factor in Church that is a worthwhile read. It’s a topic we might find a valuable dialogue among the generations.

What is it we are saying when we want our weekend worship services to always be exciting? Is there a danger in always seeking more excitement in life, but especially in the church? Why do we come to church anyway? Is worship really about my level of excitement?

Dr. McKeever addresses some of these issues, I’d like to hear some of your responses? Here’s a link to his article. Read it and share your thoughts. Oh, and if you are going to share your great wisdom with us, could you support it with wisdom from the Scriptures?