Churchin' it Up

Supporting my goal to do something new every day, Sunday found me in church. No - the foundation didn't rattle and I was not struck my lightening, but thanks for your concern. Rather, service took place in a middle school down the street, smack dab in between the huddled up cafeteria tables and the serving line. This was the church's first weekly service and as a walk-in I constituted about 1/2 of the service's visitors. The other 18 people were all associated with the church - preacher, preacher's wife, greeters, stage hands, guitarist, bongo player ... You get the idea. So my entrance sparked the same prairie dog response you see in the cubicled office - lots of heads turning, craning for a look. If I were one for entrances, I would have popped off a queenly hand wave and given them permission to kiss my hem. Good thing I'm not since that probably would not have gone over well.

The service was fine - lots of very faithful praising. The guitarist, who took the stage after every other sentence or so, most likely excelled at leading prayer. Most likely because he had a tendency to mumble which put his prayers into a mold like this: Dear God, we mmmbbmm sbmmbss mmmbmmm and thank you mmsnnmmsm ...

Now, I was raised Lutheran. Lutherans tend to hold back on emoting. Our services follow a set pattern - opening, song, Bible readings, sermon, song, communion, song, benediction - and that's a wrap! Thanks for coming. Folks keep their heads down. As much as I'd like to think this is the norm, most folks are a little livelier in their praising - hands held up, shaking, etc. I tend to snail up in these moments - Retreat to the shell! Retreat to the shell! I just can't help it - it's an automatic reaction. So, I did do my share of snailing during this service.

The only regret: That they did light up the disco ball that was hanging in the cafeteria. I have no idea why it was there, but it could have added a whole 'nother dimension to this bad boy.