We take pleasure in our rock-climbing, our gardening, our model railway, our d-i-y project, our stamp-collection and a hundred and one other things that have come to engage our attention and our enthusiasm. Some people climb Munros, some watch birds. If you get 25 people together in a room, you’re bound to find somebody who speaks Serbo-Croat or somebody who has flown in a Tiger Moth. We take pleasure in things great and small.
And we may also take pleasure in worship. I guess stone-age men and women enjoyed meeting up at Stonehenge. Certainly in 18th century London men-about-town were able to choose from a range of preachers the one that pleased them most. And when Billy Graham visited these shores, huge numbers of people made their way to venues all over the UK to enjoy proceedings.
A question forces itself upon us. Is worship something to be enjoyed? Or should we be shame-faced to confess that we get as much pleasure in joining in a service of worship as we gain from spending time on our hobby? As we leave the church, are we doing the right thing if we tell the vicar that we enjoyed the service?
It’s a tricky thing, finding the balance. There is an overlap between serious worship and entertainment. The sermon is one flash-point. So are the hymns – or should we nowadays say the songs? After all, music has outstripped the script to become the vehicle of worship. Should we perhaps thank the vicar and the worship-leader for putting us in contact with amazing grace and for moving us to repentance?
Of course, we buttoned-up English rarely wear our hearts upon our sleeves. Even if we have come round to hugging and air-kissing at the Peace, such abandon does not come naturally. If we are indeed conducting a momentous transaction with God, we prefer to do it privately.
It’s something of a generational thing. A bounce may come naturally to new worshippers. Everyday street culture puts energy before judicious reserve. If we feel that a service of worship has more in common with a music festival than is appropriate, we have probably passed the age of forty. And if we regret an absence of dignity or dread in the happening, we have to allow some latitude to beginners. We bring much of ourselves, our background, our experience, our tastes, to worship just as we do to other events.
FREE LANGUAGE TRAINING
Horsham churches are offering free language training to new arrivals via its refugee support group.
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