When worship goes awry…

Okay, okay, okay. I know. This is a day of tragedy and mourning for my lost and beloved RodentMobile. But blame it on Travis Johnson. He posted a link to the “Concerned pastor” voicemail Trent Fuller released on the GraceHead blog, and I badly needed the humor. Perhaps you do, too.

I’m a white guy (well, not really, I’m Hispanic—maybe [long story]—but I think I’m white) so, naturally, I don’t move much when I sing. And when I catch myself moving, I nervously stop, shove my hands in my pockets, and look around with a sheepish grin. The Bride of Rat, though, she loves to move when she sings. She spent a year in Brazil as an exchange student and learned to enjoy dancing over there; consequently, she gets a little rhythm goin’ on during worship now and then.

Nothing wrong with that. Just don’t ask me to do it. Please. You’ll appreciate it. I promise.

But what happens when you put someone with a little rhythm, a little soul, a little energy, up on the platform to help lead worship? What happens when someone who likes to move with the music gets caught up in it, actually starts to worship and dances before the Lord like David did? What happens when that person forgets that there are hundreds or thousands of eyes watching every move (What? Those people aren’t worshiping too?)

You get voicemail. That’s what happens.

Then the minister of music gets ahold of the voicemail and you get the ultimate postmodern rebuttal: the complainants message becomes a dance mix.

Priceless.

Related posts:
“When sermons go awry..”
“When sermons go awry, revisited.”
“F-bombs, poets, and church. Or, â€Å“When church goes intentionally awry!.”
“When worship goes awry..”

Update: GospelGal, a co-worker of mine, just blogged on this topic, with a whole host of really excellent questions. Head on over and interact, she said some of the stuff I was thinking about–and more–but I didn’t really have the brains to say it. That’s right, “GospelGal: thinking so you don’t have to.”