A List

A list means that a blog is the genuine article. Not having a list on this blog has caused hours of introspection and anxiety for this little blog, and as an act of kindness, I its benevolent patron will now provide a list to soothe the sensitive feelings of the blog.

The List
Top Five Things I Like About Church
1. In some strange way I wind up caring about a bunch of people some of whom I really like, but some of whom really annoy me. And yet it really matters to me how they are and how well they are going. I like that because it is certainly not something I could do myself... definitely God at work!
2. Music. I never really sing outside of church and even though I don't always really like the music and sometimes even think it's a bit dreary, I enjoy singing songs about Jesus with other people.
3. Liturgy. I like praying the same prayers each week and out aloud with a group of people. The theology behind the liturgy is first-rate and therefore though they are prayed each week, the prayers are enriching and good to pray. The pattern of thanksgiving and confession, the creeds and the final prayer commending ourselves to God give us all a framework to think about God and respond to him, doing things we might not normally do during the week (even though we should).
4. Good sermons. I've heard a lot of good sermons, which have been well preached and changed me, even when I haven't known it or noticed it particularly. A lot of these have been preached by Levor, who is, it must be said, a great preacher. I could be biased on that point, but I really miss it now that he hardly ever preaches.
5. Bible reading. This can be done badly of course, but when it is done well it really rocks. Especially when we read more passages than we need for just the sermon. It's good to have Bible readings which intersect with what I might be reading or be completely different, and reading them aloud slows us down so we really pay attention.

Top Five Things I Hate About Church
1. Silly petty people. There aren't many but it never fails to amaze me how some people can be so nasty over such meaningless things. I guess you find them everywhere, not just church but it is always especially disappointing to find them at church because we're supposed to be a group of people learning how to love each other. And I walk away from encounters with these kinds of people wondering if they are even interested in trying to learn to love other people.
2. Poorly exegeted, badly delivered, shoddily applied, boring sermons. This is hard because often I get quite angry and spend the time I should be listening deciding how I would do the sermon better. Sometimes a great deal better. The challenge is to still listen and sit under the word rather than stand above it and rearrange it. Because it is still a sermon and I still am responsible to listen and let the word of God sink deeply into my heart. I guess it's one of those tricky temptations to think that because I could preach it better I don't need to listen to it. It's hard to remember that it doesn't work like that. (And its futile to pretend that I couldn't preach it better; there is probably pride there, yeah, but hey, it's true and I'm not going to pretend that I couldn't preach better sermons than some I've heard.)
3. Service leaders who think they are actually stand up comics. They aren't. They should connect with their inner comedian elsewhere.
4. Too much ball-dropping. Some informality is fine. When there is mistake after mistake after mistake, it just gets hard to keep engaging. And when so many of the mistakes could be easily prevented, it's hard to be patient because there is a sense that the people responsible for the mistakes haven't really cared.
5. Technology that doesn't work. I know, computers make it all easier and shinier. And when they don't work, it's worse than using an OHP.

There we have it. Not one list but two, and on the one post! My little blog can now feel actualised.