When it comes to church, and I am Pentecostal when I reflect on this particular subject, we just flat out like “excitement.” There is emotion in our lives, so we don’t try to pull out emotion when it comes to singing and praise in a church service. As Pentecostals, we like to pray for people and things happen.

But it is one thing to sense some excitement because the presence of God is doing something, and another altogether when we design a service just to relieve boredom in someone’s life. It’s a big difference.

David Hansen in the revised book, The Art of Pastoring, warns against creating something exciting just because people are trying to flee boredom for a few moments in their life.

“Worship as entertainment, defined as the ritual excitement of the central nervous system to temporarily relieve boredom, is a shortcut to the believer’s soul-deep satisfaction of serving God through vertically oriented worship.”

Worship should be active. It should draw us into the presence of God. I am thankful our church works hard to put together worship that draws people into the presence of God. And, yes, that can be emotional at times. But we don’t want to try to create something that relieves boredom in people’s lives. We want to create an avenue whereby people can know God. And when God shows up, it does, indeed, get exciting.