One of the things that I truly appreciate about my church is the light heartedness and warmth of the people who attend. As it says in the welcome message “we take God very seriously but we also love to laugh, sing and enjoy all that He has given us.” And I think that’s how it should be. Jesus was not a cold or solemn man, he was approachable. Probably the best proof of that was the willingness that children had to spend time with him. Kids do not often gravitate to humourless people. And, if we are being honest, neither do we.
Too often when people think of church they think of all of the rules, the hard pews, intimidating song services and uncomfortable shiny shoes. If that is the only image of God that people ever see then its no wonder people have trouble believing that God loves them!
The thing is when we are trying to look spiritual, refined and dignified we leave no room for God to be God. We push him out of the picture and replace him with an unbending idol. This typically suits our purposes. Human beings like rules. Rules make us look accomplished when we are able to follow them and, when we fail they give us the ability to feel better about ourselves. We can willingly admit to failure if someone standing nearby is a bigger mess than we are.
Should there be laughter in church? Well, is there laughter in relationship?
Now seriously, if you are not able to laugh at yourself or are easily offended please refrain from playing the video clip and we can agree to disagree on this one.
If not press play and take a minute to laugh at yourself.
Having grown up in the church I have not only seen a few of these things happen during a worship service but have done quite a few of them. I wish they would have included instructions about waving flags because I once seen a lady crack a guy over the head while whipping a flag around with her eyes closed. The funniest part about it was she didn’t notice and kept going. 😀
