The Comfortable Rut and The Dead Body

Some activities have become common to many streams of tradition. These activities are so traditional, or perhaps habitual is a better word, that we barely see them or recognize their danger. For example, we think "bigger is better" but, in reality, as the numbers grow the loneliness factor increases. Is looking at the back of someone's head and listening to a sermon, "fellowship"? Is a programmed worship service Holy Spirit led as we read about in I Corinthians 14? Have we focused too much on verse 40? Spiritually alive people are increasingly wanting to participate in genuine worship, fellowship and service. This is good news but how effectively can it happen in the pews of our "traditional" worship service. It is important to consider how much genuine worship is a actually happening in our tradition and how much are we coasting along in a comfortable rut which might the foundational tradition underneath many streams of tradition. Eventually, the comfortable rut often leads to a dead body.