Church

I've been struggling with "why we do church the way we do".

It has bothered me for a long time but probably got stirred up again with a book called "Jim and Casper Go To Church" in which the atheist (Casper) asks the pastor (Jim) why all the different churches they visit have basically the same format - worship/offering & announcements/sermon. Jim really doesn't have a good answer.

It seems lately I have been struck with what a creative imaginative God we serve (3,000 different types of trees in one square mile of the Amazon forest, 228 muscles in the neck of a caterpillar, views of the universe with more galaxies, stars & planets than I can comprehend) and yet we have one basic style of service.

• Why do we do what we do??
• Why do we have to have worship every week??
• Why does worship have to consist of a certain number of songs - starting off with a faster paced song with the songs slowing in pace as we progress through worship??
• Why can't we have an entire service of worship sometimes ??
• Why does every church need live music - even if their musicians & singer completely suck ??
• Why can't we use recorded music by excellent musicians ??
• Why do we need a sermon every week ?? Especially if we never think about it once we leave the building.
• Why does each pastor need to come up with a sermon each week ?? Why can't we use recorded sermons by gifted speakers ??
• Why don't we do things the way Paul instructed the Corinthians  - where it seems like everyone was supposed to contribute to the service ??
• Some of these things would make it difficult to run kid's programs & such but are kid's programs what we are really there for ??

I know people have certain expectations of church services & would be upset if they weren't met but maybe we should upset these people.
Church was never meant to be christian entertainment.
Maybe we make it too easy for people, maybe we should challenge people to bring something to the service instead of being spectators.

I sit sometimes & wonder "am I the only one who feels like this??"
Why do I want to ask some people "why do you even come ??"

Trouble is I just have questions & don't know the answers but I do think more people should be examining scripture, asking questions & stirring things up.