After our last trip to Israel, a number in our group met to share photos and memories. Several of us said that we didn't respond favorably to the elaborate Byzantine and medieval church buildings. They made none of us feel particularly worshipful. We'd rather be outside and see the place something like it was when the folk of the Bible were there.

Yet, our visiting Jerusalem and seeing the places was sufficient for us because we already have our times and places that make us feel worshipful. The tragedy greater than being put off by a 1,000-year-old church building is that some people attend worship every week in their own community and experience there the barrenness that we felt in those huge, empty, old structures. Some people in worship have no more communion with God than they could …