William Willimon tells about a church in a town he was visiting years ago. According to the newspaper, the church was having an all-day meeting of the church’s “medical auxiliary.” Willimon figured this was a meeting of church folks who occasionally volunteered at the local hospital. He was wrong. A friend of his, someone who knew more about the church and its denomination than he did, told him that this was not the case. He said “the medical auxiliary consists of those persons who handle the stretchers, help carry people out, and try to revive people who have gotten so heated up, or emotionally overcome in the Sunday services that they need medical attention.” (1)

I don’t think I’ve ever been in a worship service where people got so overwrought that they had to be carried out on stretche…