In his book Finding God in Unexpected Places, author Philip Yancey describes the time he and his wife visited Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone Park.  They were having lunch in the lodge, watching the digital clock ticking down the minutes until the next big splash.  When the clock reached 30 seconds, diners left their tables and rushed over to the windows overlooking the geyser.  When Old Faithful erupted, and all the tourists were ooohing and aahing, Yancey looked over his shoulder and saw that the waitresses and busboys were using this time to clear tables of their dirty dishes and garbage.  They had become so familiar with that spectacular eruption that it no longer impressed them; it no longer held their interest.

And Yancey wonders if that isn't also true in the church?  Jesus is the Savior of the world, the Creator of the Universe, the very Son of God who came into our world to die on the cross so that we might have eternal life, and he has become to us, boring. And the Church has helped make him boring!  Boring pastors drone on in monotonous voices and put people to sleep.  Stale music and stale coffee and stale conversations about weather and sports and Oprah may be safe but they are not life-changing. That may not be true in all churches, but I fear it is common in much of Christendom.  Like rock bands that always employ "warm up groups" so does the church, only in the church's case, Jesus is the warm up group: the main event is the building, or the liturgy, or the anthem, or the preacher's sermon about recycling, or the donuts after worship. Ho-hum, Jesus. We are no longer impressed by what you have done to save our souls, so we have to spice your story up a bit with our own side show.