Where There Are No Bulletins

I dream of the day when we go to a land where church just "happens". There is no order of worship, no choosing of hymns or praise songs or scripture readings ahead of time and worrying, "do these fit together?", "did we sing this song too recently?", "will we have musicians this Sunday morning?", and on and on it goes. 

I dream of a community of believers who simply break into spontaneous worship and it is glorious and honoring to God. So, maybe I am dreaming of Heaven. But can this exist here on this earth? Where style or language or preferences are superseceded by a pure desire to worship the Creator of the Universe? 

I work really hard every week to plan out our Order of Worship for Sunday mornings. I want this time to be a presentation to The Lord from his children. But there seems to be unavoidable criticism each week. It's a struggle to keep on keepin on and not take it personally. 

When I was in missionary training, we were encouraged to purchase the book, "Where There Is No Doctor" by Werner, Maxwell and Thuman, if we were going to a remote area. It became a big joke among my group of friends that we would be going "where there is no ___________" (insert anything you want: hair dryers, pedicures, McDonalds, toilets, whatever might not exist outside of American culture) 

(Missionary humor is quite nerdy.)

(Make no mistake, I was honored to be a missionary.)

(And pray to assume this role again one day.)

Anyway...

My prayer is that some day we go somewhere on this Earth where there are no bulletins. Maybe I'm asking too much.   

I also pray that we go where there are no mice, but that's an entirely different post and most likely only in Heaven.