I remember going to church for the first time. It was only a few years ago after all. I had accepted Christ and considered myself a Christian, but until that point, I refused to enter a church. I still mistrusted churches, even though I had no direct experience. With some consternation I entered the church building, not really knowing what to expect. I guess I expected singing, and a sermon. As it turned out, it wasn't as strange as I feared.

So then, why does church sometimes seem weird to outsiders? Since as I write this the NHL playoffs are going on, I'll use a hockey analogy to try to explain.

Imagine you've never been to, or even seen, a hockey game before. (For us Canadians that'll be hard to do, but try anyways.) As you enter the arena, apprehension swarms over you. There's so many people! And many of them look strange. They're wearing strange clothes. Many have matching logos and colors. Some have painted their faces … or their bellies! Not only that, but people are singing, chanting, yelling, screaming, waving signs and flags. Everyone's using strange language that you've never heard before, like faceoff, icing, hat trick, five-hole, odd man rush, tic-tac-toe, smothering the puck (smothering?), penalty killing (killing?!?), and more. It all seems so out of control! Are these people all crazy mad psycho lunatics?

No, they are acting appropriately in their environment. (Well, some are probably crazy, but that's true of any large group!) Although seemingly obscure to the uninitated, their behavior is situation-specific, comprehensible and rational once the underlying rationale is understood. You wouldn't expect someone who's never been to a hockey game before to understand immediately what's going on, but after learning more about why things are done, everything will start making more sense.

Church services necessarily contain a certain amount of "insider language", but if the pastors and others running the church are being considerate (as they should be) most things should still be comprehensible to those who have never been there before. I think church is a lot like a hockey game in that way: meeting together at a specific time, insider language, behavior that seems strange at first, ritual, and even singing. There's a few differences though. It's not often a church service ends in a pew-clearing brawl. 😀