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. 😀

On a recent trip to Montreal with fellow seminary students from Tyndale Seminary, we visited St. Joseph's Oratory, which I would naturally call a "cathedral" but apparently the correct term is "basilica", since cathedral refers to ornate type non-Catholic churches. It was a beautiful, amazingly designed church. There's a wall there covered with crutches, from people who were healed within its walls. We all walked around sort of in awe of all this magnificent building represented as a testament to God.

I felt somewhat torn though, as we entered the second of two large worship halls. (The first can be seen in the picture above.) On one hand, this all seemed like sort of a waste of time and money. God doesn't care if we worship him in a grand hall, small local church, movie theater, or back alley. Couldn't the millions of dollars it cost to built this basilica be put to better use elsewhere?

On the other hand, just walking into this church gave a sense of reverant awe that is missing from most Protestant churches. It just has a different feel, while Protestant churches generally feel plain, the Catholic churches just feel more … holy? Of course, there's nothing holy about the building itself. But somehow, going to church in a movie theater and watching the screen (as great as Bruxy's sermons may be) seems to be missing that sense of awe that is often an appropriate way to approach God.