Church all the time.

Have you ever gone to an event that happens to be full of Christians and the person speaking starts to preach instead of explaining, talking or teaching?

I have experienced that often. I think most of the time it is our own fault. We either ask someone that is a pastor or someone that wants to be a pastor. So they automatically start to preach when they have an audience of more than one. And, I mean, we are at a Christian function, so you can't really complain. Can you?

The other day I was at just such an event and the person speaking has been a pastor for 30+ years. And he is now an official in the denomination I am part of. So this was a double whammy! He started out talking about a particular subject and like all good speakers he became passionate about the subject. He even got a little choked up and wet-eyed a few times.

While I was sitting there doodling, I noticed the rest of the room's reaction to what he was saying. It became church, and I didn't feel like I was invited. Suddenly you would hear the Sunday morning sermon responses, such as, "Ummm...Yes" or "Wow, wow" with the tight-lipped head nod included with it. There was the oh so great whispered "Yes". I had to look around to see if we were still in the same room where everything had started. I was waiting for the speaker to ask the worship leader to come up and start singing a David Crowder song. It was ... awkward. At least for me. I guess the problem was, when I go to church for a church service, I expect a church service. When I go to a business meeting I expect business discussions, if I go to a planning meeting, I expect to do some planning and if I attend a class I expect some teaching.

Now that I write this down and read it, I am not so sure I like what I just said. It makes me feel a little cold and hard. Shouldn't I be happy that God permeates everything that Christians are associated with? Or is this an example of being too heavenly minded to be any earthly good? Is this the reason the church is getting left behind when it comes to innovation or being influential upon society?

What do you think? Do we need to focus on what we are doing at a particular moment in time? Or is it cool, great and awesome that everything we do turns into a church service?