Frenzy or Funeral?

Not much of a choice, huh?  When Christians get together it seems like it is either some kind of tongue-speaking, snake-holding, Spirit-slaying, sweat-shouting revival or the folks gathered speak in whispers and look as though they had stock in GM or AIG.  I wonder how honored God is in either setting.

I'm not suggesting that God cannot be honored in lives that push the envelope of exuberance or lie beneath the exterior of the living dead.  I'm only looking for the answers here.  Should not our hearts, when genuinely in awe of our astounding God, be so powerfully booming in our chests that something dynamic happens in corporate worship?

The key to hearts united in genuine and obvious worship is purpose.  Are the people united in purpose?  Is our gathering about God receiving glory and the world being changed by our witness to His glory?

There is an electricity which buzzes through the crowd at a U2 concert or a Rams game (preferably a game in which they are competitive).  The people there are from every imaginable strata of culture, and yet are united in the purpose of the event.  And you can feel it.  The crowd is alive and almost has a life of its own.  Why does the Church rarely get to this place, except at a Promise Keepers conference (remember those?)?

We cannot manufacture this.  And we do not want to somehow imitate the world's gatherings.  But if the Holy Spirit of God inhabits a people who are gathered in His name, for His purpose, singing Him praises, and surrendered to His will, I would think something tangibly powerful would begin to sizzle.

Do you long for this?