I was sitting in a beautiful church. I could not imagine what it cost.
The pipe organ alone cost more than most church buildings. The stained
glass windows were awesome. Each window told a Bible story. And yet as I
left I was uninspired. The sparse congregation barely sang the hymns and
the sermon was mediocre at best. While walking to my car I remembered a
church on the slopes of Mount Kenya where we attended a Campmeeting. The
roof was rusted, corrugated metal and the sides were vertical wooden slates
filled with knot holes. There was no pulpit and the people sat on planks on
blocks. When it rained, and it did every day, I had to stop preaching
because the sound on the roof was mesmerizingly deafening. The best part
was the music. The music leader would hold up an empty orange Fanta bottle
by the lip on the top of the bottle and beat out rhythms by striking it with
the side of a coin. Oh how the people would sing. It was a foretaste of
heaven.

Obviously great worship experiences don't have to occur in great cathedrals.
Emily Dickenson once wrote,

"Some keep the Sabbath going to Church --
I keep it, staying at Home --
With a Bobolink for a Chorister --
And an Orchard, for a Dome -

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice --
I just wear my Wings --
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton -- sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman --
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last --
I'm going, all along."

How absolutely grand!!