yeah, I thought the Church Thing was over, but...

     I can't really attend a Presbyterian church of any kind. There are issues. Yet, this one on the north side is so alluring, the way a mistress might be alluring to a married man. Of course, we're talking about a very sober minded, exegetically profound, and homiletically eloquent mistress here, one who is fond of simplicity of dress and elegance of demeanor. A mistress, perhaps, who likes to read the more recondite works of the Reformed Scholastics, or the formally daring poems of George Herbert, while taking her tea. 
     In any case, I have a problem. Lutheran Life is such a drag. It wouldn't be such a problem if they wouldn't, you know, preach so much without having any idea of how to do it. Oh, and the Praise Band Collective's hold on the Missouri Synod grows stronger, and wider, every day. Really, tis true. It was a directive from the old president's office that every congregation develop some kind of hideous 'contemporary worship service'. This fit in with his desire to set folks like me ABLAZE! (tm) with anger and frustration.
     Of course, the OPC is not exactly a hotbead of traditional Reformed worship. You'll search long and far before you find a congregation that isn't at least planning for the time when they will drop several grand a year on a mediocre rock band whose leader has a soul patch. Grace OPC on our north side is indeed unique in this. 
     All the angstly angst here reflects what is a rather annoying problem. You see, the particular and peculiar contours of the Church Thing are determined by local conditions as much as anything else. Two hours in either direction and we'd have a whole different set of problems. I have to contend with a local ecclesial landscape that is blighted by Praise Bands, mainline manias of all kinds, and neo-Palamite convertitis. Hence my nearly decade-long wandering from place to place. 
     I'm not, really I'm not, looking for the Perfect Congregation And Communion. I just want to go to church, dammit. So while we're attending this here congregation of Missouri Synodians, awaiting from our Magisterium the latest directives for how to kill the faith of even more Lutherans, I really would rather go to this place where the sermons are damn fine, the worship is sober, and the people know their way around scripture. Is that really so bad?
     Is it?