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sitting in the dust wondering what happened to the fellowship, and where God was if not within the liturgy of the church. When man stepped in and started defining things and tidying up loose ends into uniform boxes I started to materialize more than a few questions. I wondered what worship was, because I was growing more suspicious every day that I knew very well what it was not.

In the end I have come to the conclusion that man corrupts everything he touches, and though grace still abounds it doesn't mean pain is not in intimate attendance to it. I was born into and raised up in the Presbyterian denomination, a sect of our faith that is steeped in tradition and ritual not only for patterns of behavior but also for patterns of thought. Hymn numbers are posted on a board near the altar for the convenience of the congregation, call and response declarations are found in the bulletin for the minister to read and for the congregation to respond in kind, and the sermons are always childish and suitable, with the pastor genially keeping well away from his boundaries and shaking everyone's hand as they exit after wards into the narthex for cookies and cake. In short, I ended up spending just as much time with the Presbyterians as I have with the Vineyardians, but at the end of my time with both I was similarly disillusioned and disenfranchised, because both sects are at their terminus empty traditions and teachings of men and works-based religions that espouse to be the answer for which men search but fall reliably short.

Encapsulated, this means that simply because men slap a label on a happening and call it, for example, "Reform", doesn't mean it is what they say it is. There's a fine line between prophecy and policy, in other words.

So if what we have yet known is not worship but instead religion, what have we? What then is worship?

If we fail until we succeed, what then?

Success can be elusive, as can Worship. Or even God himself. We've heard of the prodigal son. I'm wondering about the prodigal God. Have you ever noticed that he, in a way, disappears in the bible as one goes along? In the Old Testament he seems a completely different character, one who is to be feared but also one who is forcibly involved in the everyday lives of his people. Today miraculous happenings are few and far between. In Deuteronomy 31.17 he says to Moses that he will hide his face from man and "see what his end may be." What could be the purpose of such a mean-spirited activity? And if

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