The size of the plates

I just finished eating breakfast at the buffet in the hotel this morning. Yes, the same buffet that I complained about the cost of yesterday. No, I wouldn't normally pay that much for breakfast but it was delicious. I wouldn't normally eat my weight in smoked salmon, either. We budgeted for this trip and I'm going to enjoy it.

Something odd happened while I was in line that I tweeted about earlier. A woman next to me actually complained about the size of the plates. Not anything about the food. The plates. I was so astonished I had to tweet it immediately. I know, that's not saying a lot coming from me.

Anyway, because apparently I only speak in metaphor this really struck me. Some people just can't be pleased. You can put out a spread of the finest food and they'll get caught up in what's wrong with the plates. (For the record I couldn't find anything wrong with the plates. They held plenty of food quite adequately.) When we worship, and especially when we plan worship services, do we spend more time dealing with the plates or the food?

Sure, you want to have the logistics work in a way that doesn't distract people from worshiping but there are some people that will ALWAYS find some way to be distracted. The drums will be too loud to some people and too quiet to others in the same week. The vocals will be blended perfectly to some and not heavily enough feature the soloist to others. The lighting will be too dim. The lighting will be too bright. The Media Shout will have the perfect image for a song but the lyrics won't be displayed prominently enough. There's always something.

I'm not saying this to get those of us who lead off the hook and say that we can never improve what we're going. But let's face it, these things are the plates. Jesus is the food. We can not neglect the food for the plates. We can not make our primary consideration in planning the worship to be about all of the technical things and the aesthetics of the service at the expense of worshiping God and preaching Jesus.

We are in the business of feeding people. The food is far more important than the plate it is served on.