120 Decibles is TOO MUCH!!!

Tonight was Encounter, a special service dedicated to experiencing Gods presence in a deeper way. There were a lot of people there but one fellow stood out as a bit more striking than the others. He was an old man with a long, bristly, white beard and a nice wide rimmed hat. Now, when I see a white beard I think of three distinct types of people, Santa, wizards, or wise gurus. Since Santa and wizards are fictional characters that leaves only wise gurus. So, obviously when this old bearded fellow spoke up, I waited for the wisdom to flow. I did say that he had a long white beard didn't I because he did? What would he say, how would our lives be bettered by his wisdom?

In a loud booming voice he proclaimed "120 decibels is too loud! 84 decibels is enough. Deaf is deaf. We're going to have to pray for the deaf if you play that loud!" Ok, so that wasn't the wisdom that I was expecting. In fact, in my 27 years of church life I have never beheld such a spectacle as this. I was even a sound man myself for 9 years.

Our Sasquatchest electric guitar player looked bumfuzzeled. You see the next song started with the electric guitar and it was a much louder song. Well enough was enough, the bearded fellow put on his hat and headed for the door. But wait, what's this, he is making a detour toward the sound man. Oh, no, poor sound man. "I know why God sent me here tonight, he sent me to tell you that this music is too loud?" Oh, no, our sound man is now being assaulted by an old man with an awesome beard. Oh well, he'll survive. Needless to say, we didn't turn the music down and the old fellow chose to leave. But as our worship leader Jon would soon declare, "We like to worship and we like to worship loud!"