the "rain dance" worship approach

I wrote that God is ever-present, and thus it's superfluous to observe that "God is here" in the middle of a service or while camping or hurrying to a hospital after a sudden injury. A related issue is the approach to worship that might correspond to this sentiment: the modern Christian equivalent of a "rain dance".

The basic idea of a rain dance is that a prescribed series of perhaps-frenzied movements will convince the rainfall manager to disburse rain sooner rather than later. It seems to me that the modern Christian equivalent is the principle that God is more likely to "arrive" depending on what people do during a service. This is the God's-presence rain dance. One is left to ponder the effects of the musicians who messed up so completely that they stopped and restarted, the crying child who interrupted the speaker in the midst of the call for a tangible congregational response, the deacon who misread the church announcements in a spectacularly embarrassing way. After all, if by one's estimation God opted to stay "home", then the logical follow-up question is which step of the God's-presence rain dance went wrong, even by just a smidge.

Apart from interpreting the flops, a further consideration is how to improve the God's-presence rain dance. One technique is to import fancier steps from another Christian community that appears to be getting better results. Another is to repeat steps that have previously worked well, taking care that overuse doesn't result in decay of potency. Yet another is to experiment with a range of step variations to obtain a general sense of what makes each step good at inviting God.

Partly why the process is tricky is the detection of God's presence. What is the dividing line between a "positive" or "negative" diagnosis, and how is the measurement carried out? Assume God's presence is indicated by people's outward reactions; what people's reactions should be included in the sample and how to score each reaction? What's-her-name who sits front and center has a history of moving around a lot during every song, so maybe her reactions, even when done in broad motions, are less significant for careful presence detection. On the other hand, stoic-fellow on the right side of the sanctuary has a history of keeping still no matter what happens, so maybe overly-vigorous nods of his head are a clear sign.

In any case, a song that contains the words "let it rain", preferably with many repetitions, is an undoubtedly shrewd choice for the God's-presence rain dance.