This is a really important consideration for our friends from the broader evangelical world. There’s a high likelihood that you are addicted to a regular, even programmed release of dopamine and/or norepinephrine. It’s not your fault.
You’re part of a tradition that dates to the mid-19th century. That tradition (represented and perfected to Charles Finney) discovered ways of manipulating people in public worship in order to move them from point A (the pew) to point B (the anxious bench).
Today many “evangelical” congregations (I use scare quotes because it’s not clear any longer how evangelical, i.e., gospel-centered, they really are) have updated Finney’s methods but they do essentially the same thing. They manipulate your emotions with chord progressions.
They take you on an emotional roller coaster intentionally. It’s like a drug really. So you spend 10 or 20 years getting a shot of dopamine or norepinephrine every Sunday AM, leaving worship feeling great, on a high and then you visit a Reformed congregation.
That congregation isn’t wedded to Finney, isn’t programmed to stimulate a release of brain chemicals, isn’t programmed to manipulate your emotions and to send you out on an emotional high. It’s organized on an entirely different principle.
If it’s your first time visiting such a worship service it may be a shock to the system. Not only is there no praise band—no those aren’t standard in every service—the may be no familiar praise choruses.
The message may have give little “practical advice” on how to have a happy life or a successful marriage or how to raise your kids well etc. The message may actually be a carefully considered exposition of Scripture.
The congregation may recite the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed. They may read the law and confess their sins. The minister might pronounce forgiveness upon those who believe and even judgment on those who do not. It might get a little uncomfortable.
There are likely to be pastoral prayers that are longer than those with which you’re familiar. The reading of Scripture may be an entire chapter of Scripture and the sermon is likely to be at least 30 minutes. It may go into some detail as to the setting of the passage.
Some of the songs may be Psalms—it’s quite likely that you’ve never sung a Psalm before. The service may alternate between the minister and the congregation—he reads and/or preaches God’s Word and the congregation responds in song.
In short, it may be unlike any service you have ever attended. It isn’t Roman. It isn’t even Anglican. It’s not rooted in Finney. At its best, it’s rooted in Scripture as confessed by the Reformed churches in across Europe and the British Isles for hundreds of years.
Indeed, at their best, Reformed services are quite like those of the earliest post-Apostolic Christians about whose worship services we know a fair bit.
So, as you visit one of these you will need to actively exercise some empathy. Don’t judge the service by those with which you’re familiar. At their best, the Reformed churches aren’t trying to imitate the “evangelical” services with which you’re familiar.
They are trying to be faithful to Scripture as they understand and confess it. They are trying to worship God in the way he has revealed that he will be worshiped.
Give it time. It really does take time to get used to not getting a shot of dopamine etc every Sunday. It’s a cultural shift. In a way, it’s like time traveling. Hang in there. After a time you will come to appreciate it.
It’s a little like the difference between a glazed doughnut and a roast. The first gives you a shot, a buzz and then you want more or you crash. The latter is substantial and stays with you even if it’s not nearly as exciting.
