The Importance of Being Foolish

Brennan Manning in his book The Importance of Being Foolish, writes:

Consider how our churches have explored and exploited our need to replace the numbness in our lives with a passion for something, anything.
We've created worship in which music is meant to stir the emotions but the soul is left unmoved, in which the words spoken are little more than manipulations of the heart.
We have created cathartic experiences filled with weeping and dancing in the Spirit that leaves us with the sense that we have touched God but that fail to give us the sense that God has touched us.
We run to churches where the message feels good and where we feel energized and uplifted - but never challenged or convicted.

"It is not surprising that spiritual experiences are mushrooming all over the place and have become highly sought-after commercial items," writes Henri Nouwen.
"Many people flock to places and persons who promise intensive experiences of togetherness, cathartic emotions of exhilaration and sweetness, and liberating sensations of rapture and ecstasy. In our desperate need for fulfillment and our restless search for the experience of divine intimacy, we are all too prone to construct our own spiritual events."