I think I had the same preacher when I was younger. It seems like a crime to bore people with the most remarkable story ever told, so I have worked hard to keep sermons interesting. Nevertheless, when talking about selling our old pews, one of our church elders quipped: “We could advertise this way: ‘You’ve slept in them at church; why not take one home to sleep in? You won’t have all the annoying interruptions!” Then someone added, “We could sweeten the deal by giving away a CD of one of Shayne’s sermons.” Guaranteed to give you a good night’s sleep.

I might be biased, but I don’t think most people are bored because they sit through uninteresting church services. It is, I suspect, just the opposite: church services would be more stimulating if the people in the pews and the pulpit weren’t already bored. Boredom makes people easy prey to distractions and temptations. So much of what is happening on the church scene today is an attempt to capture the attention of bored people.

Before the eighteenth century, English did not even have a word for “boring,” yet boredom is the malady of our time. We could learn from Jesus, whose life was anything but boring. The same was true for his closest friends and those who have known him best down the centuries.

Jesus lived an adventurous, sometimes intense, and always meaningful life. Those who dare to follow him have similarly exciting lives. If someone is looking for adventure, I can think of no better advice than this: Start living life the way God designed humans to live, the way Jesus lived, and you will experience all the adventure you will ever need.

But do we really want adventure? As Oliver Goldsmith put it, adventures by the fireside with a good book are one thing, as are adventures in front of the television. Real adventures are another. The playwright Thornton Wilder was right: When you’re safe at home, you wish you were out having an adventure, but “When you’re having an adventure, you wish you were safe at home.”

Years ago, I was on a remote Canadian lake with friends from church. Another guy and I struck out for a different lake, five miles into the bush. We got lost a couple of times and fought mosquitos that were so thick we needed to cover our mouths to avoid breathing them in. We got caught in a thunderstorm, saw fresh bear tracks, and wrestled with a boat motor that wanted to stall every few minutes.

If I had known how uncomfortable that adventure would be, I would have avoided it. Now, I remember it with something like pleasure. That is the way it is with adventures.

The adventure of living the Jesus way is like that. When we need to forgive someone who has intentionally hurt us, the adventure is not fun. But having forgiven, being freed from the anguish of resentment is something like a pleasure.

Likewise, praying can seem trying and tiresome. We can lose heart when we don’t see any answer to our desperate requests. But after intense times of prayer, perhaps over weeks and months, seeing an answer is exhilarating.

There are so many adventures in the life of one of Jesus’s students. To bless those who curse you is an adventure. So is praying for those who misuse you. Sharing the good news of Christ with people who don’t yet believe it is risky. Giving generously to a person in need feels dangerous.

Simply living in obedience to Jesus’s instructions guarantees adventure. If a church were filled with such adventurers, its worship services would never be boring. They would sparkle with excitement not because of careful programming or skilled performances but because congregants brought their adventurous spirit with them when they came to worship.