“I Feel the Spirit in this Place”

A new Pentecostalism has recently dropped, and that’s to always open the service with the comment, “I feel the Spirit in this place,” or some variation thereof. Since it’s being said all the time, it’s starting to feel like how night show hosts always say, “We’ve got a great show for you tonight!” It’s obligatory. Perfunctory, even. It’s obviously intended to make people feel like the service is more serious or spiritual than other services, but when you say it every time, it loses its meaning, even if it’s true. Then again, no preacher would ever want to imply by omission that the Spirit wasn’t there by leaving it unsaid now, so I guess we’re stuck.