To the sound of thunderous applause

As a confirmed egomaniac I must admit those moments of applause I have received at various points in my life have been nice to hear. Back when I was a talented athlete I got a few for that, I got several for academic achievements, and so forth. All of those were individual accomplishments and had some appropriateness for the time and place.
There are times and places I fins applause inappropriate, however. Like, you go to the funeral of someone you did not care much, they close the casket, you start clapping...no. Not good. Wrong time and place. Right thought, just don't express it.
Or when someone walks out of the store, trips, and spills their groceries. Yes, it is funny. No, if you do not know them, you should not clap. Just isn't right.
And church. I did not, do not, and probably will not understand the prevalence of applause in church. Someone sings a special, people clap. Someone has a birthday, people clap. Someone says something insightful, people clap. Huh?
Church is supposed to be about worshipping God. Anything done is supposed to be to praise and glorify God. Applause is to glorify the performer. The purpose of applause may have other purposes in other cultures, this I do not know. What I do know is it has just one meaning in the U.S. That is appreciation of a performer's talent.
There is no place for that in Church. Some kid does a "cute" Scripture reading, people clap. What message does the kid get? How about a simple "Amen", which means "certainly" or "verily". That is how you express approval. That is verbal agreement.
At some point many churches stopped being about God and started being about recognizing the accomplishments of people. So many people seem more concerned about experiences...
For instance, the charismatic (and expanding) habit of people raising their hand to show the Spirit is moving them. Simple question; how come they are never moved during the sermon? That says something either about the people...or the sermons.
A further critique...the assembly I was in this morning, they are averaging 7500 a week in tithes...AND ARE 800 BUCKS BEHIND PLAN! How ridiculous is that? Is teaching a gospel designed for the poor that expensive? To me, it is a sign there is a problem. TRUE religion is not about money. But you would not know it from seeing that average giving or the massive edifices or the 55-255 dollar seminars and retreats and gatherings and clubs...to be a Christian in those circumstances you need to be pretty near a millionaire. On the bright side, when you drop your check for 75 bucks to go the PK meeting, 50 bucks so your kid can go to camp, 60 bucks so your wife can go to the women's conference, and 25 bucks for a new songbook, people notice, stand up and clap.