I actually started that post (and the next) to talk about worship, and got side-tracked about church. I started thinking on those things for several reasons. First, the church where I worship has started making an intentional difference in our two morning services. The second service is 'less traditional' in nature. And our 'more traditional' service is struggling over some bumps of its own. This, as you might imagine if you are a regular attender somewhere, has ruffled a few feathers and created some exciting end-of-the-pew discussion. I have also been included in some committee discussions regarding planning worship. Our 'corporate worship' time has been on my mind lately.
Someone is unhappy with the song choices. Or song tempo. Or song leader. Others aren't happy with the screens/ temperature/ preacher/ what-have-you. And -- true confessions -- I'm right there with them in many regards. As I mentioned -- you can't plan a perfect worship for me, especially if there are people involved!
While all of this ha-rumphing was fresh on my mind, I sat down and encountered notes from a worship conference I attended last summer. This was on the top page:
Evaluating worship based on doing the right things in the right way or 'did it make me feel good' is having low expectations. Instead, evaluate worship on whether or not God showed up. There is NO worship renewal without expecting to meet the Almighty God. (Randy Harris)
That quote makes me feel better about not feeling like I am really able to worship at church. Oh, I feel certain the Almighty God is THERE -- but I am only able to worship Him by serving His people while in 'the assembly', not by chatting with Him and listening to Him. The best part is -- I'm not missing my time with God if I don't get it inside the church building. The Almighty God shows up to talk to me and walk beside me on my morning walk. He listens so patiently while I fold the clothes. He blesses us again and again while I pray over carpool. My entire life -- SHOULD I CHOOSE TO DO SO -- can be a time of worship, complete with the presence of the Almighty God. Because He will ALWAYS show up -- I just have to show up, as well.
And while the songs sung or words said or images displayed at church may or may not stir my soul, I can still worship because I will be in the presence of the Almighty God.
May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2
5 comments:
Well said, friend.
I like to hear some enjoyment/excitment/with-it ness coming from behind me. That can take me to the throne room before anything else.
I understand that I'm responible for my own worship whether in a room full of people or driving my car. That's why I can go before God in the dead-ist of services.
But what about all those other people? The folks that stay stuck on the pew thinking about anything except the LORD? Lunch, laundry, how mad their neighbor made them, etc.
What is our (those on worship committees and/or on praise teams) responibility to them?
WOW! That's beautiful and wise.
I once heard a teacher say, "If at least one thing in a 'worship service' doesn't make me uncomfortable, then it wasn't a good service."
While our assemblies should strive to speak to each person's heart language (the wildness at Corinth and Rome was caused by their uniqueness -- NOBODY else was trying to bring different kinds of people together for worship and work), I'm deeply struck by three things you said.
1) "I am only able to worship Him by serving His people while in 'the assembly'" - I think this is VERY wonderful wisdom, wisdom that lies nestled at the heart of the Greek word 'liturgeia'
2) The quote from Randy Harris about God showing up. -- On this meter, we fail BADLY every single Sunday. When God shows up, people fall on their faces as if dead. Just ask John the Revelator.
3) "I'm not missing my time with God if I don't get it inside the church building." -- that's just lovely and brilliantly simple writing. The sooner we begin, as God's children, to understand that "personal time with God" is NOT the point of the assembly of God's people, the closer we might get to actually worshipping Him while we are together.
in HIS love,
nick
PS - I'm new here, so I don't know if you've read "A Gathered People" by Hicks and Valentine. I know it will bless you.
I love church. I love the people, I love the fellowship, I love remembering Jesus through communion, I love the quirks that drive some people crazy but without them we wouldn't be family, I love worshiping, I am lifted through the singing of those around me to a great blessing which I don't know if there is anything lovelier sounding this side of heaven, I love looking for people who look lost, I love patting the knee of a sister in tears next to me, I love that hurting people have a place to share their hurts, I love learning about the Word of God, I love crowded hallways that force me to look into the eyes of people who I might just be to busy to see otherwise, I love the freedom we have in Christ, I love the desire of believers to be together in fellowship, I love little ladies with their walkers singing their hearts out to the Lord, I love to see children clap their hands to songs that are filled with good words and holiness, I love looking past the humanness of error that can happen whether it be a sound glitch or a misspelled word on a screen to focus even more on the Lord, I love that when my child was diagnosed with a brain tumor that the church phone number was the only number I wanted to call. For me there is not one thing I don't like about church, I love it all, church gave me a place to grow, experience, love, be loved, it gave me Jesus through the people. I love being at a church that welcomes the unwelcomed, our church wasn't always like that, growing pains hurt but the alternative is to live a stunted life, I love being under an eldership whom I love and trust, I love ministers who will not turn away from the call of God even to the point of ruffling feathers of people who like their comfortable and soft places. I LOVE being in a church where the spirit of Jesus is thick in His people, I love to worship in church, out of church, in my car, when I wake, when I fall to sleep, God is always calling me closer I can choose to look for Him in all the nooks and crannies and He is always waiting for me in delight. In Jesus I am blessed.
Well, I have read all of your entries and I agree, I agree, I agree. When I had babies, and they were nursing, I spent very little time in "corporate worship" and a lot of time in "mother's room worship." Sometimes that was just rocking my baby while he ate. Sometimes that was encouraging another new mother. Sometimes that was receiving help FROM another mother. When Victoria was a newborn, we were going through a remodel, and the "mother's room" was in the bridal area of the women's restroom with NO SPEAKER. I couldn't hear a bloomin' thing. I was normally in there from the middle of Sunday school through the middle of church. There was one brave soul who "worked the foyer" who would bring communion in to me--in the women's restroom--while I nursed. Did I feel like I was AT the throne of God? Not normally--but I was blessed by being there--others were blessed by my being there--and God was glorified by my being there--not because I added or even received so much from the worship experience, but because I was where I needed to be when I needed to be participating with my family in the best way I could at the time.
Right now, my children are no longer newborns--but I still help in the nursery. Taking communion in the nursery setting is not really a place that I'm able to concentrate on the sacrifice of my Lord, since I need to CONCENTRATE on the passle of two year olds running around--or the weepy baby whom I'm rocking. I still take communion, however, because it is by the body and blood of Christ that I can come to the throne WHILE I am watching someone else's child so they can ALSO come to the throne.
I get very ANNOYED when people complain about the worship service--the songs are too new--the songs are too old--the prayer was too long--the sermon wasn't long enough--blah, blah, blah. He has told us how to worship--in spirit and in truth. He calls us to worship privately, and He calls us to worship as a family of believers. There is NO way to perfect the assembly, 'cause we are flawed, flawed people coming before a holy, holy God. The point is that he TELLS us to come together as the body to worship and that we do that to the absolute best of our ability.
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