Tuesday, June 03, 2008

WORSHIP RIGHT OR WORSHIP GOD?

While my intent is to encourage deeper and greater worship, by no means do I want to imply my thoughts are law. They are not. From experience, therefore I will point out, our worship assemblies have become more meaningful due to one matter of progress. Worship teams have enhanced our praise and new songs fill my heart. Yet the fact that we have begun to sing a series of songs without interruption has done more to let me engage my mind and keep it there than any of our other useful moves.

Something good has happened to me/us. We are progressing from worshipping right to worshipping God. There is a difference. This difference shows in the spirit of the flock. We've been taught to praise God....I mean really, robustly cut loose and get lost in His wonder. We do stand in awe! We do mean it when we say, "Thank you, Lord."

For Memorial Drive Allen French moved us through a veil and into His presence. When he moved on, Shane Coffman entered the Memorial scene and continues meaningful progression. We have shifted from worshipping and wondering who is upset "over that move" to wondering if God is loving our gifts of vocal/mindful worship of Him.

We enter His presence.....really. Was it not being done before? I can't answer that for anyone but myself. For me? It wasn't being done. I was too focused on who did or didn't like what was sung, prayed, or preached. I was too interrupted by singing a song and hearing comments regarding observing this note and that chorus. It seems to me the more the church learns to voice the praises of God, whether through song or testimony, the more God unleashes His grand grace upon our gatherings.

Baseball? Fun!

Grandkids? More fun!

Worshipping God? Heavenly on earth!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post! There is so much difference in "song leading' versus 'worship leading'. Shane leads you into worshipping God. Here at Highland Oaks we have the same blessing with Chad Higgins. God be praised for the difference!

Anonymous said...

I would have to say your grandkids are way fun. I had a great conversation with 2 of them at church on Sunday. The longest I have ever had with Campbell. I guess I got on a topic she liked.

Anonymous said...

Just a question, as a leader is there a responsibility to pay some attention to the mechanics to help facilitate and grow or do we just let it all happen?

An example, we have a communion meditation every week. We as a staff have tried to promote this as a time for reflection on what we are doing. This is not your turn to give a mini sermon. Due to our time conscious culture, we ask the person to honor a time limit of three to five minutes. It would be easy to say, "well, someone will give some kind of thought and whatever God has laid on their heart, for however long, doesn't really matter". I know the arguement for decent and in order. I'm not meaning to sound legalistic and rigid. But, as a leader, do I and the other leaders have a responsibility to pay some attention to keeping focused...?

I could give other example where I think we need to pay some attention to help facilitate worship. E-mail me if you want or you can discuss it on the blog if you think it best.Blessings.