What's In It For Me?
A few weeks ago when I began this entire blog revelation, I asked a question. The question was one that I thought would be answered very quickly and by many. However only one response was given and the response was "you tell me." At the time I found that somewhat amusing, but several days ago I listened to a sermon on worship by Louie Giglio. It was a sermon that I had heard some time ago and filed it away as another good sermon that really hit home and would have been great for others to hear.
I received a phone call today that brought that sermon back to my mind. The conversation was one that stemmed off of what someone had heard about the our venues of worship. For those of you who are not aware of what a venue is or how many venues we had, it is very simple. A venue is a "style" of worship, we have a classic hymn venue and more modern venue. The reason is that not everyone likes the same style of music. As the conversation unfolded the person was asking if we were eliminating the classic venue and replacing it with the modern venue. It was a totally legitimate question and the person was telling me they were just curious.
It seems that someone heard we were going to use some of the band members at 8:30 and they assumed (deadly word by the way) the music would be changing. I of course assured this person that we are only trying to improve the service and it would continue in the same classic style venue. It was at this point where I made the statement that "we don't know how to worship." The guy is was talking with agreed and said he had made a similar comment to someone and got blasted!!!!
My response to that is how many of us leave the worship service and say "I didn't like that song" or "I like it better when she sings" or "The music was too loud" or "He needs to shorten his sermon" or "I just didn't get anything out of that today."
Hey I got a news flash THE WORSHIP SERVICE IS NOT ABOUT YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How many of us have ever stopped and said "God were you pleased with the worship?" or "God were you blessed by the hearts of your people?"
I really want to say to all those who are so afraid that "they are going to take our worship away" what are we worshiping the "style" or The "Savior". It's not OUR worship its HIS and no matter how many choruses of Amazing Grace we sing, no matter how we flow from How Great is our God into Heart of Worship, no matter how we cue the videos or lights or sound, no matter when we take up the offering, no matter how the invitation is done, if God is not blessed and pleased then we have missed it...
Going back to my original post of "What Is Worship?" maybe the reason there is no response is due to the fact we don't really know.
posted by Jeremy @ 8:42 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
worship is about adoring God for who he is and/or what he has done. that being said, when it comes to corporate worship, it is more practical for me to be in a setting with modern music, lights, etc because that is who i am. i think God is more pleased with worship that comes from who we are. i could quote Shakespear to my wife in an attempt to tell her how much i love her, and she might think it's sweet. but wouldn't she be touched more deeply if i wrote my own message to her, using my own words in my own style? to me, if music is involved in worship at a particular time, i want it to be music i enjoy because i feel like i can really be involved from my heart. if someone is into a traditional southern style of music and doesn't particularly care for rock and roll, then worshiping God with rock music would feel foreign to that person because it's not really who they are. to them it would be like saying "God, i'm going to act like a rock star because i think you will like it, but it's not how you created me so i may not really be into it." maybe i'm rambling.
worship certainly is about God, not us. but because it comes through us, in order to be authentic, it should reflect who God made us to be.
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