Worship

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Worship: Part V

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 Accountability In The Pew?

Whatever the Lord has given you, give it back!

*Go Back to Part I and read the series.

What is required of a believer who graces the pew or chair weekly during the Sunday morning service? Usually not much, because, I feel, that the church does not allow you to give back anything except your tithe or offering unless you are gifted musically or part of the staff helping with the service.  The worship leader or choir director leads the music, the pastor or member of the staff preaches the sermon while Joe Christian just sits in his pew and follows.  In some churches they even supply road maps called church bulletins to make it even easer for the dumb sheep to follow their shepherds.

After church the staff discusses why there seems to be no life in the service, blaming those in the congregation for lack of participation. The pastor wonders why not one responds to this preaching.  Well, maybe it is because the congregation did not come prepared to respond, nor allowed to respond if even given a chance.

Maybe as a church we need to nurture a different mindset that allows the congregation to prepare for Sunday Services rather than the staff prepare Sunday Services for the congregation. If a church has a vibrant private prayer and worship life through its individual members, then we need to allow for a corporate expression allowing them to give back what the Lord has individually given them during the week: a scripture, a testimony, a teaching, a new song, a poem, a painting, or even a dance.

     The church where I grew up at one time allowed no instruments in the sanctuary. When they built a new sanctuary, they got a piano and organ, but no other form was allowed. Youth with drums, electric guitars, moog synthesizers were not allowed to share their musical talents. If I would have remained in that environment, both of my sons would have not been permitted to give their musical talents back to the Lord (drums and bass) in the sanctuary. How sad, and the church wonders why their youth go to secular music? It is because there they are allowed to express their musical talents.

What would happen if we just allowed the worshipers in our congregation to worship, actually allow them to express their forms of talents by giving them back to the Lord.  I think we just might see life.

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Teaching: Head Or Heart?

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Study of God or Knowing God

Theology: Theo means “God”; ology means “study of”, so theology means “the study of God”. 

Unfortunately with the world of Western civilizations, theology has become pure academic which most churchgoers have no idea what it means. As an undergraduate course, one studies the books of the Bible, etc., but at the graduate level, theology, where so called Biblical scholars give their interpretation of the scriptures, mirrors the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day. When I took a course in Biblical Theology, I had to read many paragraphs two three times before grasping the meaning of the passage.  By the time I finished, I knew little about who God is, but much about what man thought of God.

When Moses climbed Mount Sinai, he “met” God, and when descending that mountain he “knew” more about God than he ever did before because he had just “experienced” God.  God explained to him who He is, because His name was “I Am”!  The rest of Moses’ life God reveals who He is!  “I Am your deliverer, your savior, your banner, your strength, your healer, etc.”  God’s statements were simple, very clear, and left no room for debate, for He said, “I AM”.

God allows us to go into the Holy of Holies, His Presence, when we worship Him. It is there, in His Presence, that He reveals Himself to us in a way that is relevant to our personal lives.  Would not experiencing God who teaches us who the “I AM” is rather than studying exegesis or passages by renowned men claiming to be theologians, men who study who God is.

I have personally learned that most of my theology, academically, gets thrown out the window when I truly “experience” the “I AM”. Relationship is always better than rhetoric. I want to “know” God rather than “know about” God.

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Been Busted By Pollsters! Cont.

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Busted, By A Mindset

 

In my last blog I found myself stunned when sensing that I too am falling into the 50% group that do not necessarily “attend a church service faithfully every Sunday”.  Going from five times a week of church to only two hours, if I make it, was quite a revelation.

I would like to look at the mindset of church services today. I was brought up that their redeeming quality was to prepare me to face a horrid week ahead.  My strength was to come from singing hymns and listening to a sermon.  Today I would like to propose that the church needs a new mentality about Sunday morning services, for it has the horse before the cart, ass-backward is you want to put it that way.     

      There is not much accountability to a believer on a Sunday morning, except for their financial check in the offering plate and trying to sing on key.  What would happen if the Sunday service would not be worship band/clergy sermon centered but a copulation of offerings from the faithful in the congregation.

 Have they been spending a quiet time with the Lord during the week?  Have they been reading their own Bible?  What has the Holy Spirit revealed to them during this time?  Has a member of the body “ministered” to them this past week that displayed Jesus in their life? Has the Lord given then a “new song”, “a new poem”, “new” art forms, etc. that they could share?  Is there a “prayer warrior” amongst the group waiting to be “unleashed”? Are there prophetically inspired people in their midst who would have words of encouragement for others?  I don’t know, for the church has been so effective in hiding them well, if they are there!

What would a service be like if they were allowed to “give back to the Lord” those words, those inspirations, those insights, those “new” things on a Sunday morning?  I think one would experience “life” back into the service.

It hit me the other week at church that there were over 150 people there. I had never heard one of them personally share their “salvation/born again” experience. There was no room for testimonies in the service.  I didn’t know if anyone had ever been “healed”, “delivered”, nor “freed” from those things that entangled my life during the week. The church had hidden them well, for although I had gone to this church for almost fifteen years, I did not know much about the people attending.

     What if people were “allowed” or “freed”, to be part of the service, actually pray for others, encourage others, share with others, become a family?  Giving back to the Lord, giving to their own brothers and sisters of faith, would break down the fear and doubt of giving to those who aren’t Christians we meet every day in our lives. If the church isn’t a safe place “to practice” this among ourselves, then don’t be shocked if the people aren’t doing it outside the church’s walls. 

I have sporadically experienced such a “freedom” of Sunday morning bondage in the fifty years of my Christian life, where congregations were “allowed” to share their faith, give back to the Lord and the Lord’s people during a service, and the people always left renewed, encouraged, feeling the service had somehow come “alive”.

People who are not church-goers may become one if they can identify with the many stories, gifting, ministries, etc. God’s people have to offer, and the church faithful may want to stay “expecting” God to move “amongst His people” every time they meet. Isn’t God moving in the midst of His congregation, among His people, is what it is all about?

Sunday Morning Services need a different mindset,

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Been Busted By Pollsters!

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550% Come; 50% Don't

C.B.S. News Sunday Morning Program (Oct. 6, 2009) had an interesting segment on “Faith in America”.  Some of their insights were:

 “Americans shop for churches like they shop for everything else. They are consumers. It is what is best for me.” Wow! What does that say about us of Christian faith of loving your neighbor as yourself? Have we become “me”-centered believers. Hmmmm a topic for another blog!

“According to today’s Parade Magazine’s report ½ of the people who attend churches do not go to the church in which they were raised.”  I personally have gone to six different churches, all under different denominations or labels, since I left the church of my childhood although I still keep ties with that church.

According to the same poll “Americans say they are “spiritual” rather than “religious”, and only “50% of those claiming to be spiritual attend services”, and here I am on a Sunday morning writing this blog while my home church is having a “service”.

So there may be something to these polling facts, at least they have affected my life. I thought it interesting that when I am questioning the relevancy of “Sunday morning church services” this report is released.  Many church’s marquees boast “Sunday Worship Service” and times, now offering different “styles” of worship, contemporary or traditional, to reach the American Christian “consumer”. Music styles may vary, but structure hasn’t as music and the sermon are still the anchor of church services. Choirs have been replaced by Worship Bands, pipe organs by electric guitars, but the sermon is still monopolized by the clergy.

I find myself going to a service that requires nothing from me but my tithes, my money, and possibly singing along with the worship band if I know the songs or tune. We shake hands, pat backs, greet one another superficially for five minutes, but that is my spiritual community social life for the week.

Why have I fallen into the 50% category the pollsters have recorded? In my next blog, I would like to share a possible mindset change the church should face that may attract believers back and accountability to their believers.

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Worship: Part IV

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Bringing a Gift

Bringing A Gift

Whatever the Lord has given you, give it back!

*Go Back to Part I and read the series.

“Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles.  No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.”  Deut. 16:16-17

This is one of my favorite Old Testament scriptures for I believe that three times in a person’s life one is faced with crucial decisions about Jesus.  Feast of Unleavened Bread, Passover, is when one is faced with Jesus as his Sacrificial Lamb, his Savior. The Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, is when is faced with Jesus as Lord.  Finally, the Feast of Tabernacles is when one is faced with eternal life with Jesus.  Although each person’s testimony is different in conditions and place, they are uniform spiritually.

For each one “no man should appear before the Lord empty-handed”.  In Old Testament time a different grain offering was given at each Feast. Today something must be given at each spiritual event in one’s life, “a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.”  That’s worship: giving back the proportion that the Lord has blessed you.”  Passover, being “born again” requires giving up your “garbage, you sin, your baggage” for Jesus to be your Savior.  Pentecost requires giving up your “all” for Jesus to be you Lord where he reigns, not you. Feast of Tabernacles is when you give up “your life” here on earth to be with Jesus eternally in His Presence. 

Each of the three spiritual events in one’s life requires the giving away of something.  Worship is giving back to the Lord what He has given you.  That gift when placed on the altar will either be given back in even a greater measure, or consumed, and something new will be reborn.  Worship is giving.  Jesus “gave” all the credit to His father; he “gave” up his life for us.  He continues to give to us; all we need to do is give back. That is worship.

Worship: Part III

Those Who Did Not Practice Worship

Whatever the Lord has given you, give it back!

*Go Back to Part I and read the series.

The rich young ruler wanted to be a disciple, but Jesus knew that where one’s heart is, there you find one’s treasure.  This young man’s treasure was in his increasing financial empire, so Jesus required of him to give back to the Lord his wealth to the poor that he was unwilling to do. He missed an opportunity for true worship.  We do not know his fate, but he left with a heavy heart, not willing to pay the price while missing a golden opportunity.

The most famous case of squandering the opportunity to give back to the Lord is found in the book of Acts with Ananias and Sapphira. They sold a piece of land and purposely kept back part of the money for themselves and lied about it.  Peter proclaims to them, “You have not lied to men but to God.”  Both fall over dead and “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.”

Jesus told the woman at the well that we are to “worship in spirit and in truth”.  Neither the rich young ruler nor Ananias and Sapphira would accept that truth in their own lives, thus losing a precious opportunity to worship Jesus.

Maybe we should realize that worship is not something to play with, but is an unique opportunity to give back to the Lord what he has already given us. Thank heavens that the Holy Spirit is not doing to the church today what he did with Ananias and Sapphira or today’s obituary column might be full. 

Worship: Part II

Those Who Practice Worship

Whatever the Lord has given you, give it back!

*Go Back to Part I and read the series.

Abraham gave his son Isaac back to the Lord, to the point that he was willing to sacrifice him, even though he was his only beloved son.  Because his act was an act of worship, God supplied the sacrificial lamb caught in the thicket so that the sacrifice could be complete.

Hannah kept her vow of giving her son Samuel back to the Lord by bringing him to the temple, the place of worship, the House of the Lord, and Israel finally had an ear to hear the voice of the Lord in the midst of a corrupt priesthood.

The three wise men were very wise because they came to worship the babe, the new king, and they did not come empty handed.  They were ready to give back some of their wealth, gold, myrrh, and frankincense, not knowing how those gifts would be used.  All three were used for funerals. Because of their act of worship, God supplied what the “Sacrificial Lamb” needed to fulfill His mission, His Death and Resurrection.