Worship: Part VI

Me Accountable?

Whatever the Lord has given you, give it back!

*Go Back to Part I and read the series.

What would happen if I, Joe Christian, felt accountable for what happened on a Sunday Morning?  Would I be prepared?  What would happen if the Sunday Service was a time of total silence unless someone came with something to give?  We, I know I, usually feel uncomfortable with silence if I know there should be noise!

Some people come Sundays to get lost in the crowd, some to “be fed”, some to be part of the “community” of believers, whatever that means.  Most come to receive for themselves, for their needs. How selfish!  Would “church attendance” drop off if every believer was accountable to give something, somehow on a Sunday morning? Probably, and we measure a church’s success, often, by the number of people who attend. How sad!

Could someone else other than the pastor or staff “hear from the Lord”? Yes, of course!  Could someone else receive “a word” and give the sermon, lesson, or teaching on a Sunday morning? Yes, of course! Could someone else have a “new song”, an original song they wrote other than the choir director, director of music, or worship leader? Yes, of course. Then why not release that potential, that power, those gifting? Could someone pray an original prayer than a staff member or a reading from a bulletin? Yes, of course.

If a congregation has a vibrant private devotional life, spiritual life can not help but arise.  What comes out of that private devotional time, can be the very catalyst for a corporate experience that is vibrant, relevant, dynamic, and powerful, for it is body ministry, for the Body from the Body.  The people in the congregation are some of the most untapped natural, or supernatural, resources a church has that needs to be released to minister to the Body and to the hurting world. 

Could a Sunday morning service be a “safe place”, for the body to practice the giftings they want to release on the world when the Great Commission becomes a reality?  Yes, of course! Then let the church get a different mindset of creating a “safe place” for body ministry to release their faith, develop their gifting and skills, and prepare themselves to be “sent out” by the laying on of hands by the Body. 

Wow, to let the Body function on a Sunday morning in its own sanctuary! What a novel idea. Really!