(Watch for Part II on Friday)
Ask any Christian about what one should give to God and they would agree that certainly one should give their very best to God. We believe that in theory, but do we practice that belief? If we truly believe that our best is due God, then we would naturally offer our best to him in worship. Stop and ponder a moment and think about your weekly worship service and your participation in that service. How do you view that hour during the week? Is it a time for you to go and be filled? Is it a time for you to be obedient to honoring the Sabbath? Is it a time for you to sing God’s praises and teach your children?
Those are fine things to do, but when we look deeper at what worship is, we must be mindful that worship is to be God-centered, not me-centered. If the only time during the week that you are being filled with God’s presence is Sunday, there’s a problem. If you only go to worship because of duty, worship becomes a chore. If Sunday is the only time you sing God’s praise and teach your children about His love, then you are missing out. Jesus said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:23-24 NIV). We need to pray, sing and teach all during the week and be aware of God’s omnipresence in our lives, and then, being filled, faithful and eager to join our voice to others, gather for spirit-filled worship.
But how often do we drag into the church at the last minute, scurry into a seat while something “minor” is going on, and sit there with our mind on what we just left and where we need to go next? Does that show “awe” at God’s presence? Donald English, author and New Testament scholar, reminds the church that when you lose an awareness of God’s presence, worship can lose its “life and meaning.” He says:
“Hymns become merely artistic activity; prayers are moments of human reflection; the readings an intellectual engagement; and the offering is a way of sustaining the economy of the church as a human institution.”
The next question is, “whose responsibility is it to prepare and participate in worship?”
Ask any Christian about what one should give to God and they would agree that certainly one should give their very best to God. We believe that in theory, but do we practice that belief? If we truly believe that our best is due God, then we would naturally offer our best to him in worship. Stop and ponder a moment and think about your weekly worship service and your participation in that service. How do you view that hour during the week? Is it a time for you to go and be filled? Is it a time for you to be obedient to honoring the Sabbath? Is it a time for you to sing God’s praises and teach your children?
Those are fine things to do, but when we look deeper at what worship is, we must be mindful that worship is to be God-centered, not me-centered. If the only time during the week that you are being filled with God’s presence is Sunday, there’s a problem. If you only go to worship because of duty, worship becomes a chore. If Sunday is the only time you sing God’s praise and teach your children about His love, then you are missing out. Jesus said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:23-24 NIV). We need to pray, sing and teach all during the week and be aware of God’s omnipresence in our lives, and then, being filled, faithful and eager to join our voice to others, gather for spirit-filled worship.
But how often do we drag into the church at the last minute, scurry into a seat while something “minor” is going on, and sit there with our mind on what we just left and where we need to go next? Does that show “awe” at God’s presence? Donald English, author and New Testament scholar, reminds the church that when you lose an awareness of God’s presence, worship can lose its “life and meaning.” He says:
“Hymns become merely artistic activity; prayers are moments of human reflection; the readings an intellectual engagement; and the offering is a way of sustaining the economy of the church as a human institution.”
The next question is, “whose responsibility is it to prepare and participate in worship?”
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