Five Practices of Fruitful
Congregations – Week 2
Passionate Worship
October 7, 2012
BMC- Ps. 100
Introduction: Memorable Worship
I want to begin this morning by
inviting you to take a moment to reflect on what was the most memorable worship
experience that you have had. When was a
time that you had a deeply worshipful experience? Where were you? What was happening in your life?
When I thought about this for
myself, I found myself remembering my days of going to church camp. There was something about getting away from
home for a week, spending time in the outdoors, and making friendships with
other believers. I always loved our
times of gathering around a campfire and singing songs to the guitar. It was a yearly mountain top experience in my
faith and I was always disappointed when it came to an end.
I also found myself reflecting on
chapel services that I attended in college.
Bluffton had voluntary chapel once a week for an hour. It was a time set aside from classes in which
we could gather together to worship singing hymns and praise songs. It was a time to gather with fellow believers
my own age and to consider matters of our spirituality. It was a time that I looked forward to each
week.
And I thought about the summer that
Beth and I spent with the Followers leading worship in various congregations
and nursing homes through music. One
particular Sunday we were to lead worship in the Mennonite Church in Cummins,
Michigan; but the church was leveled by a tornado the day before. Instead, the Mennonite Church in Fairview
just south of Cummins hosted the people from Cummins and our group for
worship. Our theme for the summer was
“The Way of Trust” and it was based on Prov. 3:5-6. We had been singing those songs for over a
month at this point, but this service was incredibly memorable as we gathered
to worship and sing about trusting in the Lord in the aftermath of a terrible
tornado.
What Passionate Worship is not?
Today our practice of fruitful
congregations is worship. We are talking
about times that we come together to offer praise to God and to be formed as
the community of God. We are talking
about a practice that most of us participate in at least weekly if not
more. It’s something that we do
regularly, but is it something that we give much consideration to?
We know when we have been part of a
significant worship experience. And we
know when we have been part of a worship service that felt more like a train
wreck than worship. But have we put much
thought into what it is that separates the two?
Have we thought much about what made those meaningful worship experiences
so impacting?
I would like to suggest that in
many cases what separated the two was passion.
I think that more often than not what makes a worship experience
meaningful and memorable for us is passion.
But when I suggest that we should practice passionate worship, I think
that we need to be careful about defining worship as passionate based on our
typical superficial designations of what passion is.
Passionate worship is not about a
particular style of music that we sing or what our preferences are. Passionate worship is not about a particular
posture that we hold or every thing running perfectly. Passionate worship is not even about a
feeling that we have. All of these
things may be a part of passionate worship.
But they are not what makes it passionate and they are not necessarily
good indicators of whether or not worship was passionate.
It would be easy for me to say that
my church camp worship times were passionate because of the camp style music
that we sang there. It would be natural
for me to think that worship in college was passionate because of the emotional
responses that it created in me. And it
would be understandable for me to believe that my worship experience in Cummins
was passionate because of our circumstances.
And in each case, these things may be a part of passionate worship, but
I would like to suggest this morning that what made those experiences
passionate goes much deeper than music style, emotions, and circumstances.
Intentional Preparation
In Psalm
100:3 we read, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the
sheep of his pasture.” Here the Psalmist
is suggesting that we come to worship already knowing that the Lord is God,
remembering that he made us and that we are his people. As this suggests, I believe that
worship is passionate when we are intentional about our preparation for it.
I think
that intentional preparation was the most significant piece of my camp
experiences being memorable and passionate in our times of worship. For that week, I left my daily life to open
myself up to God. We spent the day
having fun together but also studying God’s word. We did not just show up at the campfire on
the spur of the moment. It was something
that we had spent time preparing ourselves for and we came expecting that God
was going to meet us there.
I believe that this is true of all
of us as well in coming to worship here each week. I believe that there is an important
difference between coming to worship as a blank slate, expecting to be written
on and coming to worship having spent time preparing and expecting to encounter
God. This may be as simple as one’s
morning devotion and prayer time in which you seek God before you even leave the
house to come to church.
Or, it may be a bit more involved
as with our current study in which you have the theme and a devotional material
to reflect on during the week before gathering together as the community. It is not always possible; but more often
than not by Wednesday, our web page has the sermon title and scripture
reference for the coming Sunday. And
during some of our sermon series, I have also been intentional about putting a
pre-sermon post on my blog to allow people to begin thinking about Sunday’s
worship service. In these ways, we can
practice passionate worship through intentional preparation.
Participatory Experience
We read in
Psalm 100:1-2 “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord
with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” And then in verse 4 “Enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with
praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” “Shout,” “Come,” “Enter,” “Give,” these are
acts of participatory worship. I
believe that worship is passionate when we engage in a participatory experience.
Certainly
the circumstances of worshiping God in the aftermath of a tornado put things
into perspective and lend themselves to a memorable experience with a certain
level of passion. But more than that, I
believe that what made that such passionate worship for me was the fact that I
was participating in the ministry of God to hurting people around me. I was participating in something that
mattered and made a difference in people’s lives.
We had
spent weeks preparing those songs. We
had been singing them in various settings for at least a month. But that morning I became much more aware
that I was participating in the work of God as our group led in worship. People had lost their homes and their church,
yet we were praising God and bringing a message of trust in God. Passionate worship is a participatory
experience.
Often times this is as simple as
singing the songs, reciting the litany, engaging in the theme for the day and
placing our offering in the basket.
Sometimes this will mean that there is an active response portion in our
service like coming forward to place something on the altar. Twice a year or so
this includes taking communion as we will do later this morning. In taking communion together in worship, we
actively participate in remembering who Jesus is, what Jesus does, and why
Jesus matters to us.
After all,
worship is not a performance. Worship is
not entertainment. Going to worship is
not like going to most plays or like going to the movies where so many of us
just receive or take in what is offered us.
In worship, we should engage with what we are experiencing,
participating in the movement of the spirit in our midst. And many times, this is a choice that we make
of whether or not to be active participants in the worship service; but I
believe that when we choose to actively engage, our worship becomes passionate.
Relational to God and others
In Psalm
100:5 we read, “For the Lord is
good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all
generations.” Our worship of God
involves a relationship with God. God
loves us and desires to be in a relationship with us. And as we worship together, passionate
worship involves our relationships with one another as well. Passionate worship
is relational to both God and others.
When
I was in college, I could have chosen to attend one of the local churches on
Sunday mornings. But right or wrong, I
rarely did. I consistently went to
worship on Sunday mornings but it was usually with the ministry team I was in
or on campus with my friends at the campus sponsored Sunday Morning worship
service. And I’m sure that there is a
lot that went into making those times passionate in our worship, but I think
that a significant part of my experience was that I was with my friends and I
was focusing on strengthening my relationship with God.
In order for worship to be
passionate, it must go beyond the superficial and perfunctory. It must recognize that our worship is of a
God that wants to have a relationship with us.
It is of a God who sent His son to earth to live among us. It is of a God who created a people and is
present when 2 or 3 are gathered.
Passionate worship is relational with God and others. It is a participatory experience and it
requires intentional preparation.
So What?These are the three aspects of making worship passionate that I offer to you today. Perhaps you would have others to suggest during our sharing time. But why does this matter? Why does it matter if our worship is passionate?
Well certainly if our worship is about praising God, we should bring our best to worship. We should aim to be passionate in our worship of God. But more than that, I wonder if passionate worship gets back a little bit to Mary Kay’s question last week about Radical Hospitality. She asked us about the dynamic of how we can be hospitable here, when many people now a days have no desire to be here. Many people have other things that they would rather be doing on a Sunday morning.
This is a good question. And our discussion last week leaned in the direction of saying that we need to be intentional about practicing radical hospitality out there in the marketplace. And I think that this is true; but was we consider passionate worship, I wonder if there is another dynamic to this.
It is true that many people would never think of getting up on a Sunday morning to come here to worship when there are so many other things that they would rather be doing. But I think what that highlights for us is that they do not perceive worship having any intrinsic value to them. They may think of worship as a duty that has no value, as something that won’t make a difference in their lives.
It seems to me then, that our job, our calling then, is to better understand the role that weekly worship has in our lives and to be able to share with others why it is so important to us. Why do you come to worship each week? Is it merely out of a sense of duty or habit? Or is it with a hope to meet God, to be formed in God’s image, to experience true community, to make a difference in the world. What is valuable to you about worshiping together and how can we share that value with others? Because we give priority to those things in our lives that we value and that are important to us whether they be family, money, entertainment, or worship.
We are not the only ones talking about the importance of worship. A week ago Thursday, I was at Bluffton for their Council of Church Leaders meeting. During that, Gerald Mast shared more about his book, “Go to Church, Change the World.” He suggests that our practice of going to church is actually a meaningful activity aimed at changing the world.
In this months issue of the Mennonite, Ervin Stutzman, MCUSA Executive Director, has an article, “Signposts: A Worshipping Community.” In it, he says, “The truth is, without enthusiastic engagement with God in worship, no church is likely to thrive or attract new people. The quality of the worship service contributes to the mission of the church…”
He goes on to say, “When the saving power and presence of God is evident in worship, it draws new people into the fellowship. Especially in today’s entertainment culture, we may be tempted to substitute glitz and glitter for the authentic gold of the gospel. What matters most is that worshippers have a sense that they have encountered the true and living God, not just the projection of their human longings.” Passionate worship matters. It makes a difference in our lives and it is attractional to others. It is up to us to be able to share that message with others.
This article was an outgrowth of the denomination’s Purposeful Plan which places worship and hospitality together under Christian Community. You may remember that after Pittsburgh, we came back and shared with you about 7 church wide priorities that make up the purposeful plan. Christian Community is the second priority. Here it says, “As communities in God’s mission, we will strengthen the loving interaction within the body of Christ and enhance our witness through worshipping together, extending hospitality, practicing scriptural discernment, cultivating Christ-centered unity and learning to agree and disagree in love.”[1]
Conclusion
As God’s
people, we are called to practice radical hospitality here and in the marketplace. We are also called to practice passionate
worship through intentional preparation, participatory experience, and
relational connection to God and others.
Living out these practices is part of being a fruitful
congregation. And it is important not
only for us to practice these, but also to be able to articulate the value that
they have for us. May God bless us as we follow in God’s ways.
Amen
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