Five Practices of Fruitful
Congregations – Week 2
Passionate Worship
Midweek Meditation – October 3, 2012
BMC- Matt 22:34-40
Introduction:
As I have already shared with you,
we were able to attend a number of different worship services this summer while
I was on Sabbatical. We attended some
very formal, liturgical services as well as some very informal, contemporary
services. We worshiped with hymns and
four part singing as well as with contemporary praise songs led by worship
bands. But it was all worship.
In going to one church this summer,
the pastoral staff picked us out as visitors right away. We were welcomed and then directed to the
person in charge of their children’s ministries. We were told that after the “worship” ended,
meaning the singing, that our children would be dismissed to go to the
children’s department while we stayed for the rest of the service.
We were struck by two realities in
that conversation. First, they defined
worship only as singing. The service was
a two hour service, but only a half hour of that was singing, which means that
by their definition, only a half hour of the service was worship.
Second, what does it mean for us to
remove our children from the service after the singing is done? Now granted, there should be space for
certain ages or developmental realities to leave when it is appropriate. But when the weekly pattern is for all the
children to exit the service at a particular point, how do they learn to be a
part of a worship service? Likewise, how
can we as the body fully experience the body of Christ when instead of
welcoming the little children, we send them away. Instead of giving grace for their occasional
behavioral realities, we send them off to another space to make things easier
for the children and for the adults?
What is Passionate Worship?
Well worship is at least a weekly
event for us. We come together on Sunday
mornings to corporately offer our praise to God. In the regularity of that discipline, we are
shaped and formed into the people of God.
At the same time, the regularity of most any practice requires a certain
level of intentionality to avoid empty habitual practice.
And so it is important for us to be
passionate in our worship. But what does
that mean. Well, I don’t think that it
means that we raise our hands and dance down the aisles. That may be a part of worship for some, but I
don’t think that doing so makes it intentional or passionate. I don’t think that it means that we have the
loudest or most upbeat music around.
That may be a part of worship for some, but I don’t think that it makes
the worship passionate. And I don’t
think that it means that the service has to be an incredibly moving, emotional
roller coaster experience in order for the worship to be passionate, though I
would hope that our emotion is a part of our worship.
Those all may be a part of passionate
worship, but it seems to me that they aren’t what makes worship
passionate. Rather, it seems to me that
worship is passionate when we are intentional in our preparation, participatory
in our experience, and relational to God and those around us. We don’t have a lot of time to go into each
one of those tonight, but let me offer a few thoughts to spark the discussion
around your tables.
Intentional
Preparation
I believe
that worship is passionate when we are intentional about our preparation for
it. Obviously, this is important for
those who are planning and leading worship.
We need to be intentional about our preparation in order to be able to
lead people well through the worship experience.
But I
believe that this is true of all of us as well.
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 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.
A call to prepare for worship
shouldn’t be surprising. We know that
there are chapter upon chapter in the Old Testament dedicated to people
preparing themselves to be in the presence of God. We often don’t read these passages because
they seem so out dated and don’t make sense to us; but in the midst of them, we
see the importance of preparing for worship.
Participatory
Experience
I also
believe that worship is passionate when we engage in a participatory
experience. Sometimes this will mean
that there is an active response in our service like coming forward or taking
communion. Other times, it is as simple
as participating in singing together or actively engaging with the message that
is presented through the sermon and other elements of the service.
Worship is
not a performance. 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 be engaging with what we are experiencing,
participating in the movement of the spirit in our midst.
In the book
of Revelation, we read a lot about the worship of God. And the descriptions we find there are not of
an event going on before them that they witness and then leave. This is imagery of the people actively being
involved in the worship of God.
Relational
to God and others
And it
seems to me that passionate worship is relational to God and to others. 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.
When asked in Matt 22, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these
two commandments.” We tend to interpret this only as being about living out the law, but I would suggest that this is also a lesson about passionate worship. We are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul and mind. This is a relational reality. And the 2nd is like it. We should love our neighbor as our self, another relational reality.
Conclusion
When we
gather to worship, it should be for passionate worship. To do this requires us to be intentional
about our preparation, participatory in our experience and relational to our
God and to others.
Each table
has a sheet with some starter questions.
Feel free to use them in any order or to go in a different direction as
the spirit leads. If one person could
serve as a facilitator and take some notes, I would be very thankful as it will
help me in my sermon preparation for Sunday.
A little before 7PM, we will have a closing prayer so that those who
need to go can while those who would like to continue to fellowship may do so
as well.
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