Worthship

I believe an old English word for "worship" was "worthship."  This certainly denoted worth or value. 

If our worship demonstrates what God is worth to us, what would the perceived value be by those who watched you worship this week?  How much would you estimate God's value if that were to be determined by your quality of worship?

Worship and Humanity

I was a broken man on Sunday.  I had a fight with my son before church, as we were going to church, and when we arrived at church.  I felt absolutely out of control.  On this day, I felt hopeless and helpless.  I was perfectly prepared for worship.

I came to the Father that morning with a broken heart and shattered spirit.  I usually worship with scattered thoughts and lists of announcements and the task of memorizing visitors names.  I could only look to God for help on this day.  As I stumbled through my pastoral prayer I found myself without words, but I prayed.  As I began to speak, God gave me words beyond my preparation.  When I showed up, God did too.

Worship

Tomorrow I am going to try to practice the discipline of worship.  I have a tendency to think about everything that has to go into worship rather than practicing worship.  I am going to prepare for worship tomorrow and see if I find anything different.

Spirit and truth?

Black Friday

You might have noticed that I just posted my blog for Thursday.  That's because I cooked all day Thursday for our family feast and spent all night searching for Christmas presents on Black Friday.  My wife and I actually tried a new technique for our yearly jaunt into insanity.  We did Walmart and arrived before 11pm to pick up our goodies and wait until 5am to check out.  With this strategy we left Walmart by 5:07am and went to Best Buy.  By 6:04am we were in our car heading home.  Not a bad plan, but am I tired.

The number of people who showed up for the festivities was amazing.  We were the first two in our checkout aisle.  We got in line at 3:30am.  By the time 5am rolled around, the 32 checkouts had lines that stretched to the back of the store.  Hundreds and hundreds of people showed up for the big event.  It was amazing.

Do we have anything like that anymore in the church?  Do Christmas and Easter even come close?  Has materialism so taken over our society that our rituals of worship to that god have surpassed the worship of our God?

Perhaps I am making too much of this, but I did only get 3 hours of sleep today.

Thanksgiving

Thanks be to God, His love endures forever!

Thanksgiving should be a special time for us, Christians.  We have so much to be thankful for.  It troubles me that more of our worship services aren't filled with references to thankfulness.  Oh, we have the occasional "thanks" song, and perhaps someone will mention being thankful during communion. 

Why do we not mention thanks more in worship?  How grateful are we really?

A Lesson on Worship

Many years ago I was taught an important lesson about worship by one of the young people in my youth group.  Laura Keiper had been sick during a great week of Summer in the Son.  SITS is a high school Christian youth camp held every summer at Kentucky Christian University.  When Laura finally joined the group after a couple days of illness, she sat solemnly during one of the most raucous, enjoyable worship services that I have ever experienced.

At the end of every evening, I would lead the kids in a debriefing of the day's events.  I asked the kids what God had done today in their lives and what they had learned.  Some kids said the concert was great.  Some exclaimed the worship was "rockin'."  Others mentioned this and that.  Then it was Laura's turn.

Remember-Laura had just started getting out of the dorm today.  She sat lifeless in worship.  She really didn't seem any better than the last time I saw her.  Then she dropped the bombshell.  Laura said, "Today I really felt like I learned what worship is all about.  It isn't about the good time, the mosh pit, the great sermon.  It isn't about me.  It's about Him."  Now I must confess (last weeks discipline) that those probably are not her exact words, but I will never forget that moment when the student became the teacher.

Our experience of worship is not worship.  Our level of enjoyment of worship is inconsequential.  Our interaction with the faith community is unimportant.  Worship truly is when He becomes everything, and nothing else is important.

Chapter 11-The Discipline of Worship

Worship is a discipline.  Showing up is a discipline.  Actively participating in worship is a discipline.  Proper focus while one is worshiping is a discipline.  Offering appropriate service to ones neighbor during worship is a discipline.  Worship is a discipline.

On many Sundays I just show up for worship.  My mind is on my role.  My thoughts are on getting ready for the morning's service.  Rarely do I really worship on Sunday. 

I was told of a staff in Kansas that required each of its ministers to take a Sunday off a month to attend another church for worship.  I thought that sounded a bit extravagant.  After 20 years of ministry, I now understand why they followed this strange practice.  In my experience, ministers often serve but rarely worship.

Join me as we learn more about the discipline of worship.