So give this a read, and let us know your thoughts on the issue. Worship is our highest priority as Christians, for whatever we do is to be for the glory of God. How that is expressed may vary, but Scripture says a lot about even our expressions in worship. So read these comments in light of Scripture, and share your own thoughts by leaving your personal comments.
Hi Pastor Matt,
I have been very sad about something that I have noticed in our church, Praise and Worship time. It makes me so sad that I am, one of but so few that even move, never mind sing during this time. I tried to tell myself that well, maybe that is just how Conservative Baptists churches are or maybe the Northeast is just a little different but I no longer think this is so. I think it may be something else.
This is from Mike Cleveland's study today in The Lord's Table:
This scares me when I read it and I think of so many who merely stand during the songs and not even whisper the songs.
The definition of Praise and Worship from Dictionary.com:
Praise:
Worship:
This verse also clearly captures worship to me:
Revelations 5:8-14
I am just so sad that I don't see this. I get upset with myself when I am uncomfortable being the only one who is clapping and I stop because I feel 'silly'.
It isn't just that. I have also been burdened by the shortage of giving. I wondered how come this is so despite the letters pleading, the powerpoint presentations of the damage to the building and the explanation of taking care of the property, etc. Then I went to my old church a couple of weekends ago. Their praise and worship is much different than ours. The songs are about the same except the praise and worship team moves, smiles, claps and so forth. The church sings, claps and moves. Some sway their hands in the air. It seems like a celebration at times and then when the song gets slow and more serious, people seem to honestly feel the words. Why do I mention this? It's their giving. They give more than they have a budget for every week. The church is over its yearly goal and it is July. Is there a correlation between the praise and worship of the church and the giving? I submit that there is. I don't mean a good show put on by the team is what we need to do but an honest and heartful praise and worship of our Lord during this time may bring about change. How do we do this? I really don't know but I will pray, pray, pray.
Pastor Yusef on WEZE said something astonishing today. He wanted to know why the people who will scream themselves hoarse during an athletic event, stand, shout, clap and have no care in the world what a fool they make of themselves can't seem to even open their mouths or move a finger during praise and worship. I know it struck me pretty hard. I immediately thought of our praise and worship and it made me sad.
Maybe some senseless rambling of a tired person who should be in bed right now but it was on my heart to bring it up today. I probably should have just emailed this to Pastor Nick but I don't have his email address so you are the lucky recipient.
I have been very sad about something that I have noticed in our church, Praise and Worship time. It makes me so sad that I am, one of but so few that even move, never mind sing during this time. I tried to tell myself that well, maybe that is just how Conservative Baptists churches are or maybe the Northeast is just a little different but I no longer think this is so. I think it may be something else.
This is from Mike Cleveland's study today in The Lord's Table:
This verse tells us that our God is a consuming fire. Fire in Scripture often speaks of judgment, but may also refer to fervency. Fervency may be defined as an ignited spirit aflame with passion for the living God. It is truly amazing to note that God desires this passion for Him in you and in me. In fact, God is nauseated at the "Laodicean" spirit that is unenthusiastic, indifferent and half-hearted in its love for Him.
To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, says this: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth." Revelation 3:14-16
This scares me when I read it and I think of so many who merely stand during the songs and not even whisper the songs.
The definition of Praise and Worship from Dictionary.com:
Praise:
| to express approval or admiration of; commend; extol. |
| to offer grateful homage to (God or a deity), as in words or song. |
Worship:
| 1. | reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred. |
| 2. | formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor and homage: They attended worship this morning. |
| 3. | adoring reverence or regard: excessive worship of business success. |
| 4. | the object of adoring reverence or regard. |
This verse also clearly captures worship to me:
Revelations 5:8-14
I am just so sad that I don't see this. I get upset with myself when I am uncomfortable being the only one who is clapping and I stop because I feel 'silly'.
It isn't just that. I have also been burdened by the shortage of giving. I wondered how come this is so despite the letters pleading, the powerpoint presentations of the damage to the building and the explanation of taking care of the property, etc. Then I went to my old church a couple of weekends ago. Their praise and worship is much different than ours. The songs are about the same except the praise and worship team moves, smiles, claps and so forth. The church sings, claps and moves. Some sway their hands in the air. It seems like a celebration at times and then when the song gets slow and more serious, people seem to honestly feel the words. Why do I mention this? It's their giving. They give more than they have a budget for every week. The church is over its yearly goal and it is July. Is there a correlation between the praise and worship of the church and the giving? I submit that there is. I don't mean a good show put on by the team is what we need to do but an honest and heartful praise and worship of our Lord during this time may bring about change. How do we do this? I really don't know but I will pray, pray, pray.
Pastor Yusef on WEZE said something astonishing today. He wanted to know why the people who will scream themselves hoarse during an athletic event, stand, shout, clap and have no care in the world what a fool they make of themselves can't seem to even open their mouths or move a finger during praise and worship. I know it struck me pretty hard. I immediately thought of our praise and worship and it made me sad.
Maybe some senseless rambling of a tired person who should be in bed right now but it was on my heart to bring it up today. I probably should have just emailed this to Pastor Nick but I don't have his email address so you are the lucky recipient.
Okay, folks, what are YOUR thoughts on all this?
It's interesting that you feel "silly" for being the only one clapping and I make a concerted effort not to move while singing because I don't want my moving to be a distraction... so, my "not moving" can be a distraction too? I had not considered that.
ReplyDeleteI have always struggled with the difference between authentic worship and emotional facsimile. I think I am getting to a place where, while I am worshiping at the same time as the “body” around me, I am not really there; as I am singing the songs, my mind is off approaching the throne, carried by the notes of the music. During praise and worship at church, it is a time for me to talk to God, asking Him to further prepare my heart for the message that I know He has for me. It is a time when I ask the Lord to clear my mind of all the baggage that I brought with me (you know the husband, kids, traffic, lunch, etc…the mind-clutter that forms as we breathe) and "Open The Eyes Of My Heart".
As for the giving, we were a part of a church that was fairly well blessed financially and what I noticed is that we stopped asking God for the things we needed and started checking with the budget guys. While I am not saying that a church can’t have money and faith, it does seem that you have a lot more faith and godly humility when the finances are always a miracle away. This is not to excuse disobedience and say we shouldn’t tithe though.
I was talking with someone who is attending the Lord’s Table Bible study and she said that the thing is we need to ask before we eat “is this for the glory of the Lord”; she went on to say that we can ask that about every thing that we do. So when I am standing in line at Walmart (Dunkin Donuts, Building 19… even the Salvation Army store!) I should ask, is my purchase glorifying to the Lord? If I made fewer purchases for “tomorrow”, I would have less clutter in my house and more money for God. Hey! That sounds like a plan.
I'm the first comment?! Your kidding...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I heard something recently that challenged me a while ago and got me thinking, the speaker said "Is God the center of your life or is God a hobby of yours." OUCH!!!! I had to really ask myself that. Honestly, I wasn't too sure how "in the center" God really was. I took a look, how often was quiet time or prayer the first thing I did in the morning. Was I daily studying the word or just reading a line or a paragraph so I could check 'Read Your Bible' off my list of daily accomplishments. When I prayed, was I also making that a check mark on my list or did I really want to consult with the Lord. These were hard questions to answer and I was the only one who knew the right answer. It helped me figure out why I was doing what I was doing in my spiritual practices and to do even bible reading for the right reason!
The Bible shows us all kinds of worship styles, from singing/shouting/dancing/clapping to falling flat on our faces/being quiet/kneeling, etc.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, the Bible doesn't endorse any one of them as being the only true measure of whether real worship is taking place.
Worship comes when we center our hearts and minds on Jesus Christ, and are open to what he wants to give to us as we meet as a group of believers. The result may be seen in a whole range of emotional responses as he works in each of our hearts . . . and the response of one worshipper may not be anything like the response of another, because Christ is working diffently in different people.
I think we sometimes focus too much on our "worship" as an act which we are performing, a work which we are doing, rather than seeing our time of worship as a meeting in the presence of the living Lord. It's at least as much about what he wants to do as we meet, if not more. The old Germans called the worship service "Gottesdienst" - God's Service. They meant to emphasize that it's a time when he seeks to serve us through the Word more than we are offering up a "service" to him.
I think there are some things we do well as a church body, and others that can be improved upon. During times of prayer, and when Pastor Matt is preaching, I think we do a good job of quieting our hearts and worshiping God in spirit and in truth. However, it seems that when we're singing, there are too many making trips to the bathroom or coming in late. We don't want to be doing things that would represent a distraction to somebody else who is trying to give his complete attention to God.
ReplyDeleteI have the personal tendency to favor more modern Christian worship music. That personal preference does make it easier for me to worship in that framework.
ReplyDeleteThat being said it is important to be able to be able to worship God regardless of what songs are being sung. One thing I've found helpful with slower hymns is to use the opportunity the slower music provides to concentrate more on what I am singing (It can't make my actual singing quality any worse then it already is).
Whether those around me are clapping or raising hands or not bothers me less than those who simply are standing there staring off into space. There is something about standing amongst others that are worshipping with their hearts that drives any distractions from your minds. I've been to contemporary concerts where that happens (and those that I didn't feel that). I've also been to Men's retreats and similar locations where the joyful singing of a hymn has instilled the same.
To try to clarify:
1/ God is less concerned about whether one claps, raises hands, sings hymns, sings choruses or worship songs then what is happening to them inwardly - are they worshipping God, going through the motions or just dead.
2/ If one feels that there clapping, raising hands, etc. is how God wants them to worship then I think they should do it. If they fight it down they will be suppressing the worship that God is due.
3/ Worship styles vary and have different strengths and weeknesses. Each of us needs to strive to be able to worship regardless of the style. As brothers and sisters recognizing that we aren't called to be cookie cutter copies of each other.
I do find one thing really interesting in every comment so far. The writer equated the apparent lack of zeal for praise and worship as a symptom to a problem ALONG WITH their apparent lack of giving as well. Either no one chose to comment on it or it got missed but the style of/lack of worship was not the only thing the writer used to conclude that there was something lacking. Food for thought!
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteGood point.
It should be noted that the writer carefully pointed out one thing: "correlation," not "cause and effect." If there is a correlation, it is possibly because both "effects" (giving and worship) stem from a common root "cause," and neither giving nor worship is a cause for the other.
That said, it's probably obvious that one who loves the Lord with his whole heart will (though, imperfectly) give everything he has to God, and hold back in not an iota of anything with which he's blessed, be it money or the opportunity to worship the Lord.
That said, I would be interested to know how much a given percentage of givers, based on their amount of giving, accounts for overall donation to the church. For example, there's something like an "80/20" rule in the federal tax system (don't quote me on this)--the top 20 percent of earners in the country pay 80 percent of the total taxes collected. Similarly, I bet the ten largest givers in a typical church of 100 givers donate 'way more than 10 percent of the total church collections.
In a church, my guess, GUESS, is that the people responsible for the largest amounts of giving are not the ones most likely to be "swaying and moving." Thus, a church that sways and moves may say nothing for how much is picked up in the plate each week.
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