Come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods. He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains. The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today! Psalm 95:1-7 (NLT)
We have a confession to make. It’s one you may or may not have heard from a pastoral couple. You know, the ones who are supposed to be “in charge” - the ones who get paid.
We loved “being” in worship during last week’s General Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church. We were not in charge. We did not have to come up with an order of service. We simply got to lift our hands, raise our voices, join in corporate prayer, listen to the Word, and take notes from the messages. What a delight!
That said, there has been a disconnect in worship for far too long between “leaders” and those “attending.” As a matter of fact, the biggest congregations in North America almost always have a great divide between the worship “team” and those in the “crowd.” It’s divine entertainment - and that should not be.
Psalm 95 is a great moment in scripture. It is a call for all to join in worship. Worship can be private - and it should be on a daily basis: devotions, prayer, reading of the Word, singing, doing acts of kindness…all of these are what we should be doing when we are apart from one another.
But, when we are together (and we should get together by the way)...
What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up - I Corinthians 14:26
Did you notice? Not just the “paid” staff. Not just the worship “team.” Each of you. Everyone.
Dan Gildner, a writer for spiritandtruth.life considered this quandary in a recent article. He established a baseline, if you will, for both leaders of worship and attendees:
1. Confession - It is good practice to confess known sin to God and one another prior to inviting the congregation to worship or gathering in worship. Acts 3:19-20 promises that confession gives birth to times of refreshing from God’s presence.
Invitation to Practice: Start your morning in worship with a personal time of confession with Jesus and/or with your trusted small group. Be honest. Receive God’s refreshing grace.
2. Anticipation - When we come into worship we believe that his Presence is with us - in Spirit. The difference between those places and the U.S. is expectation. People come to worship expecting God to be present. What we anticipate, we pursue!
Invitation to Practice: Write out a one sentence prayer of faith before you gather/lead. Where do you expect God to show up in your life through this time of worship.
3. Preparation & Faithfulness
PREPARATION: God chooses to work with humankind in the renewal of all things. So we humbly work diligently at the various crafts (music, liturgy, sermon-writing, etc.) because we are graciously invited to participate with God. It demands that we give all that we can.
FAITHFULNESS: At the end of the day, we are human, and more than performance or perfection, God invites us to be faithful. We acknowledge that we could never practice enough to deserve God’s love. We could never pray enough to be fully prepared. But we show up and in each worship service we offer to God our faithful, limited selves.
Invitation to Practice: Before gathering for worship, prepare your heart through prayer, singing or silence…such that corporately you can offer the Lord all that you can.
4. Invitational - It is the job of those leading to invite those gathered to receive from, respond to and participate in the worship of the Almighty. Those gathered should desire to join in singing, sharing testimony, giving generously, and responding enthusiastically with raised hands and shouts of “Hallelujah!” because God “inhabits the praise of his people.”
Invitation to Practice: If leading, review your language, ensuring an invitational tone. If joining in worship, take advantage of every opportunity to respond to God.
5. Prayerful - Part of our preparation is to pray individually and collectively. Call upon God to release water onto the dry land. Declare God’s Truth over God’s people. Invite God to search your hearts as you lead others. Pray for divine manifestations to be known before, during and after the gathering.
Invitation to Practice: For those leading - It is best to know the Father’s throne room before inviting others into it. For those gathering - pray for God’s presence for all; pray for the preachers; pray for worship to happen when everyone goes to work the next day.
6. Surrendering Results - If we lift up the Name of God, if we praise his Name, if we humble ourselves in his Presence, he will draw us to himself. After all - it has nothing to do with us but everything to do with him. Not just worship - but the results of worship as well. We should not focus on “how worship went” but simply on worship. It’s about time that we all joined together for God’s purposes, glory, and honor.
Oh, the wonder of worship…
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