I love worship. It’s my favorite thing to lead as a pastor,
especially the sacraments. I have always enjoyed worship. The music, the
scriptures, the voices and in some cases the smells, tastes and feelings of
worship seem to capture the most intimate moments with God, at lest for me. As
you can tell by my brief illustration of worship environments, i.e. sights,
sounds and smells, I love various forms of worship. From the most high and
liturgical forms of worship found in the Eastern rite churches of Greece,
Russia and the Middle-East to the most modern or post modern churches of
Sub-Urban America. I have found meaning, purpose and sacredness in each
expression of worship that I have encountered.
Growing up there was one expression of worship I had
experience with and as far as the leadership of my church, as well as myself,
was concerned it was the right expression. It was a fairly typical form of
contemporary worship found in most growing evangelical or Pentecostal churches
and it was done well. I truly did experience God every Sunday morning as the
praise team of Northville Christian Assembly played it’s drums, guitars, bass
guitars, trumpets, flutes, saxophones and piano’s and sang with it’s 5+ voices.
When the music stopped the preaching began and it was powerful, energetic,
encouraging and convicting (a quality many UMC preachers lack). Then we sang
some more, prayed and went home. It was beautiful and it was meaningful, but it
wasn’t the only way to express worship.
While at college, to become a Pentecostal preacher
nonetheless, I was expose to new and very different expressions of worship. I
went to Episcopal, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Disciples of Christ and even
Baptist worship services. The ones I found myself most interested in where the
more liturgical forms, such as Episcopalianism and Catholicism. I was so
interested and moved by the sacredness and mysticism of those two particular
worship expressions that I invited my wife to attend them and she did and she’s
has been an Episcopalian ever since.
Either way, whether you’re a high church Episcopalian or a good ole’
southern gospel Baptist, your expression of worship is authentic and it’s
significant too. Each form has its place, each expression appeals to different
kinds of people and helps them to do what’s most important and that’s WORSHIP
God with others.
Christian worship has it’s roots in the Synagogue form of
worship practiced by 1st century Jews and founded as a result of the
destruction of the first Temple and the exile. In this form men would gather in
buildings to hear scripture read and to hear a particular teaching or
reflection on the scripture often given be a layperson, but also often given by
a Rabbi, each Synagogue would be conducted by a Ruler, like an Elder who was
chosen to be the first among equal Elders as a leader. Every Jewish community
had a Synagogue and it was always open during the Sabbath. The similarity to
our own worship makes sense being that the first Christians were Jews. Like the in Synagogues the first Christians
met together, but instead of in designated building they met in homes, and it
wasn’t just men it was women and children Women were also invited to lead and host the meetings. There would
be scripture, songs, a reflection on the scriptures and it would all culminate
with the Feast of Thanksgiving, known in Greek as the Eucharist. This was a
special meal that commemorated the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and
was overseen by the Elders of the faith community. Whenever a new person wanted
to join their community they would baptize them because Jesus told them to and
it would be done always in the presence of the faith community by the Elders
and unlike in the Synagogues these people gathered on the first day of the week
instead of the 7th.
Our passage speaks to the significance of these meetings.
The author of Hebrews speaks of the encouragement and admonishes the meetings.
He addresses the importance of these meetings to the overall health of the
individuals and community. So significant are these meetings to the author that
he writes and instructs them, an Apostolic directive if you will, to not to
stop, to not forsake meeting together, because by doing so you are spurring and
provoking each other onto doing good works.
Our founder, John Wesley, felt the same way about going to
church. He felt so strongly about it that he called it a means of grace and
said the without it we can never experience true holiness, “There is not
holiness, except social holiness.”, that is Holiness together.
Our first step in addressing making disciples is worship.
Why? Because it’s community and it is through community that we love God and
love others, it is the main way that we connect, and connecting is the first
step in our discipleship process. When people think of church, they think of
Sunday morning worship and it’s this Sunday morning worship event that gets all
the press. It really is people’s first impression of whom and what a church is
all about and it also serves as the main way we fellowship together. Most of
you don’t see each other anymore often than every Sunday at church and so
worship serves as the main way that we connect with each other as well. The
truth is, if we want to reach the lost, if we want to provoke each other onto
reaching the lost we need to be well connected and that connection is worship.
Being connected to God, each other and our community, that’s where discipleship
starts. For that to happen we need to invite people to join us. People are not
going to attend church because of a website or commercial, they will however
attend because of you. Invite your neighbors, friends, and family to connect
with us.
Through this process we are endeavoring to move people from
the foyer of our home (church) into the kitchen, where all the real work is
done. If you can’t get them in the door and into the foyer, you’ll never get
them to the kitchen.
There is a story about a beautiful Lutheran Church in
Northern Wisconsin. In it there is a beautiful stain glass window in the nave
as you walk into the sanctuary. It was Jesus standing in an array of colors
with his arms wide open. One morning a visitor said to the pastor, “Pastor it
is as if He is welcoming us all into worship.” The pastor replied, “Yes, indeed
it is.” After worship was over as the congregation was leaving the same visitor
stopped to shake the pastor’s hand and this time he said, “Pastor, it’s as if
he’s welcoming us out into the street.” And the pastor said, “Indeed he is.”
Worship, and connecting doesn’t stop when we leave, it only really begins. This
week invite a friend to church, tell a friend about Jesus, start connecting
today.
No comments:
Post a Comment