Dear Friends,
I love to be in a worship service where I am encouraged, blessed, “lifted up”, and feel that being in worship was a great experience for me. I am sure you feel the same way. We want worship to bless us, encourage us and “lift us up” as it were.
That being said, we recognize that worship doesn’t always happen that way for us. Sometimes we find the minister’s message boring. We may find the music uninspiring, or wonder why the church doesn’t play and sing the kind of music we like. We may feel the worship service has gone too long, or it simply wasn’t encouraging, a blessing, or an experience of “lifting us up.” George Barna surveyed thousands of churchgoing Christians, asking them, “Have you ever experienced God in a worship service?” Only one-third, 33%, said they regularly experience God in church worship. Perhaps that is why worship attendance is in decline. . .
Pastor Rick Ezell in his One Minute Uplift newsletter writes, “It is safe to say that true, life-changing encounters with the living God are missing from many of our churches. We desperately need a life-changing glimpse of the greatness, the awesomeness, the wonder, the power, the mercy, the goodness and the loving-kindness of the God we serve.” We can all say “amen” to that! Who of us would not want a life-changing glimpse of God? (Of course, we have to be careful of what we ask for – not too many of us really want to change our lives all that much.)
Pastor Ezell continues by writing that the word worship comes from an Old English word that means “worthship.” The idea here is that when we come to worship, we’re declaring God’s worth. And if we’re truly declaring God’s worth, we don’t worship God for what we can get out of it, but to give God the honor and glory that is due Him. Think on that for a minute… We come to church not for what we can get out of it, but rather for what we can put into it. We come to bless God first and foremost. That is what our worship is all about.
Think of it this way: often we come to church as an audience, looking for what we will receive that day, what we will “get” from the worship service. But the correct way to think of worship to God is that God is the audience, and God is looking for what we will give him through our worship – our singing, praying, giving, listening. Worship is about giving worth to God above anything else.
Pastor Ezell writes: “Worship is not a weekly pep talk to rally the troops . . . Worship occurs when people encounter the God who loves them and desires a relationship with them. Worship is a meeting between God and His people. Worship does not lead to an encounter with God. It is an encounter with God.”
On the days I am bored with worship, just feeling like I’m not getting anything out of it, I have to stop and ask myself, what am I putting into it? Worship isn’t about you and me and what we want to experience in worship as much as it is about God and giving God the glory that is his. Let us therefore worship God with heart, soul, and voice, lifting up all that we are to him. And you know what? If we do so I doubt very much we will find worship to be dull or boring. In fact, we will find it encouraging, a blessing, a great experience, and we’ll feel “lifted up.”
Peace,
Pastor Jim
I love to be in a worship service where I am encouraged, blessed, “lifted up”, and feel that being in worship was a great experience for me. I am sure you feel the same way. We want worship to bless us, encourage us and “lift us up” as it were.
That being said, we recognize that worship doesn’t always happen that way for us. Sometimes we find the minister’s message boring. We may find the music uninspiring, or wonder why the church doesn’t play and sing the kind of music we like. We may feel the worship service has gone too long, or it simply wasn’t encouraging, a blessing, or an experience of “lifting us up.” George Barna surveyed thousands of churchgoing Christians, asking them, “Have you ever experienced God in a worship service?” Only one-third, 33%, said they regularly experience God in church worship. Perhaps that is why worship attendance is in decline. . .
Pastor Rick Ezell in his One Minute Uplift newsletter writes, “It is safe to say that true, life-changing encounters with the living God are missing from many of our churches. We desperately need a life-changing glimpse of the greatness, the awesomeness, the wonder, the power, the mercy, the goodness and the loving-kindness of the God we serve.” We can all say “amen” to that! Who of us would not want a life-changing glimpse of God? (Of course, we have to be careful of what we ask for – not too many of us really want to change our lives all that much.)
Pastor Ezell continues by writing that the word worship comes from an Old English word that means “worthship.” The idea here is that when we come to worship, we’re declaring God’s worth. And if we’re truly declaring God’s worth, we don’t worship God for what we can get out of it, but to give God the honor and glory that is due Him. Think on that for a minute… We come to church not for what we can get out of it, but rather for what we can put into it. We come to bless God first and foremost. That is what our worship is all about.
Think of it this way: often we come to church as an audience, looking for what we will receive that day, what we will “get” from the worship service. But the correct way to think of worship to God is that God is the audience, and God is looking for what we will give him through our worship – our singing, praying, giving, listening. Worship is about giving worth to God above anything else.
Pastor Ezell writes: “Worship is not a weekly pep talk to rally the troops . . . Worship occurs when people encounter the God who loves them and desires a relationship with them. Worship is a meeting between God and His people. Worship does not lead to an encounter with God. It is an encounter with God.”
On the days I am bored with worship, just feeling like I’m not getting anything out of it, I have to stop and ask myself, what am I putting into it? Worship isn’t about you and me and what we want to experience in worship as much as it is about God and giving God the glory that is his. Let us therefore worship God with heart, soul, and voice, lifting up all that we are to him. And you know what? If we do so I doubt very much we will find worship to be dull or boring. In fact, we will find it encouraging, a blessing, a great experience, and we’ll feel “lifted up.”
Peace,
Pastor Jim
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