!
“Worship is the story we tell with our lives. Essentially we tell a sentence of that story every single week. The sentence that we tell with our lives is predominantly what happens outside of the sanctuary. If we are telling a God-honoring sentence during the week, our corporate worship will be a powerful exclamation point at the end of that sentence. At times, perhaps our corporate worship is not an exclamation point, because the sentence we told this week was not a very good sentence.”
When I read this quote from Matt Lundgren of Willow Creek I felt a wave of relief and at the same time, humiliation. This graphic definition of worship is comforting to those of us who are forever trying to lead/cajole/herd/encourage/cheerlead/shepherd/drag a congregation full of non-expressive, unengaged individuals into unbridaled personal and corporate worship.
HEY, if they aren't singing at the top of their lungs with their hands raised, eyes closed and tears running down their cheeks... it's NOT OUR FAULT! They've probably just lived a less than "worshipful" life this week. Sure, we still need to give our best gifts to God by preparing and rehearsing well and readying ourselves spiritually. But in the event that a worship song tanks or people spend the first half hour texting their friends - we've got a nice escape clause. (that's the relief part...)
The wave of humilation came when I thought of all the times I personally have failed to enter fully into worship (for crying out loud, I get three solid chances every weekend, plus rehearsals). If I'm not engaged, it's not because the guitar player missed an important lead line or the worship leader messed up a lyric or two, it's because the life I led the past week may not have been so very... worshipful. And I'm supposed to be the worship pastor. Like, I went to SCHOOL for this. (shaking my head)
This thing we do on weekends - it's not a formula, it doesn't rise or fall on a plan, it's not self contained, it's doesn't start and end inside of 60 or 70 minutes. This act we call worship - is actually "life." And I'd rather do it more fully and passionately in the 167 hours I have each week OUTSIDE the doors of the ministry center than in the one hour i spend inside. (OK, for those people scanning for typos - it's actually 3 hours because I attend three services - but you get the point.)
Here's to a life of worship this coming week. See you at the exclamation point.
“Worship is the story we tell with our lives. Essentially we tell a sentence of that story every single week. The sentence that we tell with our lives is predominantly what happens outside of the sanctuary. If we are telling a God-honoring sentence during the week, our corporate worship will be a powerful exclamation point at the end of that sentence. At times, perhaps our corporate worship is not an exclamation point, because the sentence we told this week was not a very good sentence.”
When I read this quote from Matt Lundgren of Willow Creek I felt a wave of relief and at the same time, humiliation. This graphic definition of worship is comforting to those of us who are forever trying to lead/cajole/herd/encourage/cheerlead/shepherd/drag a congregation full of non-expressive, unengaged individuals into unbridaled personal and corporate worship.
HEY, if they aren't singing at the top of their lungs with their hands raised, eyes closed and tears running down their cheeks... it's NOT OUR FAULT! They've probably just lived a less than "worshipful" life this week. Sure, we still need to give our best gifts to God by preparing and rehearsing well and readying ourselves spiritually. But in the event that a worship song tanks or people spend the first half hour texting their friends - we've got a nice escape clause. (that's the relief part...)
The wave of humilation came when I thought of all the times I personally have failed to enter fully into worship (for crying out loud, I get three solid chances every weekend, plus rehearsals). If I'm not engaged, it's not because the guitar player missed an important lead line or the worship leader messed up a lyric or two, it's because the life I led the past week may not have been so very... worshipful. And I'm supposed to be the worship pastor. Like, I went to SCHOOL for this. (shaking my head)
This thing we do on weekends - it's not a formula, it doesn't rise or fall on a plan, it's not self contained, it's doesn't start and end inside of 60 or 70 minutes. This act we call worship - is actually "life." And I'd rather do it more fully and passionately in the 167 hours I have each week OUTSIDE the doors of the ministry center than in the one hour i spend inside. (OK, for those people scanning for typos - it's actually 3 hours because I attend three services - but you get the point.)
Here's to a life of worship this coming week. See you at the exclamation point.
Labels: philosophy
posted by crosswinds worship arts at 4:00 PM
2 Comments:
You are right-- worship really is about life and not about singing on Sunday mornings (or singing at all?) And I don't think the weekly corporate worship is the exclamation point. I think life EVERY DAY is the best part, and when he draws his family together and we get to enjoy some sweet fellowship, those are the commas, the pauses where we drink in His love together and love our family the way we were created to do. If we seek out the exclamation points, we miss out on the joy in the mundane stuff God has for us each day. Yes, there is joy in the mundane stuff!! I think it's best when the corporate stuff happens spontaneously-- I think if we have the expectation that we are going to somehow "schedule" worship we will definitely be disappointed more often than not. Whoa, and what a way to induce guilt-- our worship isn't good because we haven't told a very good sentence? Since when is worship about us? It's about the story GOD tells, not us! I think Matt Lundgren would do well to leave out the guilt trips-- but too often that is the way of those in "leadership". Don't think Jesus used that method.
Well WHATEVER punctuation you want to choose I think we're basically saying the same thing. At least up until the guilt part. It didn't occur to me to have that response. So the last third of your comment - not with you. I don't have any generalizations about "those in leadership" and I'm pretty sure Jesus did speak boldly and directly to people who simply mouthed the words instead of living the life. -melody
Post a Comment
<< Home