Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. -Psalm 95:6
Christian churches have come to the dangerous time predicted long ago. It is a time when we can pat one another on the back, congratulate ourselves and join in the glad refrain, “We are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing!”
It certainly is true that hardly anything is missing from our churches these days–except the most important thing. We are missing the genuine and sacred offering of ourselves and our worship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ….
We have been surging forward. We are building great churches and large congregations. We are boasting about high standards and we are talking a lot about revival.
But I have a question and it is not just rhetoric: What has happened to our worship?
I cannot speak for you, but I want to be among those who worship. I do not want just to be a part of some great ecclesiastical machine where the pastor turns the crank and the machine runs. You know– the pastor loves everybody and everybody loves him. He has to do it. He is paid to do it.
I wish that we might get back to worship again. Then when people come into the church they will instantly sense that they have come among holy people, God’s people. They can testify, “Of a truth God is in this place.” Whatever Happened to Worship?, 9-10,20.
“Lord, ‘I want to be among those who worship.’ I’ve been guilty at times of going through the motions, and I pray that today You might fill me with a brand new sense of genuine worship. Amen.”
I think that at some stage we (and the “we” will need to be defined) have uncoupled communal worship from daily Christian living. Worship has become an event as opposed to a way of life. We live in a pop candy culture where if Sunday worship includes a drum, an electric guitar and a emotional lead voice it’s considered good without any reflection on whether or not the heart of the people are focussed on bring glory, honour and praise to God. I have little faith that much will change in the main sway. Part of the refining of the church I imagine will be a mass falling away of the wishy washy mass gatherings of pseudo Christians.
For myself I pray that Romans 12 will be true of me: “1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, {which is} your spiritual service of worship.”
In most churches I have attended in the last decade, ‘worship’ is performed and viewed, not participated in. If worship is truly for the Lord, put the band at the back of the church (including the song leader), or at least off to the side. Just put the words on an overhead. Ditch the concert/performance hall setup.