Worship

I had lunch with some friends today and we were discussing corporate worship. For all my underground Christian friends I am fully aware that worhsip entails our whole life so please don't be distracted...but this post is specifically about 'singing' worship. As we were discussing the subject it was obvious that we were all desiring to cultivate a community that would, with passion, worship God together.

Because we are not a homogeneous group it is a little difficult for people to be stretched, open, or quick to embrace what could be seen as a slightly different worship style. The classic finger pointing could be from an older generation down (too loud, too fast, etc) but I was fully aware of the criticalness of a younger generation (boring, outdated, etc). So the question that was running through my mind was, "How do you solve this?" It's an honest question that many churches ask but I was reminded of the answer, you can't!

Worship is an expression the body does to proclaim the glory of God. This proclamation is a spiritual issue. If our affections are for the Lord then we desire to give Him praise. During these times worship is powerful because we are either aware of our brokenness and we cry out to God or we are aware of God's riches and grace given to us causing us to cry out to God. Being that you can't make someone be affectionate towards God then how do you lead a community in worship?

I have been a part of all types of services, from traditional to post-modern, where the performance of the worship team has been phenomenal but, frankly, the worship time was completely dead. Sure, the crowd clapped after a song or followed the directions of the leader; "Stand up, Sit down, Let's pray" but there was no joy. So, here's my question: Will an electric guitar with a slight overdrive make younger people want to worship God? Will a well played organ make older people want to worship God? It may make them more tolerable of worship but, surely, it doesn't make them a good worshiper.

The key to being a good worshiper is to actually WANT to worship God. Isn't it fun to worship the Lord when we actually are walking with Him? Isn't it great to cry out to the Lord in our moments of clarity that we are broken and in desperate need of Him? Isn't it amazing to praise our God when we've seen Him move mountains in our life?