worship – the pregame show

it’s saturday night and (i wanna fight? – sorry sir elton) the music line up is set. i’ve run the songs through several times and tested my free praise chords to make sure that everything goes together. now – it’s 'pray and wait for God' time. not always something i’m very good with.

the line up, in case you want to know is: (1) can’t stop praising his name; (2) awake, awake of sleeper; (3) the mighty one of israel; (4) this is my father’s world; (5) how great is our god; and either a reprise (oh – BIG finish time!) of (6) can’t stop praising his name or (6b) amazed – depending on how things are going.

this question was first posed to me by cynthany – why is it that we never end on a fast worship song? why do we always end it in that (wonderful) high, holy quiet? why not try and end it in a moment of celebration? after all – He’s done so much for me (and you too).

as a self-proclaimed (repenting) traditionalist, this question had never crossed my mind – you always end quiet because “that’s the way we end things around here – and God probably likes it that way”.

anyway – she got me thinking that maybe i needed to rethink stuff.

j.c. (not Jesus – but the guy who’s preaching tomorrow in place of p.j. (who is on a much needed vacation)) was a bit concerned about the song selection. generally, i trust j.c. he’s a wealth of information and i took his words to heart. but, i’m still not sure that God always wants to end it “slow”.

the upshot of all this is that I have two ending songs – one back-up and one different. i’m hoping to have the freedom to use the different one and i hope that my church follows and we have a time of high, loud and fast praise. if i’m not feeling the freedom to do it – i have plan. (“a man without a plan – is not a man.” – Nietzsche)

unity

it’s what i want to try and create in my church tomorrow. it’s what God wants from us. the bible is pretty clear about our Lord coming back for his pure, spotless bride (not brides). that means that we have to have unity in the catholic church (catholic meaning universal – not Roman Catholic).

before my motley band of believers can come into unity with other churches – we’re going to need to learn to come into unity between ourselves. that means learned to love each other more perfectly – creating the Christ-bond of selfless love. just as there’s no sin that can separate us from Christ (if we are a believer), there should be no sin or issue that separates us from each other.

recently, God has been teaching me that corporate worship is different than private worship.

in private worship, all that matters is you and God; getting into His presence is up to you.

in corporate worship, what matters is that the church body gets into the presence of God. if we don’t get there together – then we don’t get there. i don’t believe that God is interested in worship leaders who are only interested in getting themselves into His presence. He wants worship leaders to – lead – their church/body into His presence.

what or who is a worship leader? i’ll reference Jesus’ teaching about “who is my neighbor” rather than re-hashing that here. from this we learn that worship leading is not confined to the stage/pulpit area. it’s not even confined to those who can sing or play an instrument. (one day, i’ll tell the story of the greatest worshiper i have ever heard; who can’t sing a lick.)

so – here’s my ‘great idea’. i plan on instructing my church – before p&w starts – to do the following:
1) begin to praise as usual
2) look around the room and begin to lift up their fellow body-members. praising God for His creation of that person; asking God how He feels about them (by the way, God loves them (and you) far more than we can imagine – in case you needed to know that).

now that whole “looking around at other people while worship is going on” is pretty much 180 degrees against most of what i’ve been taught. we’ve taught freedom in our worship by “closing ourselves off” with the Lord; not looking around to see what others are doing. and – while i agree with this to a point – i would propose that times are changing. we’re so caught up in not looking around that maybe we’re missing something. maybe – i’m still not 100% sure.

i am – however – excited to find out.

time for bed – andy