Ben Jolliffe was preaching, so I was totally relaxed.
I was with my boy, singing the opening song and loving life.
The band kicked in to the song, "God of Wonders."
(A song our church calls "an old classic.")
Justin, upon hearing just the first notes of the song, looks right up at me and says,
"We haven't sung this in long time."
He stood with me, eyes fixed on the words. Totally engaged with the moment.
My heart was overflowing.
I was reminded of many of the reasons why we love the worship service at Connections:
- Our God is the God of wonders.
- The early church gathered publicly for worship on the first day of the week, what we call Sunday. The bible teaches us to do the same.
- The early church sang songs, read scriptures, taught the people gathered, offered prayers and gave their offerings (money) to God. We do the same.
- It is a good thing to start our week in worship- it teaches us disciple and creates a rhythm of life that centers on God.
- The rhythm is that we start our week with the people of God and renew our first love with the Father through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
- This starting point sets the tone for the next seven days: we commit each day to God, our hearts sing his praise as we read His word and engage in prayer. We offer all of our lives to God to love Him. We love our neighbors as our self.
He's learning the songs of praise to God.
He's learning the stories of God in the scriptures.
He sees people, lots of people, gathered together in God's name.
It's "normal" for him to go to worship, and he is participating in worship.
Some well-intentioned folks in the church will say that gathering in worship on the LORD's day is passe. It's boring, it's irrelivant, it doesn't make sense to "outsiders," it's a model that has lost it's vitality and "usefulness." We should focus on home gatherings and service.
Maybe they are just going to dead and Spirit-less gatherings.
Why do we have to focus on one and neglect the other?
Is our vision really that small?
When I drive by the theatre during the week, the parking lot is packed with folks looking to hear and see a great story. We, the church, have the GREATEST story ever.
I see people with their ipods listening to music that speaks to their heart. We have some incredible musicians that will help lift your heart to God.
I see people eager to meet up with their friends, their people, to get a taste of community. We have people ready to gather in intimate community.
I see people wasting money, throwing it away at stupid, or worse, harmful, things. We offer people the change to invest in eternity, to partner with God and extend his mission, and demonstrate his justice and mercy in the world.
Doing and being the mission of God is a 24/7 calling in life that must encompass our lives entirely. All of life must be claimed and redeemed for His glory.
Therefore, doing church, in public worship, as the people of God, to begin our week, has always been, and will always be, ESSENTIAL to the missional church of our triune God.
Hey, can I get an "amen" on this one?
Amen!!!
ReplyDeleteYou can get a huge amen on this one. Your statement about money really hits home for me: not the financial aspect of it, but rather the "unfocused use of resources" idea, which ties in with what Ben said... we try so hard to fill our lives with useless, meaningless, wasteful things, and miss the most important things that, really, cost us so little and yet are worth so much. Like having the opportunity to worship publicly. Having the opportunity to have BOTH public worship and private worship.
ReplyDeleteHow true it is that we wastefully spend our resources... our time, our money, our thoughts, our efforts, our work, and our free time... on meaningless, or as you said stupid or harmful, things. And yet, in an effort to fill the voids in our life, we do it anyway, and miss some of the really great opportunities staring us right in the face every week.