Bearing Fruit: Passionate Worship

Sometimes little things make big changes in our heart. Sometimes changing how we see things can change how we go about our lives. We are now in the second week of our sermon series on the Five Fruitful practices of vital congregations. Last week we discovered that fruitful congregations work towards being not just friendly, but radically hospitable. This week we be looking at what worship looks like in vital congregations.

Worship is part of who we are as a community of believers. In Acts chapter 2, we find the early church in its infancy, and it is described like this: “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teachings and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and prayer. Everyone was filled with the awe at the many wanders and signs performed by the apostles…Every day they they continued to meet together in the the temple courts….And the Lord added to their numbers daily.” The worship of the early church was passionate. It did exactly what worship is supposed to do - it connected those early believers to God and to one another. They gathered together to worship in homes and at the temple courts. They did life together in such a way that they glorified God and grew closer to God! 

What words would you use to describe our worship toady? Would passionate be one of them? Does our experience of worship connect us deeply to God and to one another? If we are honest the answer probably is sometimes. Sometimes our experience of worship deeply moves us, but other times we feel like we are just going through the motions - not really expecting God to show up and move in a mighty way. We don’t expect to encounter God during our worship experience.

My predecessor at the last parish I served was training to be a military chaplain. Part of his training included tools around prayer. He left hanging in the parish office a beautiful reminder that prayer is part of our expecting God. It was a large sign asking if you prayed for worship today. Have we prayed, brothers and sisters, for this worship experience? Have we prayed that we experience God? Have we prayed that we connect with one another out of love? Because if we don’t care enough to pray about it, then how do we expect it to happen? The sign in the office went on to encourage everyone to arrive at worship a few minutes earlier then usual to intentionally bring their hearts before the Lord and pray for God’s Spirit to move in this place. Are we passionate enough about our worship experience to pray for it? Do we actively prepare ourselves for worship?

What the passage from Acts reminds us is that worship is both personal and corporate. While the believers certainly came together to worship at the temple, they also worship in each others homes. They prayed and listened to the teachings of the apostles and broke bread together. Bishop Schanse reminds us that “Worship describes those times we gather deliberately seeking to encounter God in Christ”. Worship isn’t just what we do together on Sunday morning, its what we do through the week as well. It is how we nourish our souls. 

We recently celebrate Christmas and the season of Advent that proceeded. Every Advent I have a friend that gathers people in his home and he and his wife lead Advent worship services. He and his wife have been doing this since college; wherever they live they invite people to come around the Advent wreath to share in a time of devotions and song. They pray for one another. This doesn't replace their experience of worship on Sunday morning - but it does enhance it. They are nourishing their spirits throughout the week, not just on Sunday mornings. 

Song writer and musician Chris Tomlin writes in one of his songs that “You and I are made to worship”. Brothers and sisters, we are made to worship the living God! Repeatedly in Exodus we find that God freed the Israelites, bringing them out of captivity in Egypt so they may worship God. But sometimes we forget that we are made to worship God  and instead think worship is about us and having our personal needs met. Schanse writes, “People are not at worship to observe and evaluate but to receive what God offers and offer their best in response.” Sometimes we let our mind think of imperfections instead of focusing them towards God and our passionate devotion to God. We need to look beyond what we want, to see what God is doing!

We can also fall into the trap of thinking that worship is simply an obligation, which can suck the joy and passion right out of our experience together. Worship is where we come together, and echo the words of psalm 100: “We shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness; come before the Lord with song.” When we come together there is a method to how we do things, called liturgy, and each part of the liturgy from the prelude to the benediction has a purpose. But when we get so set is how we do things, instead of why we do them, we’ve missed the point. 

John Wesley was known for preaching in a variety of places, most notably outdoors. But John was raised to be an Anglican priest. He knew the liturgy and wanted people to be part of the Anglican church. He started the Methodists as a revival movement for the church, not its own entity. But along the way he had to adapt to doing things differently, to meeting the needs of the people, even if it wasn’t his choice, so that people who did not yet know Christ could connect with him deeply. 

Schanse contines, “God uses worship to transform lives, heal wounded souls, renew hope, shape decisions, provoke change, inspire compassion, and bind people to one another.” Praise God for worship, friends! Praise God for places where we come together and learn about Christ and how to live our our faith and find our hearts strangely warmed. The question is do we believe that worship can change us? And do we believe that we can worship God every day?

People are searching for communities where they can worship God. Where they can praise God. Its not about what style of worship we have or what order things happen in the worship service. Its about being a place where hearts are warm for God and our hands stretch out to love our neighbors. Its not about being a place where every desire of what we want is met or a place where we are entertained - it about being a place where we are transformed.

In my last parish, a small group studied the Five Fruitful Practices, and because of it changed some things in worship. While we still offered prayer time as usual where people raised their joys and concerns, we added a time in each service for annointing. If people had upcoming drs appointments, surgeries, or concerns they could come forward and be prayed over by the church. The first few weeks no one came, but then for months after people would often come to the alter to be annointed. It changed the spirit of our worship together. We became a people who expected God to show up and who diligently showed concern for one another. 

That was what worked for one congregation in a specific place with a specific need. All around the nation and the world people are looking for faith communities with worship experiences that show that they love God, love one another, are for new people coming in and have tangible expressions of their faith in Christ. Let us be known as one of the communities. Let us be a place that passionately worships the living God!