How Much Does Your Worship Service Weight?


The way we understand the contexts of worship can cause issues within the church and can most certainly cause division.  We all bring different upbringings, denominations and styles with us wherever we go to worship whether we believe that or not. With that being said most of our problems do not begin or end with any of these in particular.

But I do believe the issue where division comes and is brought into our worship services are when a one hour worship service is our only encounter with God's presence. This issues brings a burden on a worship service that it simply cannot carry.  When this is the case we become way more demanding of that gathering and completely divisive. For instance song selection is a much larger issue if Sunday morning is my sole sacred hour with God.  I will be much more picky because a decision I disagree with or don't particularly agree with robs me of my intimacy with God. In the same way if during the gathering a friend pulls me aside needing prayer.  This person has now pulled me away from the Holy of Holies. Everything about the worship gathering becomes sacred and if it's done poorly or not to my taste, it's not just a matter of preference or opinion it feels more like heresy to us.

By contrast, if the gathering is about building up and encouraging the church, then a song I don't like presents and opportunity to love and encourage others whose taste differ from mine. And likewise a needy friend needing prayer is now an opportunity for me to participate in the work of the church, listening, praying and building them up. Also, distractions, errors or cringe moments in the service aren't disasters because worship continues throughout my wee; Jesus is still on the throne and I can worship Him and join Him in worship any time I want.

The beauty of this is that we worship the Father with and through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. Through this the Gospel transforms all of life into a sacred space because Christ lives and resides in us and we dwell with Him. This alone frees us from expecting too much from a worship gathering and at the same times compels us to gather and encourage one another.

I am always comforted by the fact that the Maker of heaven and earth is always pleased with us because of Jesus. And worship done humbly in Jesus' name is received with joy by the Father.  We do not need to fear our acceptability or lack of it.  We need to only trust in Jesus as we worship.

Thoughts and some content from Rhythms of Grace by Mike Cosper

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