September 18, 2014

 

Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:

 

What do we think of when we consider the idea of "worshipping God"? Many of us attend the MLEPC 9:00 a.m. Contact service, in which case we may immediately have a vision of a worship team playing and singing contemporary songs at the front of the sanctuary. Others of us are regulars at the MLEPC 11:15 a.m. Heritage service, at which we feature our Chancel Choir and traditional hymns taken from The Celebration Hymnal. Still others of us are homebound and may watch worship services on television, perhaps featuring large choirs with full orchestras and skilled soloists leading in song.

 

To be sure, all three of these pictures present a portion of worship which I hope both inspires and brings joy. If left only with these three images, however, worship can inadvertently devolve into a spectator event. We can fall into watching the worship team worship. We might find ourselves watching the Chancel Choir worship. We watch TV as a choir and orchestra in another part of the country worships. We become "worship watchers" instead of worshipers. I don't believe that we want this to be the case, and I know based on Scripture that God doesn't intend our worship experience to be that way.

 

How might we expand our understanding of worship so that we more richly engage with God to His glory? A first point is to remind ourselves that when we attend a service here at MLEPC, the entire event is an act of worship. In other words, worship not only includes the musical portions but also the prayer times, the responsive readings, the time of fellowship greeting, the reading of Scripture and its proclamation. Even the time for giving our gifts, tithes, and offerings is integral to our worship. We come to worship from "Good Morning" to "Amen," and from the Prelude through the Postlude.

 

When we look at it this way, we have a greater likelihood of grasping that we ourselves are the worshipers. We pray. We greet our neighbors. We read and think about the Scripture passage. We not only listen to the sermon; we then ask God what He would have us to do about it. We joyfully give our finances as a token of our giving our entire lives. And yes, we sing "hymns and psalms and spiritual songs" (Ephesians 5:19) to the glory of God as the Worship Team or Chanel Choir lead us together into His Presence.

 

When we use this lens, we won't fall prey to the trap of being "worship watchers." And do you know what? We won't even want to; we won't be remotely tempted. Because once we engage in true, deep, heart-felt, mind-stretching worship, we will not want simply to watch. No way! Instead we shall find that we resonate with the writer of Psalm 84 who cries out: How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. . . . For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere!

 

This is the transformation that takes us from spectator worship to spectacular worship. This is the sort of worship we long for every Sunday morning, 9:00 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. here at MLEPC. Come and join us as we together worship our great God and King every week.

 

Pastor Tim

 

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