Everybody seems to have an opinion about worship. Even me. It seems that these opinions are almost always about what the church does when it gathers together to worship, which realistically is a limited part of what God has to say about worship.
That does not mean it is unimportant. What God's family does when it gathers in His name is always important. However it wasn't so important that God gave us an account of a worship time at church in New Testament times. One would be forgiven for thinking that there must be a section of scripture somewhere that defines in detail what Christians are to do when they gather as the church to worship the Father. It's not there. I have looked.
Despite this we all still have our opinions. Why is that? I think it is because it is a shared experience and we think we have the right to speak strongly if we are expected to participate in the group experience of worship. I could be wrong and even if I am I know I am not wrong about the fact that almost everyone seems justified in putting their foot down about what is done in worship when they start to feel uncomfortable.
How do we deal with this? Does God have anything to say about how we relate to each other in our public gatherings? Yes He does and that's the subject of another post one day.
In a worship time at church there is a laundry list of things that can tick you off. The crazy hat that sister so and so is wearing. The nervous ticks of the song leader. The shrill voice of one of the sopranos. The fact that brother so and so isn't wearing a tie. The fact that brother so and so is wearing a tie. The crying child. The preacher's pretentiousness. The list is endless. Even if among all that laundry list of annoyances we come to a united theological position we are still ticked off. I believe that answer is not in agreeing on everything about public worship.
Let me suggest that the answer is in agreeing on one thing. Biblically that one thing is that we love God and we therefore worship Him. In our worship we should be focusing on the one true and living God who loves us to the extreme. My belief is that if we focus on the one we worship then we will find that all those things that we find personally annoying will suddenly not seem so important. We will develop a godly perspective. It's hard not to look at others as we worship but we must work a lot harder on looking at the one we worship and encourage the rest of the family to do the same.
There's a lot more to study about this but these are some thoughts that hit me today. Who knows why? That's rhetorical so don't tell me. Raise your voice to God. He loves you and wants to hear from you,
