We’ve all heard the word and undoubtedly we have some image in our minds when we hear this word. Some of us think a large church building on a Sunday morning typically around 10am that meets for an hour. We hear a wonderful pipe organ. We’re sitting in hard wooden pews that are anything but comfortable. While others of us see more of an empty warehouse of sorts with stackable chairs that can be used for many different things. We hear loud music that is played on guitars and drums. Either way that’s really not the point of worship.
I’ve talked before about the what, why, how and even the overall story of worship in previous posts. These are all hopefully helpful thoughts as we approach this idea of worship in a new context of people gathering together in a new start situation. One of the most important things we must do when we look at worship is lose the preconceived ideals of what worship has become and go back to how the first followers of Jesus started to worship. It’s a pretty telling thing. And quite frankly it works!
Back in Acts 2 we see a great event in the life of the people of God called Pentecost. This is the day we celebrate the launch of something that today is called church. Essentially, Pentecost was a day when God filled his people with his Spirit and created a passion in them to not only believe what they heard but also to begin living it out. And the crazy thing is…it worked! Passion is contagious. If you don’t believe me, look at a sporting event. The people are excited/passionate when something happens. Their team comes from behind and the crowd goes wild. An unbelievable play is made and the stands erupt in screams and shouts for happiness. In Acts 2, God demonstrated and made real a come from behind victory that really got his people going.
The disciples, filled with the passion and presence of the Holy Spirit, simply started to share what they saw and heard. They told everyone they came in contact with about the wonders of this man named Jesus, who was much more than just a good dude! They told of his miracles. They shared his times of healing, meeting people’s’ needs and ultimately his death and resurrection. This isn’t just a good guy. This is a normal man who is way more than just a normal man.
And check out what happened when the people of God started to worship God and HIS-story of salvation. Over 3000 people came to believe in Jesus that one day! Then they stuck around and shared it with others. This passion was ridiculous, but what does that mean for us and our worship?
It’s simple. It means that worship is about adhering to the wonders of the person and work of Jesus. God started a movement through his disciples that was based on four basic principles: fellowship, breaking of bread, apostles’ teaching and prayer. Worship is the time we spend in awe of the things of God. It’s when we’re poured into by his amazing grace. This is the prayer part of the disciples’ method of starting the church.
Prayer isn’t just time spent on our knees beside our bed, while that’s certainly part of it. Prayer is a conversation with God about all that he’s done and is doing in our lives. When we gather together for a time of worship, we might sing, pray, listen to a song. The point of this time is to settle ourselves into a posture of hearing all that God is doing in our lives.
Every gathering has an element of prayer and worship. The goal of prayer and worship is that we see our whole lives as a spiritual act of worship. We build community to build relationships with one another. We worship and pray that we might grow in our love for God and all that he’s done. It’s an acknowledgment that without him in our lives, we’d be lost and without hope.
Leave a Reply