March 3 Devotion
Please read Psalm 150 and John 4: 22-24
What is the proper setting for worship?
That is an issue that stimulates discussion among church people.
What is the right kind of music for worship? Should we sing only hymns? Praise songs? Can worship styles be blended? Is a pipe organ the only musical instrument fitting for true worship? Is it disrespectful to have electric guitars and drum sets in church? Can we really praise God in Johnson Memorial United Methodist Church with electric guitars and drums?
Last year, our church’s youth group combined with another youth group to co-sponsor JesusQuest, which featured a music group called Portal. Portal provided enthusiastic worship and praise music that affected the youth and many of the adults present at the Saturday evening service and again on Sunday morning. Because I am one of the volunteer youth leaders, and I was lay leader at the time, I got quite a lot of feedback from members of the congregation. I am thankful that people could feel free to share their opinions with me.
Many people shared with me that it was the most exciting and meaningful worship service they had ever attended in our sanctuary. On the other hand, some people were offended by the loud music and the scene of people moving out of their pews, clapping, even forming circles of worshipers swaying and rocking to the music arm in arm.
Consider these words of the psalmist:
Psalm 150
Hallelujah!
Praise God in his holy house of worship,
praise him under the open skies;
Praise him for his acts of power,
praise him for his magnificent greatness;
Praise with a blast on the trumpet,
praise by strumming soft strings;
Praise him with castanets and dance,
praise him with banjo and flute;
Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum,
praise him with fiddles and mandolin.
Let every living, breathing creature praise God!
Hallelujah!
Sounds like he had been to JesusQuest!
Perhaps the style of music is is not the important thing; our praise and worship must be God-centered, and not self-centered..
What kind of building do we need for worship? Does God permit worship in rooms that don’t have fixed pews and stained glass? Listen to what Jesus said about the proper place for worship:
But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.
It is not the building; it is not the music. God wants our hearts. I think we can learn to worship by watching the youth.
Dear God: Inspire us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Help us to be people who are simply and honestly ourselves before you in our worship, so that we may worship you out of our very beings, our spirits, and our true selves in adoration. Amen.
Jeff Taylor
posted by Kim @ 6:36 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Excellent points in your devotional!! Worship should be something that we can't wait to walk through those doors and experience. We should also leave with a feeling that says we can't wait to come back and do it again. The Sunday morning you referred to with the band certainly had energy and spirit, which made it a wonderful experience for anyone willing to try something out of the "norm". A service that is upbeat and has a spiritual energy is certainly one that makes me want to come back for more. I'd like to see that in every service.
The heart of worship, I think, is that God and we arrive at the same place. In worship we recognize that God is God, and we are not. Unless we are ready to defend the idea that God is located only in one place, then worship can happen anywhere. I don't think God cares if we praise Him on an organ, a cello or a harmonica, as long as we speak from our hearts. If the worship is authentic, then it can even be silent. If the worship is from our spirit, then it can be as loud as a marching band. We can be sitting in a pew, standing in a field or sitting on the floor with children.
Acceptance of the way someone else worships - whether it is youth, children or even me -- is a way to show our love. That's what worship is about.
Amen to Jeff, and Amen to Trish.
Ditto to the "Amen" for Jeff and Trish from Kim. I, too, believe that God accepts our worship, regardless of its form, as long as it is offered as an expression of our love and adoration for Him.
Kim, I appreciate your mentioning that worship can also be silent - How wonderful (and frightening) that He knows our innermost thoughts and feelings - and still loves and accepts us.
Great devotion, Jeff! Thank you!
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