Vibrant worship - Vibrant Church (Part 3)

At the heart of a vibrant church is a people characterized by vibrant worship

If you have not been walking this journey of discussing some of the aspects to the path of becoming a vibrant worshipper that is part of the heart of a vibrant church, perhaps it might be useful to you to look at the two previous posts and subsequent discussion comments on this blog-sermon-teaching thing so that you come on the page with where I am at today.

My whole journey recently as a worshipper has been driven in part by a question that sits at the back of my mind constantly: "Is there more than this?"

Part of discovering whether there is more is looking back at scripture and at the testimony of those gone before us to determine whether their experiences show a deeper level of connection with God and the acceptance of his work in their lives... which we have done over the past several weeks. The other is to look at obstacles and barriers that we have knowingly or unknowingly placed in between God and us.

Here are some of the barriers that I have found in my life as I journey in discovering a deeper place of worship... maybe you might relate to some or all of them.

Dishonesty
In speaking about worship being a lifestyle, I mentioned the fact that if we stand before God and offer up to him a sacrifice of worship and praise and yet our lives do not embody that sacrifice, our "worship" is reduced to flattery and mocks us. Your life has to line up with your words and the only way that happens is by keeping short records with God through repentance, through your relationship with him, and through your fellowship with believers like yourself who challenge you and spur you on in growth with Jesus. Please do not catch yourself in worship one day singing "you're all I want" and yet your life says anything but... 1 Samuel 16: 17.

We have settled for so little
Some of you know that for a long time I struggled with the prayer for people that led to a "slaying in the spirit" which manifests as falling backwards as somebody lays their hands on you. Partly because I was once forcefully pushed to the ground, but also as I grew up in Christianity, it seemed like a very uni-dimensional expression of the power of the holy Spirit. All around me, it seemed that all the intercessors and ministers were interested in was making sure that you hit the floor... I do not know what it was like for you, but it certainly felt like that for me. My skepticism was further exacerbated by the TV evangelists that made their way into my living room via my TV screen.

The same argument could be made about the worship services that I have attended over the years. The worship leaders, facilitators, and pastors had settled either for NOTHING happening in their services lest the boat is rocked too much, or a specific response (or list of responses) to worship. Worship had not happened until A, B, C, and D had been physically seen. Some people had gone so far as to arrogantly reduce worship to a genre of music that they loved without which worship had not happened... didn't you know that the only way to connect with God is through a power ballad?

We’ve come up with rules and regulations, which are fittingly called by many of us, a box, and not realized that God far supercedes our limited vision and tradition-prone nature. We actually live in a culture full of expression, art, poetry, and music that reflect the incredible creativity of the God of the universe. The ways in which God touches his people and reveals himself to them in worship cannot be reduced to a preset list of things that we have become comfortable with in our denomination and to approach worship individually or corporately with this attitude is to rob ourselves of the vast expanse of the riches of what God can do. Any wonder that our worship becomes programmed, stagnant and non-vibrant?

Authentic relationship
Is it possible that some of us did not have an authentic relationship with God in the first place? Perhaps it is one that we simply inherited by being brought into this earth in a christian home... but not really one that we have found for ourselves...

Could it be that we've been sucked into the culture of christianity so long that we've began to confuse religiosity, christian subculture, and christianese with an authentic relationship with Jesus?

Fear
Those of us that have walked with God and perhaps walked away from him may be very much aware about how being in his presence exposes all in us. Not that he cannot see it right now because nothing is hidden from him... but just like Isaiah in the 6th chapter of his book, we may find ourselves really aware of our uncleanness. Obviously if your relationship with him is anything but healthy, feeling exposed before him - the estranged lover of your soul - ignites fear and this may cause us to hold back from pressing in to his presence or leading those that we have been charged to lead.

It is possible that some of us do not know what will happen if we were to allow ourselves to completely, unashamedly worship and enter into God's presence. It is a very human response to the unknown... and truth be told, there are not too many good reports of what might happen... it always seems to dissolve into chaos and cacophony. Not a very popular thing in our reserved canadian culture, eh?

If we are completely honest, many of us are also very afraid of what the person in our house listening to us worship or the person in the pew sitting next to us, or looking at us on stage might think. What happens is that we then project this fear of what people might think on to the people that we lead in worship and we choke whatever God might have in store for us because everybody spends more time focusing on outward appearances than on connecting with God. I have come to realize more and more that the enemy has used this fear or apprehension to maximum effect in many of our lives and we need to break free of it in Jesus name.

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Removing the restraints that cause us to be dispassionate worshippers reluctant to experience the presence of God individually and corporately is key in transforming us into the vibrant worshippers that lie at the heart of a vibrant church.

So I say it again for the millionth time: At the heart of a vibrant church is a people characterized by vibrant worship. A person that truly comes in contact with Jesus has no option but to be radically transformed – the bible is FULL of examples of this – and realizing this has made me even more convinced that “Connecting people with Jesus” has to become the mission of the worship facilitation teams - the choir, the singers, the band, and the production team.

As we we journey forward together and as we look to God for vision and direction, lets all come before him with a slate that is wiped clean and allow him to take us on a wonderful journey of experiencing his presence and power. I have a strong sense that Woodvale is supposed to grow into a church or a community that is a wonderful representation of what unrestrained, uncontained worship is to be and I hope that for many of us, this journey starts today.