I grew up in a church where worship was vibrant and meaningful. Sunday mornings were a little more formal, but Sunday evenings were more relaxed and casual with a good bit more singing. Testimonies were common in the evening service where people would give a report of how God had helped or blessed them recently.
These testimonies were often expressed with great creativity and passion. Significant joy would be expressed over the way God had intervened in their life to solve a problem, meet a need or answer a prayer. Some had a unique ability to tell a story with great suspense – even cultivating humor. Occasionally the congregation’s response would be with applause and a chorus of ‘Amens’!
The congregation clearly had favorite hymns or gospel songs. Even as a child, I observed that certain songs were highly likely to create a deeply spiritual response. These times were frequently described as moments when the Spirit fell on the people. The congregation would sing with passion and enthusiasm! Full attention was brought to the worship of God! Even when I was very young, I was sensitive to these times and knew that something supernatural was going on. Some songs that had great potential to evoke this response were:
·
“It
Is Well With My Soul”
·
“And
Can It Be”
·
“The
Wonderful Grace of Jesus”
·
“Marvelous
Grace of Our Loving Lord”
As the years passed, I went to college, married, attended seminary and then entered the ministry. Being a twenty-three year old pastor was a challenge. But gradually, I gained experience and soon started to see kingdom growth in the churches that I served.
Eventually, I learned new language for what I had experienced so often in my childhood. It was largely initiated by a book I read titled EXPERIENCING GOD, by Henry Blackaby.
What I had experienced as a child/youth growing up in my home church were simply incidents of experiencing the presence of God! He drew near to His people – often initiated by the creativity, sensitivity and passion of His people!
I learned that my role as pastor was to plan and prepare in such a way that we would hopefully be enabled to experience His presence frequently in our worship. This in no way implies that we could or would manipulate God! Rather, It meant trying to create an environment of sincerity, deep meaning and worship that would somehow open a divine portal that would allow us to sense the presence of the Divine One!
This became central to my planning for worship, preaching and involvement of others in the leadership of our worship!
While leading the Free Methodist Community Church in New Middletown, Ohio, we received an odd request from an organization that was conducting a survey of growing churches across America. After deliberating on their request to have our people fill out a 10-minute survey DURING WORSHIP, we agreed to participate. Part of our motivation was that we would receive a complete report of our people’s responses along with an analysis of these responses.
In spite of the awkwardness, our people cooperated on the designated Sunday and the forms were packaged up and mailed the next day. Weeks later, our Ministry Council received the results and poured over them with great interest!
We gained so much insight from this report and reviewed it repeatedly over the next year.
The one thing that pleased me most was the fact
that a large majority of our people reported that they EXPERIENCED THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN WORSHIP either regularly or
frequently!
This became nearly our sole purpose for times when our people met for worship. How could we plan and prepare in ways that would de-emphasize any one person or group of people – but, instead, keep the focus on God and His consummate goodness!
OBVIOUSLY, at times we were more effective at this than others times. But our goal remained the same!
For six years, I served as the Lead
Associate pastor of the Cornerstone Church in Akron, Ohio, under the leadership
of Pastor Brenda Young. The church had
doubled in size by the time I arrived on the scene, and would double again in
the next six years!
There is no way that I can describe this church adequately in a brief form! It involved:
·
New
converts EVERY WEEK!
·
Three
packed out services every Sunday!
·
Powerful,
educational, need-meeting preaching!
·
Dynamic
prayer ministry!
·
Focused
discipleship opportunities – with dynamic, dedicated leaders!
·
Massive,
highly organized lay leadership!
You get the picture – right?
Brenda and I had frequent new attenders approach us and report that they couldn’t stop crying throughout the service. Repeatedly we had the privilege of explaining to them that what they were experiencing was the PRESENCE OF GOD!
After four verses giving detailed instructions for how the priests should sacrifice a bull and a goat, I ran across these words in chapter 9:
[Moses speaking to
Aaron – the high priest – and his sons]
Offer all these things to the LORD, because the LORD will appear to you today.
THAT CAUGHT MY INTEREST!
Then it immediately became boring again as the people were instructed to bring their sacrifices, prepare them properly and – with the help of the priests – offer them to the Lord! This consumes seventeen verses!!!!!!!!
But then “Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them.” [v.22].
Then Moses and Aaron went into the Meeting Tent!!!!!
Then they came out and blessed the people, and the LORD”S glory came to all the
people.
Fire came out from the
LORD and burned up the burnt offering and fat on the altar.
When the people saw
this, they shouted with joy and bowed facedown on the ground.
[vs. 23-24]
____________________________
WOW! WOW! I’m thinking that nobody ever forgot THAT day! What a memorable experience of the presence of God!
____________________________
I wish I could end this differently, but I have to admit that I don’t experience the presence of God very often anymore.
One of the most disappointing things for me when I attend worship is when we are asked to sing songs that we don’t know! Singing is one of the most engaging ways for me to enter into the vibrant worship of my God! I’ve noticed that more hands are raised – in praise to God - while singing, than at any other time during worship. What does that tell us?
When I can’t sing [because I don’t know the song], I am deprived of the opportunity to worship! Needless to say, this frustrates me!
In New Middletown, we introduced new music through offertories, special songs, and pre-service recordings for weeks before we ever asked the people to sing it in worship! And we never introduced more than one new song at a time! This allowed the congregation opportunity to be familiar with the song before being asked to sing it.
With music being so crucial to the effectiveness of worship, there is no room for ‘performers’ to ‘show off’ their skill and ability! Worship teams can be very effective in facilitating meaningful worship, IF THEY MAINTAIN A HUMBLE SPIRIT AND SERVANT ATTITUDE!
Worship is about PARTICIPATION not PERFORMANCE!
_______________________________
There’s SO MUCH MORE THAT I COULD SAY HERE, but I must limit myelf to keep this from becoming a book!
Another important factor to helping people to experience the presence of God is by allowing them an opportunity to respond!
My ‘growing-up-church’ encouraged altar prayer! Everyone knew that you could go to pray at the altar at any time during worship. If you did go to the altar to pray, there was a high likelihood that someone would come and offer to pray with you.
ALSO – after the message, there was almost always an opportunity given to respond to what we just heard! Typically, this response was signaled by a raised hand [with all eyes closed and no one looking around], or by coming forward to kneel [or stand] at the altar [where someone – perhaps even the pastor would come and pray with you].
It’s easy to notice that many churches are being built today with NO ALTAR! What does that scream?
Why bother preaching if there’s no call to change? In so many churches that I’ve attended, the sermon is delivered and then the offering is taken. WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES THAT COMMUNICATE? Common sense seems to have gone out the window!
I hope you realize that there are so many other things we could discuss regarding experiencing GOD in worship:
·
The order for worship: three songs, announcements, prayer,
the message, another song and the benediction!
Where is the creativity that is so marvelously illustrated in creation
by our AWESOME GOD?
·
Lay participation: In some churches the pastor
does just about everything – except for the music. What about the gifts, passions and ability of
our people? Don’t they have something to
offer to the leadership of worship?
·
Efficient technology: How many times have you been unable to sing
in worship because the words aren’t on the screen when you need them? Make no mistake about it – anger and
frustration are the response to this problem!
·
A message that is well-prepared and engaging: This is NOT a Bible
study time. It is a planned,
prayed-over, carefully and creatively constructed message designed to educate
and challenge people to follow Jesus more faithfully! Being boring is unacceptable!
This is obviously a topic that I am passionate about. There is so much more that could be said.
BOTTOM LINE:
People
need to experience the presence of God regularly! Churches and pastors need to prepare with
great focus and effort to make the worship experience something that meets
people at their points of greatest need!
needs
questions
problems
anxieties
brokenness
frustrations
anger
disappointments
sorrow
grief
pain…
an amazing facility
a talented worship leader
an awesome worship team
a gifted speaker
This place is for meeting and experiencing a loving God! He cares about YOU and wants to walk with you through this life and into the next!
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