As a church leader I am passionate about the participation of our members in our corporate gathering times and desire to see this grow. The apostle Paul was clearly passionate about what he describes as body ministry ( Rom 12, 1 Cor 12) or the involvement of church members in worship.  As I look into the Bible what else do I see that can inspire and shape our worship today?

 

In Romans 8:15 Pauls says that by the Spirit we cry, ‘Abba Father, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.’ At the centre of worship we find child-like intimacy, the cry and desire of our inmost soul. It is the love of God shed abroad into our hearts that captivates the soul with the wonders of the character of God.  Our hearts melt like wax that has been placed near to a fire. It is the desire to be satisfied with nothing less than God, to wrestle like Jacob, that we might have hearts that say, ‘show me your glory’

 

Worship can easily become man dependent focused to PA, instruments, songs. Paul was passionate about believers receiving the Spirit by faith (Gal 3:2) and the Spirit giving us freedom of worship in Christ. A prophetic word for us as a church in 2010 was ‘tear up the rule book, there are no rules, you are not a cricket club’. This is quite radical and challenging, do we have structures that hinder the freedom of the Spirit and if we do, are we willing to tear them up so to speak? 

 

(1 Cor 14:1) I have an eagerness to see spiritual gifts growing in the life of our church. However, gifts are just that – they are gifts! They are not based on merit; neither do they give us any special status. We should not hold them so tightly that we somehow squeeze a value from them that challenges the truth that it is in Christ alone that we are made acceptable to God

 

No one can genuinely say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit. Worship begins to arise as we hear God’s word and respond to it. Any practise that acts as a substitute for God’s word, the preaching of his word will only result in shallow worship. There will be lots of ‘froth but little content’. Preaching of God’s word should cause a gravitational pull that centres our lives, our hurts and pains, our happiness and hopes around the all surpassing truth that Jesus is Lord. Unbelieving hearts will be changed and people will be added to the church community