By the Book

THE CENTER OF ATTENTION
I am going to open a can of worms here for you to consider. Are there things we are allowed to do or not allowed to do when it comes to our worship services in our churches? Is there a particular "Order of Service" that God has given us to use when it comes to corporate worship? I plan out the worship services for my church every week and I know how easy it is to just follow the same format or to do what we have always done before. I have been challenged to really look hard at what the Bible lays out as guidelines for worship and let me tell you, there are many people who will say emphatically that the Bible condemns this or commands that when it comes to worship and to be honest, I can't see where they come up with half the things they are talking about. It has forced me to look closely for myself what scripture tells us about worship. God does tell us quite a bit about worship but there is no place in the Bible that gives us a nice pat service order to follow.

The Psalms tell us to sing, to play, to dance and to shout to the Lord. John tells us, we must worship God in spirit and in truth. Ephesians say, speak to one another with hymns, psalms and spiritual songs. Colossians adds, teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. I do not see a set order for things but this does give us a check system when it comes to what we do in our services. This gives us a good way to check that what we are doing fits into one of the categories listed here but we must never forget the number one purpose of our worship. God-centered praise!

God will have no other gods before Him. God MUST be the center of our worship, not the musicians, not the pastor, not the choir, not the organist, not the pageantry, not the liturgy... GOD. Every churches worship looks a little different. That does not mean one is right and another one is wrong. What determines what is right is the focus of the service. Is God the center of attention in the service. God is a god of creativity and variety, let's use that creativity and variety to honor Him. Let's be honest, most of the articles and books we see about worship are trying to lay out the "right" way to do worship. They are critical of anything that doesn't fit their thinking. They use scripture to justify things that are not there. If you are not present during the service how can you say it was not something that was a pleasing aroma to God. You can't! It's time we spend our energy on planning God-centered praise services and less time on judging the validity of another churches worship. It is easy to criticize when your sit on the sidelines during the game.

SCRIPTURE READING
Psalm 33:2-4, Psalm 150, John 4:22-24, Ephesians 5:18-20, Colossians 3:15-17

BOTTOM LINE
Whoever or Whatever is the center of attention is what you are worshipping.