Viewing entries tagged
worship
Do you ever wonder why God gave us cravings for potato chips, chocolate, and bacon? There’s no indication that the members of the Trinity were sitting around in eternity past sipping wine or grilling steaks. Our hunger for food and our need for it to sustain us is part of God’s design for humanity. As you consider what the Bible teaches, a picture emerges of God’s purpose in food and how we should relate to it.
The grain offering of Leviticus teaches us how to respond to the love and forgiveness of God. It pictures an ancient act of devotion that shows how God delights in sincere expressions of love, no matter how simple.
The shift began during the pandemic. At first, we all celebrated the technology that enabled us to watch sermons online. But subtly we began to think that what we were doing online was the same as what we used to do in person. It was a natural conclusion to make. Let’s talk about what’s wrong with it.
Dealing with the closure of our church ministries has been a difficult process for everyone. For some of you, it’s probably been the longest period that you’ve gone without attending a church service since you were born. For others without such established patterns of church attendance, the separation is different. As we try to navigate through the unchartered pandemic waters that we’re facing, it’s important that we continue to listen to each other and seek God’s will for our next steps. To help in that, I wanted to share the results of our latest survey about returning to in-person worship services along with some of my own thoughts.
If there’s a stereotype about church, it’s of an old creaky building with an organ playing softly while people scurry about with hushed voices. There was a good reason for the stereotype. The church can be a place of meditative prayer and the serene mood creates an atmosphere for this. But that’s not the whole story. This week, I was reading about the first introduction of music to the worship of God in ancient Israel. And it changed some of my preconceptions about God, music and the worship He desires. Let me explain.
Last week, I gave an update on the Wonder Worship Conference and some of the lessons we should take away from the contemporary worship movement. But the learning doesn’t just go one way. There were many lessons I learned that might be more associated with our heritage in traditional worship. What became clear to me was that we need to listen to one another and be shaped by God’s Word as we seek to grow in expressions of corporate worship. Let me share what I learned.
On Saturday, I attended the Wonder Worship Conference along with seven members of our worship ministry. For me, it was an opportunity to reflect on what God is doing in this area of the church. This week, I’d like to look at some of the lessons people should learn from the contemporary worship movement. Next week, I’ll address some of the lessons I feel people should learn from what I’ll call the traditional worship stream. My hope is that as people on both sides of this discussion are able to listen to each other in light of Scripture, our preferences will give way to greater unity in how we approach this topic. So, let’s start with what you should learn from the contemporary worship movement even if you don’t like guitars and drums.
People often comment on whether they enjoyed the worship on a Sunday morning. But have you ever stopped to consider whether God enjoyed it? How would you even know whether God enjoyed it? Here are three questions to ask of your worship this Sunday.
Most people read the Bible for practical principles and spiritual encouragement. When you come to a section like the plagues of Egypt, you find neither. How are you supposed to read sections like this and what can you learn from them?
A recent LifeWay Research survey reveals that almost half of all self-identified Christians believe that God accepts the worship of all religions. Are they right? And if not, why not?
