Early in our marriage I gave my wife a terrific anniversary gift: a rain gauge. At least I thought it was a great gift. Susan, after all, is a farmer’s daughter and keeps close watch on the weather. I envisioned her delight and nostalgia while tracking our back yard precipitation. I congratulated myself on my creativity.
Guess what? Susan was not impressed: “A rain gauge—for our anniversary?!” The rain gauge is now a family joke, a classic example of a gift enjoyed by the giver but not the receiver.
One word I hear a lot these days is “authentic,” as in “we seek authentic worship.” Usually this means we’re trying to create an experience that helps worshipers feel something. Nothing wrong with that, but if our focus is only on our experience, we may be giving God a rain gauge.
Are we offering in worship a gift we enjoy and figuring God will like it?
A real gift, real worship, means knowing what’s important to The Receiver. Real worship involves at least three questions:
1. Are we worshiping the real God? (Not ourselves or something we’ve created.)
2. Is the participation of the people real? (Not a charade or mere ritual.)
3. Is the response real? (After encountering God, do people serve him?)
It’s nice if we enjoy the gift we offer God, but the ultimate question is: does he enjoy receiving it? That’s real worship
A question I hear continually from pastors is “How can we introduce changes into our worship services without inciting rebellion?” Writer Sally Morgenthaler offers one secret to successful innovation: clarify what’s NOT changing. She writes:
“When congregations think about changing their worship service(s), they usually start by asking, ‘What are we going to change?’ and ‘How are we going to change it?’ Those are fair and logical questions.
“Yet because of their focus on the future, they do not represent the healthiest beginning point. As strange as it may sound, the first principle of healthy worship change is to ask, ‘What aren’t we going to change?’ In other words, what are our nonnegotiables, those elements that make worship ‘worship’?
“Change is hard enough. If assurances are given early on that, regardless of style or format, all worship services will continue to be Christian and biblical—that they will be faithful to your congregation’s rich worship heritage—any latent fears about services mutating into some ‘alien non-worship species’ will be diffused from the start!
“Before you even utter the word ‘change,’ unify your congregation around a biblical core of worship nonnegotiables. At the very least, Christian worship should be …
- God-directed
- Christ-centered
- Active rather than passive (as Robert Webber has observed, ‘Worship is not something done to us or for us, but by us.’)”
On that foundation rest worship’s Five E’s:
Esteem God for who God is and what God has done, especially in Jesus Christ (any form of praise, honor, thanksgiving)
Expound the Word (hymns, songs, message, Scripture readings, creeds)
Examine our hearts and lives as a result of encountering God’s presence (conviction, confession, repentance, receiving God’s forgiveness, Lord’s Table)
Entreat God’s aid and blessing for others, for ourselves (prayer)
Enjoy God’s presence and benefits.
This will keep us from offering God a rain gauge.
Marshall Shelley is editor of Leadership.
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