The Lord has blessed us with a lot of visitors at church who are not just coming once. They are hanging around. It is great to get to meet new people and worship the Lord with them. The increased attendance, however, presents some challenges for us. The specific challenge I want to address with you is the tight space and noise level during our Sunday morning worship service.
When we meet together on the Lord's Day, we are meeting to worship the most holy and awesome God who created heaven and earth and all that in them is. In thinking of worship, I often think of that scene in the book of Isaiah with the mighty creatures who stand before the Lord day and night in awe and reverence. Even those mighty angels did not dare take the worship of the Lord lightly. Or, I think of Moses taking his sandals off in reverence for the holiness of the presence of the Lord. The prophet Habakkuk speaks of the seriousness of worship when he says, "… the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him" (Hab. 2:20).
We begin, then, addressing the challenge of noise and space by realizing that our worship gathering is the most solemn, most important, and most awesome thing we do every week. As we realize the weightiness of where we are and what we are doing, our minds and bodies are able to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.
What are things we can do to deal with the tight space and noise challenge and improve our worship experience? Let me suggest a few things:
- Pray – pray during the week for yourself, for your children, for me, for those who will be sitting around you, for Nick and Darin as they lead the responsive reading, for Emily as she plays the piano;
- Arrive early – if you are providentially hindered from attending Sunday school, try to arrive at church with enough time to find a good seat; then, pray before the service;
- Refrain from carrying conversations with people around you during the service – every little noise gets magnified by other little noises;
- Silence your phone – not just on vibrating, but on silence; I guarantee you that the world will survive your being off the grid for an hour;
- Find a place to sit on the pews – it is much more comfortable than the chairs in the back; it would be great if we could fill out all the pews, even the first one;
- Take care of all your needs before the announcements – water, bathroom, coffee, etc.;
- Avoid getting up and walking around during the worship service – our morning worship service is usually an hour long, so nobody will die of thirst, hunger, or bladder explosion;
- If you have children, train them to participate in all elements of worship – your children will not behave during the worship service if they are not expected to behave at all times; therefore, the best way to train your children for worship on Sunday is to be consistent with them at home during the other seven days;
- If your child needs a spanking because they are being disobedient, don't be embarrassed; take him out, apply the means of grace to his backside, and bring him back to worship his Lord (just a reminder that if you tell them to be quiet and they don't follow your instruction, they are disobeying you);
- If you don't have children, be patient with those who do and are trying to help their little ones worship their Lord;
- Use the offertory time (that's when we take the offering) also to offer prayers instead of catching up on the week with those around you;
- Make the effort to engage actively in every element during the worship service (pray, sing, read, give, listen, and eat).
These tips will help us love the Lord with all our being as we worship him and will help us love our neighbors as ourselves as we create an environment that is conducive to serious, weighty, awesome, reverent worship.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-word-from-pastor-tito-worshiping-lord.html
Put the internet to work for you.
| |
| Recommended for you |
