Over the past year I’ve had a growing chorus of conversations with worship pastors, senior pastors, church staff and lay leaders regarding a troubling trend in our houses of worship.  It has many leaders scratching their heads and wondering how to communicate truth which is unwanted and hard to hear.  It’s not a trend relegated to one church or gathering, but seems to be consistent – especially within the notorious Bible-Belt!  It’s born out of apathy and idolatry.  It’s fed by leaders who’ve fostered it into epidemic status by withholding God’s call to obedience before sacrifice.  Those Pastors who’ve courageously addressed it have found a kinship and brotherhood with the prophets of the Old Testament: despised outcast, the black sheep of the church.

Nevertheless, this Sunday our houses of worship will have smatterings of stoic, gloomy, detached “followers of Jesus” who with their arms crossed offer little to no sign of life.  They will sit & stand, write their checks to God, and keep their eyes focused forward.  Their Bibles with them although there is no recognition of it’s power to transform.  They’ll take inventory of things for which they disapprove bearing up arms for later discussion with those who share their misery.  For some with the spiritual gift of discernment and prophecy, it smells of death and deceit.

We’ve redefined worship and invested in a false image of church, and now worship no longer meets our desires, wishes and preferences. 

If you pass among them and are not one of them – the chill of bitterness and divisiveness is alarming.  They are quick to take a pompous stand on principle and tell the rest of the world why it’s bound for a fiery hell.  They will boycott, stomp and shout righteous indignation while devoid of any fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:16-25).  They’ve forgotten we’re all broken and destitute were it not for the grace of God.

Is it any wonder that our churches are dying while our society has rejected this definition of Christianity?  Is this really what God had in mind for the Church?

How far and how deep have we fallen from truth.  When did we ever fall for the lie that this gathering of ragamuffins and sojourners is a celebration of personal desires and wants!  When did we lose our song?  How did we lose our way?

Church leadership will debate the Sunday worship experience – attempting to balance familiar hymns against the new and innovative.  Enormous amounts of time will be spent in extra Biblical exploits with a desire to entice these people to participate.  Blogs will be written arguing the need for more familiarity while others for more innovation to ensure the future.  All the while we play to fleshly desires and feed the baby more sweetened milk…hoping to make him fat and happy.

Should we not look deeper and harder through the lens of indisputable truth?  And the hard truth is this: our hearts are cold.  The Sunday morning worship experience in our gatherings we call “church” has little do with content, style or personalities.  Sadly, the dilemma lies much further and deeper into the spiritual fiber of the western church congregation.

You cannot revive the dead when they don’t know their dead.  And you certainly can’t do it in 1 hour plus on Sunday mornings.

I’ve traveled to parts of the world where redemption can’t be bought and life in Christ is fresh and new.  I’ve stood with believers who have very little other than Jesus.  The glint in the eyes and the passion in the soul will not be quenched.  Before breaking out in song there is no debate on style – only a song.  New, familiar, old or contemporary is not the issue.  Jesus is the issue – salvation the remarkable – grace the unthinkable and worship the inevitable.

Without exception – the heart passionate to know, love and pursue Jesus WILL WORSHIP!

The weekend gathering has less to do with us and so much more to do with a remarkable community of worship based on grace.

A congregation who enters with a song invested in hours of private worship will not be silenced…not by content, style, personalities or preferences.

But let’s take it one step further:

True worship has an obvious prelude and a remarkable lingering. 

The prelude is a song within that is burrowing it’s way out.  It’s a song of joy, praise, love, and gratitude; or authentic brokenness, surrender and repentance.  The lingering is after effect – the continuation empowered by the Spirit; deeper than musical appreciation or emotional high.  It’s found in self sacrificial service surrounded by gentleness, self control, peace, patience, love, kindness and goodness.  Without these Biblical preludes & lingerings…you have a forged and artificial worship.

So – what to do?  That is the question posed so often and I believe finds it’s answer not in complexity but simplicity.  Let me suggest the following – based on God’s Word:

1. Authority – God’s Word is the first and final authority.  Don’t allow any other cultural persuasion to influence you or those you lead!  Teach it unashamedly and allow it’s power to do the work of obedience.
2. Lead – Speak truth on the authority of God’s Word with courage.  You will face adversity from the cultural pharisees within your church.  Stand strong and go in the power of His Spirit…with wisdom and correction.
3. Pray – The power of prayer is undeniable yet untapped!  His house is to be a house of prayer first and foremost.
4. Model – Be a picture of Biblical expressive worship and lead others to embrace it!
5. Repent – cultivate an atmosphere of redemption and forgiveness.  Allow grace to remind the Church she is a broken but beloved bride.
6. Prelude – teach and encourage private worship as a prelude to church gatherings.  Bring your worship with you!
7. Lingerings – confirm the authenticity of worship by testing your fruits and the fruits of those who follow you.

The symptoms are evident and the prognosis is certain death.  The superficial conversations of preference and style based on personalities are killing our churches and silencing our voice of influence.  We no longer look nor behave as God’s beloved bride.

Until we see it as God sees it and call it what it is…our churches will continue to be nothing more than grand palaces of self worship and self gratification.  And the transformational power of the gospel will lie dormant in a world that is desperate for the real deal.

The wonder of worship is found in simplicity.  The subject itself is not difficult or confusing.  The Bible is clear and the commands are apparent – from beginning to end God has defined what’s acceptable to him and life changing for us.

The problem for today’s church – we’ve lost the admiration and reverence for God’s Word; and with it…we no longer marvel in bewilderment at the thought that God would grace us with Himself.

In order to rethink worship – we must first come to terms with the fraudulent nature of the worship we practice.  I don’t intend to take us on a theological journey…which is available with just a google of the word.  But instead, let’s whet our appetite with a taste of the real.  We do know that worship is far more than a song, more than a destination or time.  Worship is more than a contribution of our favorite songs, videos, lighting, moods and feels to create an atmosphere that tends to our preferences.

Our places of worship are not “Super Targets” of the faith…built big and fascinating in order to enchant our senses, gratify our desires and convince ourselves we’ve payed our weekly homage to God.

Every week, worship pastors extend their creative reach in an attempt to find new and innovative ways to convince the church to at least think about God, much less worship Him.  These men and women strain to find just the right elements, just the right moments with just the right balance of new and old, edgy and current.  All the while knowing a segment of these congregants will find fault, will criticize and will demonstrate to a sinful world that the greatest sin is actually being committed in the Church.  This Sunday there will be many a congregation who will pass through doors under which is written – “Ichabod”…the glory has departed.

Christians don’t tell lies they just go to church and sing them. – A.W Tozer

But it doesn’t have to be so!  The journey of worship begins with understanding and releasing.  Henry Ward Beecher said it well: “I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.” 

Worship in it’s purest form is an expression of love; not a brotherly love, or benevolent love…but a Godly agape love that consumes and ravages our will and our desires.

The worship God desires and commands has a starting point.  Think of it as a point of origin – a first step or prerequisite.  Without it you will never, ever arrive.  Without it you will be lost and eventually accept the counterfeit as real.

God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him. He must disclose to us who he is before we can offer him what we are in acceptable worship. The worship of God is always a response to the Word of God. Scripture wonderfully directs and enriches our worship.  John Stott

God is found in solitude and quietness.  The wonder of God is rediscovered in stillness.  The first step of worship is found in recapturing the wonder of His Word.  If you desire to embrace truth – then try these simple steps:

1. Prioritize retreat!  Find a way to daily discover His Word and commit to it.  Develop spiritual discipline and guard it well – knowing the water of your life will become polluted without refreshing at the spring.
2. Choose obedience!  Don’t just read God’s Word but instead view it as life.  It’s not a book of rules and regulations but a novel of grace and soul with incredible power and supernatural authority.  Don’t be a hearer but a doer.
3. 24 hour rules!  I was taught I needed a daily quiet time – which is not a biblical truth.  Instead – the daily journey of worship is found in the little things and the every day moments.  We are called to be awash with God in all moments of every day in every situation.  God is not bound to a 15 minute devotional.  Redeem the throw away moments of your life.
4. Recapture Margin!  We are way too busy and have convinced ourselves it’s normal, good and the American way.  And now we’re passing it to future generations.  Get off the merry go round and cultivate tender moments of stillness and silence before the Lord by adding the value of margin.  Allow yourself some headroom and see what you discover about yourself and the ones you love.
5. Listen!  We do a whole lot of talking…don’t we?  In fact, this world never shuts up.  To fall in love with Jesus and discover a deep worship of Him – you must tune your ears to His voice.  Not only does He speak through His Word – He whispers to your soul.  A worshiper of Jesus knows His voice and follows.  Stillness will re-tune and re-acclimate you to His closeness.

Every journey has a start.  Every book a new chapter.  Every day a new dawn.  And without a deep falling in love with God you will never find the destination of worship.  Once you’re consumed with Him and passionate for nothing less – a whole new universe of wonder is revealed.

But alas, the choice is yours…and the cost is great!  Quite simple really…and yet so missed.  Place your hand on the door and push.  I bet you’ll never go back again.

Several years ago, while on a trip out west, Lisa and I visited a church well known for their worship.  We went with anticipation of a great experience.

We were impressed by the facilities including the general look and feel of the campus.  The worship center had great lighting and impressive staging.  The overall visual experience was well done, even before the first note was played.  But none of this could distract us from the strange feel in the room.  The people were milling around, subdued and almost lethargic.  No sense of anticipation or expectation that God just might show up and bless His people.

Then…the music started.  Immediately – the place came to life with incredible expressions of praise.  The band was amazing and the atmosphere electric.  Until…they stopped.  And just as suddenly as it had come, it was gone.  Snuffed out, things had returned to an empty manufactured feel.  God taught me a lesson that day I’ll never forget.

As worship leaders – we can never lead people where we ourselves do not go.  And – our private worship will be made public…never the other way around.  If our worship is motivated by the song…then it’s not the worship God seeks.  If we feel the spirit rise within us only when the band gets cranked or the lights begin to burn, then we’ve settled for fools gold and found another god for our idol worship.

While speaking to the woman at the well in John 4, Jesus says the true worshipers will worship in TRUTH & in SPIRIT.  If we are not motivated by His truth (His Word) and filled with His Spirit (Holy Spirit), then we simply don’t understand the kind of worship God seeks.  And that kind of worship is found first and foremost in a quiet and reflective time with God.  Relationships are cultivated one on one…there is no substitute. Spurgeon said this about the matter of a private worship, “Why is it that some are often in the place of worship and yet they are not holy? It is because they neglect their closets. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn but they will not go forth into the field to gather it; the fruit hangs on the tree but they will not pluck it; and the water flows at their feet but they’ll not stoop to drink it.”

As musicians, it’s easy to develop a deep love of the song.  Sometimes we say it’s the truth in the song, but mostly if we were honest, we just love music.  Music is the language we speak and the eternal language that goes to the deepest darkest crevices of our hearts.  But this great gift of song can never compare nor compete with the depths of knowing and loving the truth of God and the filling of His Spirit.  I grow weary of meetings with other worship leaders and hearing over and over about the latest greatest song when a zeal for God and testimony of His power is so evidently missing.  Our passions must be anchored in the truth of God and the power of His presence…then the songs will take on new meaning and power.  Way too often the passion for Him is missing; replaced with the business of doing worship and doing “church”.

So let’s change that.  Let’s make a choice to be committed private worshipers who become powerful public worship leaders.  Let’s speak of the wonders of God first and motivate others to grow in truth.  Let’s journey to that place of deep longing to see a move of God.  Let’s become real!

This weekend, allow a song birthed in a sacred moment with God to be the first from your lips Sunday morning.  Allow it to be born deep within you, motivated by a unquenchable fire to know and follow Jesus…no matter the cost.  Then and only then…when you step up to the mic, put on your guitar, your choir robe – you will sense the filling of His Spirit and the sweet unmistakeable presence of The One you have already come to know so well.