Posts Tagged ‘worship’

A banjo and mandolin led worship at our church this morning. Everyone likes a banjo and mandolin, hearing them played results in one smiling. Regardless of their fun nature, the congregation struggled to truly get into the worship, having difficulties connecting emotionally through worship music. Our traditional worship revolves around a musically talented team with contemporary songs, played with skill and passion. Nothing particular separates our worship team from others, but what made today different? Half the team playing were from our weekly worship team, only with a banjo and mandolin added.

Is this a problem?  Should different worship pose a problem in worship?  I don’t know if I want to answer this question. For a split second a crazy thought came into my mind. What if the church intended to challenge the congregation today?

The type of worship experienced in every church often becomes a marker, a label describing the church. Musical worship represents a small and honestly, minor theological role in the church. Yet musical worship is one of the major debates today and a prominent reason someone picks one church over another. But what if worship was no longer a label, but an activity not only to commune with God, but to look past the worldly aspect of music to simply seeing God? What if it is a spiritual exercise, forcing us to find God in areas we like, or dislike? I don’t know how much I would like such an experience. Forcing me out of my comfort zone is not why I go to church! But a thought lingers in my mind, what if it should be?

Simple church.  This is another name for house church.  Taking time to process my experiences at house church, I being to further understand myself in new ways.  As I write this, a simple smile grows across my face.  God has used the family I found at simple church to break down the barriers I have made and bring joy to this hardened heart.

This heart has longed for something for quite some time now, but I have just begun to understand what it longed for.  Each week I find myself anxiously anticipating simple church.  What is simple church to me?  Intimacy, vulnerability, community, family.  I have discovered what my heart longed for, a family.  In saying this I do not seek to insult my biological family, but rather to express the love I found through a family of believers.

Experiencing a level of intimacy with fellow believers brings forth a level of healing, stripping away the walls I created to protect myself.  All my life I have sought to find a community where I lay all my dirty, sinful self before others while rather than receiving resentment or being judged, I am offered comfort, love and acceptance.  In this family of believers, we openly share our struggles, issues and sins with one another to allow the Lord to transform us.  The greatest blessing in this lies in where the transformation and healing comes from; it arises from the Lord while he willingly chooses to use the family of believers, us, to heal our brother’s or sister’s wounds.

What is church?  This is a question I have sought understanding from the Lord in the recently weeks.  After experiencing simple church, I begin to see the purpose of church in a new light.  Church is a place to be real with one another, a safe place to reveal the need for help in our lives, a place to love, weep and prayer for one another.

I feel my generation is seeking this model of church.  We don’t seek to have a perfect music team, or a funny, witty preacher; we seek a place to reveal our faults and failures to others experiencing the same while longing after the Lord together.  This aspect of church no longer exists in many church today.  Replacing this atmosphere is one of talented musicians and well delivered sermons while people long to be known, not performed to.  In no way am I attacking any churches, but I feel this model lacks what my hearts needs and longs for.  Some people find it in small groups or discipleship groups, but I never did for one reason or another.  But it has been in a house, in a living room filled with stories, prayers and tears it has been found.

My heart longs for these things: to be honest, to admit I’m in need, to ask others and God for help, to seek the Lord together.  Returning to my original question, what is church?  Church is experiencing the love and transformational power of the Lord in an intimate community of believers.  I admit I cannot stand alone in my walk with the Lord.  It is through simple church I found others strives for God while grasping the hand of another.  Intimate community.  This is church for me.

The past few years have been marked by many new experiences, including multiple moves throughout the country.  If any of you have done such a thing, you understand the interesting aspect of “church hopping” after arriving in a new city.  Going to different church every week until discovers one that “strikes your fancy.”  In the past six months I have moved twice to different states; currently I began participating in my second round of “church hopping.”

The process of finding a church appears to be simple.  Visit different churches each week, often suggested by others, while critiquing the building, service, music, preaching, prayers, etc.  I am being quite facetious but in reality this description is fairly accurate.  We ask ourselves certain questions.  Do I like the type of music being played?  Do I see the musicians as musicians or people attempting to point me to God?  Does the preacher’s style appeal to me?  Was I moved by the message?  Did the church feel like a community or just people meeting in a building?

Leaving church this morning, the Lord began to formulate certain questions in my mind.  What is church?  What is its true purpose?  Are we meant to meet in a church building, sing empty songs in unison, then hear a person preach a four point sermon about the bible?  (I’m being facetious yet again).  This is the traditional sense of church portrayed throughout the US, but it often feels empty to me.  Isn’t the church’s primary purpose to commune with God alongside other believers, to hear and experience the Lord’s moving?  The early church met together in people’s houses to talk about what the Lord did the previous week, to pray and break bread together.  Early church meant being intimate and vulnerable with one’s brothers and sisters.  Sharing one’s struggles, triumphs, questions and fears about the Lord, what people are truly struggling with.

I know I’ve shattered or offended many people’s view of church in a few short paragraphs and this is not my intention.  Yet these are questions the Lord continues to bring to my mind, one’s I am struggling to answer.  What should I look for in a new church home?  These questions will not be answered through a few days of seeking. Many more blogs will be written on this topic in the coming weeks.  If you have any thoughts, you would be blessing me to leave them as a comment as I seek to discover God’s purpose for the church?  Who knows, maybe the Lord may lead me to some answers through one of you…