A View to Worship
2010-01-31
HAHA what am i doing here! i have many many chapters of pharmaco and COFM to read. who even comes here now!! =)
but nevertheless, in my bid to make one small voice heard in the rabble of this world, here goes;
A View to Worship
My journey of serving God and His people in the Music Sub-ministry of the Wesley Youth Ministry has been a short, yet life-changing one to say the least. Within these 7 years, my heart’s passion has changed according to the plans that God had for my own spiritual growth and lessons He’d wanted to teach me – from enthusiastically learning skills and serving Him with a childlike faith and abandon, to prayerfully leading people into communion with God in song, to rediscovering the heart of ministry as I learnt first-hand what it meant to serve God’s people and not just the Sunday Service.
Even as I reluctantly prepare to leave this team that I’ve come to love and cherish, I feel God has placed one last burden on my heart: that is to share the lessons I’ve learnt and beliefs God has deposited in my heart over these years. I find it is no easy task to put thoughts and concepts into words. Nevertheless, this is my attempt at doing so.
The term ‘worship’ is one that is used so often in our conversations and discussions as Church-goers that it is becoming an increasingly difficult task for anyone to truly get down to the bottom of what worship – as intended by God; really means and entails. Firstly, it is something that I feel has been taken for granted; many young Christians do not see the need to get deep into what seems to be a pointless discussion on semantics. Secondly, the word ‘worship’ has become a sort of jargon in Church today; there are many connotations and assumptions to wade through and it is easy to get both lost and confused. Lastly, even if a meaningful discussion does get going, there’re so many different (often strong) opinions and viewpoints that everyone ends up having to agree to disagree.
The situation seems to run totally contrary to how important pursuing authentic worship is to the Christian. While salvation is the foundation of the Christian faith (life-changing and important as such), it remains merely one aspect of the Christian faith out of many others. Salvation and His numerous promises are God’s part of the covenant relationship we each have entered into with Him, but worship is our side of that same covenant relationship. Some preachers excessively call their congregation’s attention to God’s promises and blessings, neglecting our side of the covenant. The key here is thus balance; we must always remember that we are saved solely by the love of Jesus and grace of the Father, we must appropriate God’s blessings and promises to fight spiritual battles for His kingdom, but we also must remember that as covenant children we have a lofty and indispensible calling to fulfil – the calling of true worship.
To know accurately the meaning of worship is even more important to us; members of the music ministry. This is because in my eyes, the music ministry in our church is the primary propagator of a false impression of what worship is. Although I can confidently say most of the leaders of these music ministries actually do know what worshipping God actually means, our actions on stage, the words we say, our very notion of what ‘a good worship’ is – all these have pervaded our congregations to form lasting impressions: that worship is song, that worship is emotion, and that worship ends after the doxology is sung. This may be both sad and alarming, but I believe the converse is also true. If the music ministry accurately understands what true worship entails, as well as comprehends the function and goal of the music it plays, that is when the call it issues for deeper and authentic worship will powerfully pervade the congregation and spark the ongoing revival in both lives and church that worship is supposed to bring.
Therefore, before I start off with my take on things, I encourage and implore each of us to discover what worship truly is. Not just a theoretical knowing, but a deep understanding that resonates in your soul. Think about what worship really is and what it is not; do not be content with a model Sunday school answer that we can give when the topic somehow arises. Search deep into the Word, read widely on the subject, and pray earnestly. If you already have discovered it, then constantly search for what is God’s desire for your personal act of worship in each season of your life, and in obeying so run the race which has been set before us; not the race of life, but the pursuit of godliness and of the call that God has for each of us.
___comme une belle chanson
11:28 p.m.