I’ve been reading a book by Bob Russell and he’s been pointing out key principles for the church.
The chapter I’m on is about worship. He says that the primary reason for attending church should be to worship God – not to be entertained, or to critique whoever/whatever or to ‘enjoy’ the service.
“Sometimes, we evaluate a worship service like it’s a performance to be rated. ‘Did you like the song she sang?’ ‘That was a great illustration.’ ‘He’s very funny.’ ‘The skit was entertaining.’ I thought the message today was about a seven on a scale of one to ten.'”
Tim Kelly said, “Worship is taking our affection off our idols (and these are not necessarily statues and pictures) and putting it on God.”
He tells us to ask 3 primary questions about corporate worship:
1. Does our worship honor God?
2. Does it inspire, uplift, and transform the worshipper?
3. Is it powerful enough to draw the unchurched to an encounter with Jesus?
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2, Message)
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