Elevator

After teaching about worship for twenty years in Latin America as a missionary and over ten years in Seminary, I am more convinced than ever that there is a greater desire now to worship God than I have seen in years past. As great as the desire is, there seems to be more confusion as to what is biblical worship and even more in actually worshiping. Worship has been confused with buildings, clothing, music, and a host of other things.

I have well over 100 hundred books on worship and worship related topics in my personal library in my office and more seem to be published every week. With all this information about worship, one would think that there would be less confusion rather than more. If information alone could transform our worship, then we should have long since seen a revolution in our church services. But information is only part of the solution. Learning how to apply what we know may be the biggest challenge we face.

One of the key issues is not so much the amount of content available about worship, but how to worship. Over the years I have asked scores of groups how they knew that they had had a worship experience and the answers have been literally all over the map. If we are not sure what biblical worship is, we certainly will never know if we are following what Scripture teaches. More than likely, we will be basing our judgement of the comparison of others, other groups, or even just our on feelings to measure our worship. My sincere desire is to help push back all the preconceived notions and give some practical helps as we gather together for corporate worship. There are a multitude of resources available for personal spiritual growth and I would encourage their use, however the focus of this text is personal preparation for corporate worship.

When we gather as the Body of Christ we center our focus on Him, the Author and Perfecter of our faith and we do so as the Body of Christ, not just as individuals. Many look for what may be happening on the platform to determine their worship experience, but I believe one of the keys that has been missing is the what is not happening in the pew. Blame is placed so easily on the preacher, the music, and so many other issues, without having examined to see if the Bride of Christ is ready to meet her groom. Regardless of who may be on the platform, only God’s Spirit can transform those moments together into what may be called “worship,” and there are some definite things that the Body must do so that worship may occur. What are they? That’s the heart of this book: Worship HeartCries