Hello everyone...
I'm in the process of reading John Piper's book, "Brothers, We Are Not Professionals" and I have to say it is one of the best books I've read! The book's target audience is pastors, but I think all of us laypeople have much to learn from it as well.
The following is from the chapter on worship:
"Nothing keeps God at the center of worship like the Biblical conviction that the essence of worship is deep, heartfelt satisfaction in Him and the conviction that the pursuit of that satisfaction is why we are together...If the inward essence of worship is satisfaction in God, then worship can't be a means to anything else. You simply can't say to God, I want to be satisfied in You so that I can have something else. Because that would mean you are not really satisfied in God but in something else. And that would dishonor God, not worship Him.
But in fact for thousands of people and pastors, I fear, the event of "worship" on Sunday morning is conceived of as a means to accomplish something other than worship. We "worship" to raise money; we "worship" to attract crowds; we "worship" to hearl human hurts; we "worship" to recruit workers; we "worship" to improve church morale. We "worship" to give talented musicians an opportunity to fulfill their calling...[i]n all of this we bear witness that we are confused about what true worship is..."
Wow...isn't that convicting?
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2 comments:
I don't really understand this. Could you please explain this further for me? How do we "worship" to do all these things? Thanks. :-)
Val
Hey! Sorry I did not respond to your post sooner Val...I think you know me well enough to know timeliness is not one of my strengths!! But i'm working on it! lol
Anyhow, what Piper is saying is that too often we (the church) we worship as a means to an end...whereas worship IS the ends we seek!
So how does the church treat it as something different? Maybe, and I'm sure you've seen this often...I have...a church puts on a big production, whether drama, music, or whatever FOR THE PURPOSE of attracting people...it's showy so that people will say "wow", it's entertaining so people will be made to feel happy...it's anything BUT aimed directly at our audience of ONE (as the song goes). So this does not mean there is something inherently wrong with good music..that would be ludicrous...but when the audience stops being God and God alone then we have made worship anything and everything EXCEPT worship of our Lord and Savior.
I hope this makes sense...if not let me know and I'll provide you with a more thoughtful response than the one I can do here during my break!
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