Worship...

What does that mean?
I think any more, it has this idea of going to a building for about an hour a week and having an hour of stuff that's split in half with roughly 30 minutes of music and 30 minutes of a message. Do I dare say that one could better "worship" outside of that? Probably not "better" because Scripture is clear in the coming together of the body of Christ. But one can definitely worship outside of that setting, and at times it might even be less distracting. I saw a video this past week that greatly bothered me and got me to thinking about our weekly worship services. It was sort of a mockery of what takes place, but at the same time, a reality check for so many that we protect ourselves so that we are not more focused on that time than we are the people who come to gather at that time.

As I'm typing all of this, God is doing amazing things with our Greenwood Community Bible campus. Two weeks ago we had our first baptism in the back of a pickup truck. It was a very special time. We are currently a portable church that has met in one of the schools that's part of the public school system in Greenwood. Well, this past Sunday I had the opportunity of telling the church congregation that we've purchased a building! It was a huge moment! It was a very exciting and worship filled moment. It's only been 9 months since our launch and we have reason to celebrate. But, the other side of that is that we don't want to focus too much on a building. It's about the people, not the steeple. I've been a part of churches in the past that put way too much influence on the building and not enough of the calling of the body of Christ. Another part of what God is doing is bringing new families. We had 3 baby dedications this past Sunday, with our baby Hallie Jordan Post as one of them. It was a very special Mother's Day service indeed :-)

So, what does that have to do with worship? I think it's easier to "worship" when things are going good. Right now, things are going great. It's a blessing, and it's easy to give thanks for what God is doing. Last night was an awesome night... Kari Jobe and the Desperation Band were here at our Fort Smith campus. It was a time in which I had a real opportunity to worship. What I mean by that was that I didn't have a sermon in the back of my head before I walked up on stage or a concern for how the production worked out and the order of service, etc. It was just simply a time for me to worship... to give back and to absorb Him and to give thanks to Him for what He's done/doing/going to do. It wasn't a time about me. It was a time about Him. Sure, some moments were distracting, but that's reality. I think we live in a cloud if we think that we can be in that state all the time. We aren't called to live that way, as a matter of fact. We are called to minister to people. How can we do that if we are constantly "worshiping?" We can't. Don't get me wrong, we can "Pray without ceasing." But, we also have to take time to go into the trenches and reach out to the world. Now, afterwards we can worship, but not always in the midst of the work. What am I saying? Simply this... worship is complicated because we complicate it. We think it has to be a certain way or that lights have to be a certain shade or guitars have to have a certain sound, etc. When the reality is, we were made to worship. We weren't made to be concerned about the settings for worship, we were simply made to worship. What's the purpose of man? What's my purpose? What's your purpose? The purpose of man is to glorify God. It's not to judge others and the way they worship. It's to worship Him and let Him worry about everyone else. Oh how the burden is lifted! I praise God for our worship teams on our 3 campuses because I feel like for the first time in my life, I can go to one of our campuses every Sunday and it's a lot like the Kari Jobe worship service that we attended last night. The worship is powerful! The music is simply that, music. It's great stuff. It's not a fancy production... it's our way of worship. Our people are real. They have stories that are powerful testimonies of God's work. They worship God on stage because of what He's done/doing in their lives and that moves us to worship Him as well. Our sermons aren't trying to express our own knowledge or trying to persuade someone into something... they are us as teaching pastors expressing our worship to God through His Word in how He has revealed his beautiful truths to us and us, in return, sharing with the people who attend our services.

What are you worshiping lately?

How are you worshiping? When?

Worship Him,
Frankie