Key thougts so far...
1) Is worship supposed to be "great"?
2) Worship should be for, about, and with God.
3) The church desperately needs great worship gatherings.
And now, I am as convinced of this as anything I've already written: our communities need worship to be great. Even if they don't know it yet.
My 17 year old daughter, Catherine, is a competitive dancer. Her team almost always places in the top 2 or 3 and she's quite accustomed to winning. There's a culture of greatness built into her team by her coach. When the Champions Elite All-Star Dance Team takes the stage, it is moving, exciting, dynamic, and... yep, great.
My 15 year old daughter, Emily, is an aspiring photographer. She has started interning with a local photography company that seems to do the vast majority of senior picture photo shoots in our county. The pictures are fresh, clear, beautiful, sometimes downright moving, and... yep, great.
The newest restaurant to open in our town (Frankfort, KY) is Buffalo Wild Wings. The building is striking. The food is worth telling your friends about. The atmosphere is fun. The service is--at least often enough--really good. The BW3 experience is... yep, great.
That's normal in my little town. But the same could be said about a pro sports team, UK men's basketball, and a Mumford and Sons concert.
Probably more than any time in history, the bar of "normal" in our world is set very, very high. We expect "great" for our kids, our schools, our retailers, and many of our workplaces are even geared that way.
When folks come to your church for the first time, it speaks volumes when they encounter poor planning, poor preparation, or poor presentation. In fact, to the guest, it may communicate something tragic, though unintended, about God.
Stay with me for a minute. If you were marketing a good product, wouldn't you want to present your best case?
We sure don't have to market God, but we do communicate much about Him by the appearance of our space, the quality of our music, and the polish of our spoken word.
It is tragic to think we may forfeit the opportunity to be heard because we say things in ways that are poorly spoken.
Those in your city and mine need worship to be great so they will hear about our great God.
...and I am eager to help every church I can, in whatever way I can, have great worship. For more about how I may be able to serve your chuch as a "Worship Coach," shoot me an email at RodEEllis@aol.com or text/call my cell at 502.229.0114.
Great post Rod! I believe that way to many people focus more on the greatness in their personal and professional life but for some reason feel that greatness in their Spiritual life is different. God is great and He must be magnified, always! We must give Him our best!
ReplyDeleteGreg C.
Thank you, Greg!
DeleteAlso, for worship to be great, the Holy Spirit must be allowed in the door by those attending. If He is not present, worship is missing a lot for those people which is also noticed by others.
ReplyDeleteSharon
Sharon, so important for us to remember that "the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires." And it "will not return void." I sometimes have a hard time letting the Holy Spirit do His work and not trying to hard to get people to open themselves. If we rightly proclaim God's Word, the Spirit will do His work!
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