Preparing to Worship
Photo by NATHAN MULLET on Unsplash
I started reading stories of revival four years ago during a season of pastoral self-reflection. Although I had served the Church for 17 years, I knew something was missing. An oft-referenced confession in my journal at the time went something like, “I’m well versed in how to grow a church but I have no idea how to grow the church in the power of the Spirit.” I wanted (and still want) to be a part of an undeniable movement of the Holy Spirit that transforms communities for generations. And I happen to believe that God longs for this too.
There are stories in our collective history when the heavens were parted and God gifted humankind with his manifest presence. In these stories, God’s presence arrived as an un-programmed but certainly NOT unwelcome guest. It was as if God’s revival presence showed up simply as an act of God’s mercy. It was not humanly choreographed, but oh what a sweet dance it was!
This sweet gift of God’s manifest presence is what I crave each and every time the Church gathers for worship. Life is too difficult to survive a week without a communal encounter with heaven.
There are moments in worship where I have felt the closeness of God’s presence. When that happens, it feels as if everyone who showed up for worship was desperate to connect with God. God’s presence felt sweet. Silence and song. Sermons and Scripture. All of it a banquet of the Lord for hungry people. The gathered were active and participatory and preaching felt like an overflow of God’s goodness!
And there are other moments where the exact same liturgy, the same sermon, the same songs, etc. were “done” and yet God felt distant, the people were asleep and preaching felt like digging for water in a desert. What changed?
We gather in our worship planning meetings after both these encounters and ask, “God, where were you and how can it happen again?” By the end of the meeting, we are left either holding onto hopeful formulas or left scratching our heads at God’s mysteriousness. Have you been there? Are you longing for an undeniable move of the Spirit and left holding the tension between revival/encounter being a mysterious gift from God and sensing some human action that would welcome/restrict said gift?
Holding this tension is the work of faithful Christian shepherding. Heck, it’s actually the work of faithful Christian discipleship. God partners with us in the inbreaking of His Kingdom.
So if the revival presence of God is a gift, and we humans cannot manufacture an awakening, then what are we to do when planning/leading/presiding in worship leadership AND in preparing/attending/participating in congregational worship?
First let’s deal with a few assumptions:
God wants to meet with His people. From Genesis 1, Exodus 25:8, John 1:14, John 14:23, all the way to Revelation 21:3 we read about God’s desire to dwell with God’s people.
Sometimes God’s presence is felt and sometimes it is not. Yet in revivals there is always an undeniable presence of the Almighty that is experienced in undeniable ways. In the Hebrides revival, for example, God’s presence was experienced in one town in signs and wonders and in another town in deep conviction of sin (without signs and wonders). In all cases, the community could not deny the manifest presence of God.
The role of worship leadership is to create space for people to connect with God through liturgy, songs, space, silence, sacraments, etc. Each of these shapes us and they create a container through which we encounter a risen Christ and allow us to worship God when we leave the congregational gathering.
In Scripture, whenever the presence of God is made known, people are changed. Darkness flees and new territory is taken for God.
If my assumptions are true, then what we do when we gather matters. As a pastor who is tasked with providing spiritual authority and oversight to the congregational worship, here is what our work should encompass for both those ‘leading’ and those ‘attending’:
1. Confession - The Holy Spirit is holy and as such, sin minimizes the work the Spirit wants to do in worship. It is good practice to confess known sin to God and one another prior to inviting the congregation to worship or gathering in worship. Acts 3:19-20 promises that confession gives birth to times of refreshing from God’s presence.
Invitation to Practice: Start your morning in worship with a personal time of confession with Jesus and/or with your trusted small group. Be honest. Receive God’s refreshing grace.
2. Anticipation - When we take the bread/cup of communion we feast with the present presence of God as well as anticipate the eschatological banquet. When we come into worship we hold God to His promise that when 2 or 3 gather in his name, he will be with them. When I hear of stories of revival happening today in the world people say things like, “The difference between those places and the U.S. is expectation. People come to worship expecting God to be present.” What we anticipate, we pursue!
Invitation to Practice: Write out a one sentence prayer of faith before you gather/lead. Where do you expect God to show up in your life through this time of worship
3. Preparation & Faithfulness
PREPARATION: God chooses to work with humankind in the renewal of all things. So we humbly work diligently at the various crafts (music, liturgy, sermon-writing, etc.). We rehearse and prepare diligently because we are graciously invited to participate with God. We get good sleep the night before and read the sermon text or a devotion before we leave for worship. It demands a worthy investment. We give all that we can.
FAITHFULNESS: At the end of the day, we are human. And more than performance or perfection, God invites us to be faithful. We acknowledge that we could never practice enough to deserve God’s love. We could never pray enough to be fully prepared. But we show up and in each worship service we stand and offer to God our faithful, limited selves.
Invitation to Practice: Before gathering for worship, prepare your heart through prayer, singing or silence. If you are serving within the worship time, schedule your week such that you can offer the Lord all that you can.
4. Invitational - It is not the job of those leading to perform but instead to invite those gathered to receive from, respond to and participate with God’s re-creation. The posture, words and liturgy are such that all are invited to participate as both an act of worship in the gathering and as a model for life’s response to God’s grace. Those gathered are hungry to join in the songs of the saints, to give generously, to respond enthusiastically because God is present in their praise!
Invitation to Practice: If leading, review your language, ensuring an invitational tone. If joining in worship, take advantage of every opportunity to respond to God. Maybe start clapping when you “get to” give an offering!
5. Prayerful - Part of our preparation is to pray individually and collectively. Call upon God to release water onto the dry land. Declare God’s Truth over God’s people. Invite God to search your hearts as you lead others. Pray for divine manifestations to be known before, during and after the gathering.
Invitation to Practice: For those leading - It is best to know the Father’s throne room before inviting others into it. For those gathering - pray for God’s presence for all; pray for the preachers; pray for worship to happen when everyone goes to work the next day.
6. Surrendering Results - Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3, “So neither he who plants, nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” Again, revival is a gift from God’s hand. If we lift up God, He will draw people to himself. In God’s time. In God’s way. For God’s purposes.
Invitation to Practice: Pray the Lord’s Prayer as you leave the gathered community, surrendering yourself and your church to the will of God.
The book of Acts begins with 120 followers of Jesus gathered together waiting on the Lord. And one day, “suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind…” (Acts 2:2) As we posture our lives and our church communities for awakening, may God grant us strength to be faithful, holiness in our being, community in our waiting, and joyful celebration of the inbreaking of heaven.