Five Ways We Can Engage in a Worship Service

I heard a story once about a pastor who made his deacons sit for an hour in a local bar. They all felt uncomfortable in that environment, and they squirmed the whole time they were there. When the hour ended and they were leaving, one of the deacons asked the pastor what that was all about.

“I just wanted you to know what it’s like for some people to come to church on Sunday morning.”

When we worship together on Sunday mornings, we are gathering with the people of God to celebrate the goodness of God. The things we do in a typical Sunday morning worship service are things most people never get to do in any other context, and they provide an opportunity for us to engage with God and His people.

1. We sing together. If you grew up in church, you grew up singing together with the people of God. But most people have little or no experience singing with others. Where else do people gather to sing together? If you’re not in music education or some sort of community choir, you may never sing together with other people.
 
But not all who sing in church will worship as they sing. Here is where our hearts can make things so confusing. I can (and sometimes do) sing with divided attention. It takes a measure of mental discipline to focus my attention on the Savior who is so exalted in the lyrics.

From the opening prelude to the closing song and postlude, the music in a worship service is intended not to provide a “worship experience” but to usher the congregation into the Presence of the Almighty. The gathering of God’s people provides us with the opportunity to sing the praises of the One whose glory is so great that if we were silent, the rocks would cry out in worship, the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.
 
2. We listen to a man pray out loud. At some point near the middle of the worship service, one of the leaders of the fellowship walks up to the podium and prays out loud while everyone else listens. What is happening here?

For some, not much. This is admittedly the easiest place for people to tune out. Some people who have been in church for years have mastered the art of listening with half an ear while their mind wanders, having trained themselves to listen for the verbal cues that the prayer is drawing to a close (usually something about “Jesus’ name”).

But if our hearts are engaged, the man praying out loud is praying on our behalf, and we are following him and agreeing with him as he prays. In corporate prayer, we are praying together with the man who leads us in prayer.

3. We listen to a man talk. We call the music portion of the service “worship,” as opposed to the other main portion of the service, the sermon. But this is a category error. We can and should worship as we listen to the sermon as well. This is admittedly the most difficult part of a worship service for many people, especially for children. Listening to someone speak for a half hour can be mentally taxing, but there is more to listening to a sermon than merely hearing someone speak.

What does it mean to worship God as I listen to the sermon? It means listening not just with my ears, not just with my mind, but with my heart as well. I listen for the voice of God speaking through His Word to His people. I listen not just to comprehend but also to obey.

Because this sort of listening is driven by what goes on in the heart and mind, two men can sit side by side during the sermon and appear to be doing the same thing even though they are doing very different things. They are both hearing the same words being spoken, yet one is worshiping as he listens while the other regards the whole matter as mere transfer of information. Both can say truthfully that they heard the sermon, but one listened to a man talk for half an hour while the other listened worshipfully and heard the voice of God in His Word.

4. We sometimes dunk people in water. To an outsider, this may be the oddest thing we do on Sundays, but it is an ancient Christian practice. Baptism is one of two ceremonies Christ ordained for His church. In baptism, we are celebrating the baptismal candidate’s public proclamation that she has repented of her sin and turned to put her faith in Christ.

The dunking is ancient Christian practice, a kind of visual demonstration of dying to our old way of life and rising with Christ to new life.

5. We occasionally eat tiny wafers and drink a sip of grape juice. This also must seem odd to someone not familiar with Christian worship. This is the other ancient ceremony instituted by Christ Himself. Once a month we pause after the sermon to remember the sacrifice of Jesus with symbolic elements representing His broken body (the wafer) and spilled blood (the juice). This monthly practice provides the space for us to examine our own hearts and give thanks to God for what He has given us in Christ.

The problem is that we can do all these things without engaging our hearts in worship. An outsider in attendance at one of our services would not know who is worshiping and who is merely going through the motions, but the One who reads our hearts knows where our mind and imagination go in that one hour on Sunday morning. He knows whether our heart is in it.

For His sake and because we love Him, when we gather on Sunday, let’s open our hearts and minds to the work of the Spirit and the Word, and let’s worship Him with our entire being.

Persevere,
Paul Pyle
Pastor of Discipleship