The Ministry of Worship Pastor Lee Washington Reid Temple AME Church

The Priority of Worship Worship is a congregation’s most important practice. In worship we encounter God’s gracious presence and come face to face with the frailty, goodness, and potential of our humanity. In worship we are comforted, corrected, forgiven, healed, challenged and sometimes even disturbed by the divine and one another. In worship we are morally formed and sent by God into the world to serve. The mysterious uncontrollable work of the Spirit is at the heart of all genuine worship.

The Congregation At Worship Worship is the most consistent and powerful way a congregation experiences God in its life together. Sometimes these transforming experiences defy easy explanation. This is because worship can somehow push our sensibilities with a profound and often mysterious kind of force. Worship also provides a kind of sense making for our life. It is able to create a patterned framework by which we come to understand what God is doing in our midst. Since congregational identity plays an important role in developing vision, worship naturally strengthens vision because identity is routinely formed by the weekly content and pattern of worship.

Developing A Worship Atmosphere The atmosphere that surrounds supernatural demonstrations is a good atmosphere for worship. The greater the atmosphere for worship the greater the atmosphere to receive revelation of God’s nature. Since worship is a response to the presence of God, the basic prerequisite for worship is to get into the presence of God. Worship is the expression to God of our concept of God. Worship originates when we tell God what we know and think about Him.

What Happens When We Worship? Worship releases the worshiper. Worship releases revelation to us; it releases us to God and releases God to us. Worship empowers our lives. In true worship we find calling purpose and power. Worship is a powerful experience of liberation awaiting those who honor the Word of God. Worship doesn’t eradicate problems but worship resurrects us from the deadness of our problems. Worship allows us to know the joy of what God is doing through us as we follow His directions.

Worship and Service We are saved to worship and then we serve. Workers in the church may or may not be worshipers because they substitute actions for expressions of the attitudes. Service is not wrong but it is not a substitute for what God requires. God requires our worship any substitute receives judgment because God curses all substitutes with regard to Him. Real worship is an expression of a feeling we have about Jesus. We can work and serve without this feeling but you can’t worship without it.

Worship Allows Jesus to Function in our Lives Few of us realize how important praise and worship are in releasing God to function in our lives. As we worship Jesus for who He is our worship releases Him to become involved in areas of our lives. Worship releases revelation to us; it releases us to God; worship is seeking the wisdom and power of God to direct life’s work. If you are more interested in what you can get versus what you can give you will forever live a defeated life when it comes to worship. Worship begins with a relationship with Jesus first and response to the needs that is second.

The Challenge of Prioritizing Personal Worship The dilemma many pastors and laity face has to do with prioritizing private worship time with other pressing matters on a schedule. We should sincerely give God private devotional time for bible reading and prayer. This is not merely bringing our laundry list to God or operating when we are in a particular panic or crisis mode. One of the reasons we are challenged in this area is because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We allow ourselves to become physically drained to give time to things of God that really matter. We believe that people can’t live without us as pastors.

Poor Planning and Prioritizing for Prayer The choices that we make often for meetings where nothing absolutely of significance is happening robs us of our time with God. Pastor’s lives are often life soap operas they move from one sequel of drama to another all of which amounts to the sum total of nothing. Certain persons and situations have no problems intruding themselves into our lives and demanding we give them the time and attention they feel they deserve. We must have the maturity and sense to decided what is legitimate and what is not and prioritize our time and energy accordingly.

Prioritizing Congregational Worship The Lord understood the importance of prioritizing worship and that is the reason he instructed the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father which is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The worship and praise of the believing community must be passionate and powerful. The mission, outreach, growth of the church, and spread of the gospel began with passionate worship. Great worship and passionate spirit filled praise serves as the foundation and seedbed of the church’s life mission, outreach and programming.

Resources Preaching as Worship: An Integrative Approach to Formation In Your Church, Quicke, Michael J. Empowered by Praise: How God Responds When You Reach in His Glory, Youssef, Michael The Effective Praise and Worship Leader, Kenoly, Ron

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