"Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing.
Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations."
--Psalm 100, NRSV
Worship is who we are, it is what we do. We are called to be a people who worship the Lord. If you think about it, it is the focus that separates us from all of the other organizations in the world. Lots of organizations and community groups do good things. Lots of groups seek to make positive differences in their communities. Only the Church gathers to worship. Worship changes who we are. Worship recenters and changes how we do what we do. Worship gives us an interpretive lens through which to view the world.
"God uses worship to transform lives, heal wounded souls, renew hope, shape decisions, provoke change, inspire compassion, and bind people to one another. God through Christ actively seeks relationship to us through worship. ...Through worship, God pardons sin, restores relationships, and changes lives. In a mindset of expectancy worshipers discover that God wants a relationship with them and seeks to say something through the time together." *
Several years ago circumstances required that we take a good look at our worship services here at Union Grove. At that time we had two services on Sunday mornings, 9:00 and 11:00 am. Without a musician to play at the 11:00 am service, we decided to combine the services at 10:00 a.m. through the summer months. We made an amazing discovery, ...each other!
"It's so nice to worship together." "I hope we don't have to go back to worshipping apart when the summer's over." Your voices were loud and clear sharing a deep and wide theological insight: to truly be a congregation, we have to worship together.
As you consider your Extravagant Generosity commitments this week, I pray that worship will be first on your priority list. I pray that you will commit to being present in worship every week that you are in town. And I pray that you will work to reprioritize the other commitments in your life such that sabbath and worship might be the center out of which the rest of life finds life and meaning. Whenever any one of us is absent, the community is less than it could be.
Blessings.
Rich Greenway
*Worship quotes are taken from Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Schnase, Abingdon, 2007
"God uses worship to transform lives, heal wounded souls, renew hope, shape decisions, provoke change, inspire compassion, and bind people to one another. God through Christ actively seeks relationship to us through worship. ...Through worship, God pardons sin, restores relationships, and changes lives. In a mindset of expectancy worshipers discover that God wants a relationship with them and seeks to say something through the time together." *
Several years ago circumstances required that we take a good look at our worship services here at Union Grove. At that time we had two services on Sunday mornings, 9:00 and 11:00 am. Without a musician to play at the 11:00 am service, we decided to combine the services at 10:00 a.m. through the summer months. We made an amazing discovery, ...each other!
"It's so nice to worship together." "I hope we don't have to go back to worshipping apart when the summer's over." Your voices were loud and clear sharing a deep and wide theological insight: to truly be a congregation, we have to worship together.
As you consider your Extravagant Generosity commitments this week, I pray that worship will be first on your priority list. I pray that you will commit to being present in worship every week that you are in town. And I pray that you will work to reprioritize the other commitments in your life such that sabbath and worship might be the center out of which the rest of life finds life and meaning. Whenever any one of us is absent, the community is less than it could be.
Blessings.
Rich Greenway
*Worship quotes are taken from Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Schnase, Abingdon, 2007
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