What is Worship?

What is worship? I took a class in college called worship and this was the first question posed to us on the first day. Each of us, being Bible college students, had this nailed down of course. After all we were all studying to be worship ministers so one would hope that we knew what worship was, right? Well after 15 minutes of discussion we soon realized that worship was a bigger topic than any of us imagined. One person said worship was music. One said being lead into the throne room of God. Another stated that it was an emotional response to God. Only one thing was agreed on. We all thought worship was something different.

To Love is to Obey

How many of us love God? Hopefully if you are reading this blog you do and have a developing relationship with Him. However I would like to ask you a question. How easy is it to obey Him? To answer this question let me tell you a story.

I have a daughter who is roughly three years old right now. If have ever heard the phrase the terrible twos you and have a three year old you know the twos may be terrible but the threes are tortuous. We love her very much and she loves us but sometimes she gets stubborn, maybe even obstinate. Whatever you want to call it it’s ugly!

Worship Adventures: Presbyterian part 3: Technology

Now we get to the fun part of the blog: worship technology. As I go through my thoughts on the technology of worship, remember two things. One no where in scripture does it tell us when and where or how we are to use technology and two a lot of technology in worship is opinion. Ask a group of techies about the best way to capture the sound of a piano and you will get an interesting debate! Anyway, on to the technology used by this church.

I noted as I came into the church several things about the church’s use of technology. First I recognized that they have a decent budget set aside for the support of their worship service. This impressed me since I was expecting more of a liturgical style and most liturgical churches aren’t known for their use of sound equipment and other forms of worship technology.

Book Sneeze Review: The Voice of Psalms

The Voice of Psalms is a part of the upcoming Voice translation of the Bible. The concept behind this translation is interesting. They have formed a group of people to write this translation not just of theologians or scholars, although there are those who are apart of the writing. This translation was helped by authors, musicians and poets.

Worship Adventures: Presbyterian part 2.5: Communion

So I have already discussed the worship service as a whole in my previous article and if you couldn’t tell, I was very impressed with their service. However, the thing that blew me away was the way they approached communion.
First off this denomination seems to take communion on a monthly basis. I am sure this is to help keep the time more sacred and not dull it down in the monotony of a weekly ritual to get out of the way so you can move on to announcements or whatever else is next. While I prefer to partake weekly, or as often as I meet, in this case they have most assuredly succeeded! But on to the mechanics of the service.
The pastor got up and gave a brief communion meditation and invited us to come forward and partake when we felt lead. There was a brief admonishment to not take in an unworthy manner yet it was doubled with something I didn’t expect from the Presbyterian Movement.