THE WORLD IS WATCHING<\/p>\n
This week I wrote a simple post on Facebook that receive a great deal of response. It simply read, \u201cThe world watches the way we worship.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Those of you who know me, have heard that again and again over the years, but I am burdened at how our congregations not only sing, but how they look as they “worship.”\u00a0 Interestingly, white American church culture has\u00a0 taught their children “behave,” be reverent,”\u00a0 “sit still,” “don’t run with sissors….” etc.\u00a0<\/em> I understand the\u00a0 intent, but I am afraid we have missed an important aspect to worship.<\/p>\n As a child, I eagerly wanted to run to, and throw my arms up to my dad.\u00a0 I knew he loved me and I love him.\u00a0 This is the relationship God wants with us.\u00a0 That is not disrespect, it is worship. \u00a0 To a degree, we\u00a0 have thwarted our worship activity so,\u00a0 as adults, though\u00a0 we often fellowship openly in the lobbies of our churches, we walk into the worship center as if Jesus has died all over again.\u00a0 Black,\u00a0 Hispanic, Asian,\u00a0 and\u00a0 other cultures teach their children to openly and freely worship and thus as adults, are free to express openly their praise. \u00a0 Our intentions were no doubt pure, but the result is that our witness too often appears we have no real zeal for our faith.\u00a0 Reverence is acknowledging who God truly is and worship is responding to that knowledge<\/em>.\u00a0 The worship of the Bible was often noisy and active.\u00a0 Not “rowdy,” but it sure was not passive.<\/p>\n Right now we are all trying to wrap our brains around the fact that so many Christians are suffering greatly<\/strong> around the world.\u00a0\u00a0 As horrific as it is, it is bringing a great deal of attention to Christians<\/strong>.\u00a0 The world is literally watching believers and asking, \u201cIs their faith real?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 With all this attention, this might be greatest opportunity the Lord has ever given us to boldly and openly worship.\u00a0 \u00a0As discouraging as it is around us, if we will minister\/worship out of the overflow our relationship with Christ, we will not be discouraged and the world, our world, will see Jesus in us.<\/p>\n A dear friend once told me he wouldn’t pray in church nor sing a solo because he didn\u2019t want to \u201cshow off.\u201d\u00a0 This isn\u2019t about showing off<\/strong>, this is about openly proclaiming Christ in the pews and on the street.\u00a0 We don’t need to be obnoxious or silly,\u00a0 but unapologetic in our faith in Christ.\u00a0 Jesus said, \u201cIf I be lifted Up, I will draw all men unto me.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cSo let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 The Psalmist said, \u201cHe has put a New Song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.\u00a0 Many will SEE it and fear, and trust in the Lord.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 And my \u201cCoenian<\/i>\u201d translation of Luke 10:20, \u201cDo not rejoice that you have the coolest or biggest music ministry, but rather Rejoice that your names are written in heaven<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 That is worship!<\/p>\n To the music guys…..God has given us\u00a0 the ability to lead worship with our music.\u00a0 Let\u2019s make every effort to not only present\u00a0 effective music from the platform, but get to know, to teach, to engage the guy in the last pew. Encourage him and select songs he can sing and not just listen to. (I believe the most important music in the church that of the congregation.) Teach him to smile and express his faith.\u00a0 Remind him the world around him is watching. \u00a0Children and guests are watching to see if what we say is real is truly real.\u00a0 \u00a0Worship is a serious endeavor, yet true worship is consumed in JOY and those God has entrusted to us need to be reminded that the people\u00a0 around them cannot see their insides, we must allow that joy to reflect on our faces and in our singing.\u00a0 That\u2019s not \u201cshowing off,\u201d that is allowing Christ\u2019s light to shine through us.<\/p>\n I close with something really cool that happened a couple of days ago where I am serving as interim.\u00a0 I was wandering through the crowd before the evening service meeting people as I normally do.\u00a0 I met a young adult \u00a0woman who was sitting alone.\u00a0 In talking with her, she told me she had only been attending a couple of weeks.\u00a0 (BTW, I told her that I have just one place left in the choir for a young woman who had only been attending the church a couple of weeks\u2026.)<\/i>\u00a0 Anyway, though she appeared to be shy and by herself, she was surrounded by a group of people who were totally engaged in worship, singing, reading God\u2019s word, praying together.\u00a0 This young guest was \u2018watching\u2019 and she saw Jesus.\u00a0 I believe I will see her in the choir very soon.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE WORLD IS WATCHING This week I wrote a simple post on Facebook that receive a great deal of response. It simply read, \u201cThe world watches the way we worship.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Those of you who know me, have heard that again and again over the years, but I am burdened at how our congregations not only sing, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billcoenmusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}