Worship

The church I'm a member of has phenomenal worship! Full band with excellent musicians and vocalists who have an audience of ONE, who are there to lead by being led by the Holy Spirit - the freedom to dance, cry, raise your hands up high, kneel, and bow down, sing in tongues, with all different types of music building loud, or playing quietly to even all being completely silenced in awe, for as long as it goes - whatever, wherever the Spirit leads. It opens up room in people's hearts for healing and repentance and receiving from God as He pours out on those genuinely seeking His face and worshipping Him with all they are! Everyone fully engaged - men and women of all ages, and even children worshipping free and passionately! It's incredible to just stand there to observe the heart of love of God from nearly everyone in the room, much less to feel the powerful Presence of the Lord Himself as He is welcomed and adored there.

Recently in my search for a near-by Biblical church, I've been only worshipping daily alone in my home, and haven't found a worship service quite as passionate where I've been visiting (you know the services... where half the people are worshipping while a quarter are uncomfortable to worship God openly and another quarter is bored to tears and thinking about the big game on tv after the service). Well, yesterday was my third time to visit one church in particular and I realized just how much power there is in corporate worship and how badly I've been missing it! I was so hungry for it that I was happy to at least get to worship with the half there who were truly worshipping wholeheartedly. It was amateur worship at best - it didn't last very long and it was sort of choppy with human interruptions every once in a while (not a spiritual flowing from following the Holy Spirit's lead but a formula with unnecessary breaks for announcements or "insert prayer here" moment and instructed standing and sitting). But even still, when Jesus was the focus in the worship leaders and in the majority of the people all at once - it was easy to feel the words we were singing and there was an emotionless experience of being rushed into the very Presence of God that made everything else vanish - even if it only lasted for a few moments at a time! It was a small taste of what I was used to in my regular church - but it was enough to remind me of what could be and how vital it is to submit to the Spirit of the Lord in worship when we come together in Jesus' name!

Now, you might be asking, "why are you looking for a new church when your regular one sounds so great?". And the reason is, that my husband and I couldn't get plugged in there. As great as the worship is - there are essentially no home groups, no places or positions open on the worship team (without crazy rotation - too many gifted people, not enough worship services), lots of leadership, but all the leadership also had other full-time occupations that prevented them from giving a big chunk of their time to raising up new leaders or providing opportunities to minister. There are lots of community ministries but those are also unavailable, again (too many people, all positions are already filled). Now that's great news for a church - to have too many volunteers that they have to turn people away... but that's bad for the people they have to turn away! This is when you are probably thinking the same thing I've been thinking for some time now... "why doesn't the church branch off and start a new church somewhere else, if there's that many gifted people, more than enough to spare?" Good question. Maybe not enough people want to split - they don't even seem to want to split up into holding more than one worship service, much less more than one church! So, since there is no room in the inn, I've been looking for a shelter somewhere else.

My husband and I have moved a lot in our years of marriage, and in a majority of the churches where we went, we've been involved on the worship team, even being blessed enough to lead worship in some places. The church that I've been visiting for the past three weeks, my husband has gone with me for the past two. It's the only non-denominational church in our area. There's room to get plugged in and to give from what God has given to us, so it looks like we might be willing to commit to this church for a long season, at least to cover me until God has me released fully into the one I begin. I hate committing to a local body of Christ just because there's no other church in opperation that's more Biblical in the area - but I can see that this church has the potential to become a very Biblical church as it continues! It certainly is of no use to sit around and complain about how things don't line up exactly whereas being willing to dive in and try to help make things become lined up in the long run is very useful. Who knows - maybe my husband and I can become involved in the worship team and contribute to those souls there in sincere worship, helping lead others by being led by the Holy Spirit! There's spiritual power in numbers, for prayer and in worship, and I look forward to seeing this church grow further in both!