Deep Thought: I hope some animal never bores a hole in my head and lays its eggs in my brain, because later you might think you’re having a good idea but it’s just eggs hatching.

Some 4 years ago, we had an idea hatch about starting a church that would cater to the churched as well as the unchurched; that we could craft services that would make people comfortably uncomfortable. That someone who has beeen following Christ for a while could be stretched in our services but at the same time, that person who wouldn’t call themselves a follower of Christ, would feel comfortable enough to come back again. Sometimes it can be tough reconciling the 2, especially in worship

Yesterday, I gave you 3 convictions about worship; today let me give you 2 more that have to do with the unchurched.

1. Unchurched people can watch Christ followers worship: Unbelievers can observe the joy that we feel when we worship God. They can see how we value the teaching of the bible and how we respond to it. They can see how the bible has answers to the problems they are experiencing in life. They can notice how worship seems to encourage, strengthen and even change us. They can even sense when God is moving supernaturally in a service although they won’t be able to explain it.
2. Worship can be a powerful witness to the unchurched person but only if the presence of God is felt and the message is understandable: In the book of Acts, chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, the disciples “worship service” was so full of the presence of God, that it attracted people from all over the city. In fact, so many were attracted that 3000 put their trust in Jesus in just one day. Why did those 3000 put their trust in Christ? Because they felt the presence of God and the message was understandable. Both of these elements must be present in order for a worship service to be effective with the unchurched.

First, there must be a sense of the presence of God in a service. It is the sense of God’s presence that melts hearts and destroys barriers.

At the same time, the worship and message need to be understandable. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit miraculously translated the words of Peter so that everyone could hear it in their own language. This ability to understand caused them to put their trust in Christ. Even though the presence of God was evident, they wouldn’t have known what to do if the message hadn’t been understandable.

I have noticed that when unchurched people watch Christ followers relate to God in an intelligent, sincere manner, it creates a desire in them to know God, too.

Here is what this means to you: Understandable message? Nothing. That is my job. A sense of the presence of God during worship? Your job…no matter who you are. Whether you are the worship leader or one of the congregation, as you worship God in Spirit and truth, you help cultivate the felt presence of God there.

This makes the weight of worship in the context of Shoreline’s vision of making a service comfortably uncomfortable fall on you. The more you worship in Spirit and in truth, the more they (Unchurched) shall see and put their trust in the Lord.

Or maybe the Holy Spirit could lay some worship eggs in their heads and when these eggs hatch, they will worship God. Sounds gross though. More on worship tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Pastor Eric. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.