At our church, Soul Survivor Watford, we put a large emphasis on singing songs of worship in our meetings. This is not because we’re more musically talented than others, but because when we fell in love with Jesus that was the first way we wanted to express it. We wanted to tell Him how much He meant to us, to adore Him by singing words of love and praise and to give something back to Him for all that He had given to us.
One thing we quickly discovered was that you can’t outgive the Giver. As we sang to Him, He met with us in ways we’d never expected. As we told Him we loved Him, He was pouring more love into our hearts. As we proclaimed how worthy He was, He began to deal with our own sense of identity and instil in us the knowledge that we are His dearly loved sons and daughters. It seems that if you give to God, it pretty much goes against His nature not to give you something back and we found that as a congregation of worshippers we were being changed.
Worship has always been a core value of our church. We spend a long time singing songs of love and praise to God, and while that’s not a definition of worship, it is an expression of it. There is a clear biblical principle for using music and songs in times of worship – in the Old Testament when psalms were sung at the temple; in the New Testament when we hear they sang ‘psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’ (Colossians 3:16); and in the glimpse we are shown of heaven, with songs sung by the elders, angels, living creatures and all of creation (Revelation 4–5).
However, we have confused ourselves a little by saying things like ‘Now we’ll have a time of worship’ as someone at the front picks up a guitar and starts singing. Worship has automatically become equated with music and this is wrong. The rest of the service – and indeed our lives – can be worship too. Singing is just a focus for the worship. There is a place for an act of worship and then a place for an outworking of that worship.
The idea that God challenges us and does something in us as we offer Him our hearts was demonstrated to me so clearly a few years ago during a worship time at one of our summer events. Standing by the side of the stage while Matt Redman was leading worship, I felt someone come up and nudge me. As I turned round, a young guy pressed a knuckleduster into my hand. He gave a shy smile and walked off. He was swiftly followed by a teenager who offered me a knife, and not the kind of knife he would have needed for a few days’ camping in Somerset! ‘Could you get rid of this for me?’ he asked. Bemused, I took it from him and carried on worshipping. Then another young guy approached me and handed me a number of small foil packets that I figured contained drugs. ‘I don’t need these any more,’ he said. I put them in my pocket and wondered what else would be added to my collection by the end of the evening. |
Later that night, after we’d finished the meeting, I showed Matt what I’d been given. Jokingly I took the small foil packets from my pocket and said, ‘We could have a good smoke with these!’ Matt looked down at my hand and with a look of amusement said: ‘I’d like to see you try: they’re condoms!’ What a poor, sad, single Christian youth worker I was! But the point is not about my ignorance (or innocence, as I prefer to view it), but that in the time preceding those people coming up to me, no one had preached. All we had done was worship together, and during that time the Holy Spirit had been able to move in people’s hearts. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, ‘He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement’ (John 16:8).
When it comes to trying to persuade people not to use drugs, to smoke or to swear, or asking them to be nicer to each other, knowing Jesus and how He lived and how He wants us to live is the best encouragement we can get. As Jesus said, ‘If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. . . He who does not love me will not obey my teaching’ (John 14:23–24).
As God meets with us and changes our hearts, we begin to realise it’s not about following a bunch of rules but knowing what makes the God we love happy, and longing to please Him.
True worship brings us closer to the heart of God, which is why from the creation of mankind He laid it at the very foundation of our life with Him. Once we’ve grasped the truth that God longs for our worship before anything else we long to give Him what He desires. What we need to know now is what that worship might look like…!
Check out Mike’s new book, Worship Evangelism Justice at www.survivor.com
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