worship talk with high school students

I had the priviledge of being on a panel Sunday night with a couple of leaders from our church and talked about worship with the high school students. They had some questions about worship and we gave our input. It was quite fun. Some of the themes we talked about were very important. They extended past Sunday morning worship services.

One such theme had to do with outward worship practices. For example, why do some churches - more charismatic or pentecostal churches - have more demonstrative expressions of worship and we don't (as Presbyterians). Good question. I told them that I don't raise my hands in worship because they are on the piano. Everyone laughed but I wasn't joking. We spoke of some things that we need to be in agreement on with other Christians, like the Trinity, for example. Things like that and othres in the historic creeds like the Nicene and Apostles' creeds are non-nogotiable in my opinion. They have stood through the centuries as embodying essentials of the faith. We can't compromise on those things.

Then comes the majority of things that separate us from one another, like the typical outward things like raising hands and clapping and such. What we ended up with was that we need to show a lot of grace to others about their particular style and convictions about worship.

I related the story about one of the vice-presidents of Wal-Mart in a southern town for some grand openings and the founder of Wal-Mart, Sam Walton, was with him. Sam suggested that they check out the competition at a store across the street while they had some down time. They walked across the street and Sam said to walk in one section of the store and he would walk in the other section. They were to meet back in 20 minutes. They did. Sam said, "What do you think." The vice-president said, "We have NOTHING to worry about. This is the most poorly managed, dirty, unstocked, rude-clerked store I have seen. We're going to mop up." Sam then said, "Yes, but did you see the ethnic hosery racks?" The VP responded, "Ahh, no I didn't." Sam exclaimed, "They're fantasic! They're better than anything we have in our stores. I got the manufacturer name and number off the back of one of them. Here. Call them and get them in our stores."

Our tendency when we encounter someone who worships differently than we do, or a church or denomination that is different than us, is to point out the differences and state that we are superior and they are wrong. How about we take the Sam Walton approach and look for ways and things they are doing that are better than us? See if kindness and humility and growth don't occur in our hearts as we do.

Confessions of Faith

Confessions of Faith (Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, etc. and many scriptural creeds, The Ten Commandments, as an example) are those wonderfully worded distillations of a lot of pages of scripture and a lot of history of God's people. They don't take the place of the whole Bible, but they do remind us of the bullet points, the high points, the main points we dare not forget.

Paul, our pastor, has been reminding us of some of the history of the more common creeds or Confessions of Faith that we often say together in worship. It is really cool to bring us back to the essentials and to connect us in some way to Christians of long ago, and right now around the world, for that matter.

Another Confession of Faith that we say as we live our lives today is...our very lives. Our lives "confess our faith" or they deny our faith. What confession have you made today by the thoughts you think, by the words you say or the way you say them? Is your life making a "good confession" today?

I welcome any comments on Confessions of Faith.

Blessings,
George Searcy

Amen

Amen or AAAAHHHHmen, depending on your preference is something that has been a part of worship since the early church. Actually the Hebrews practiced it before that. It means "so be it", or "I agree with that", or "Yes." Literally the word means firm. So the connotation is what you just said is something that is true and can be trusted. In addition, a connotation that I have come to think of is when something touches my spirit, yes it's true, but it is true in a personal way to me, so I say "Amen."

Spiritual truth deserves a response. We are called to partipate with God in His work in the world and in worship. We should respond when we agree, especially in prayer, and saying "amen" is a great way to do that. It engages us and helps us to keep our hearts and minds focused, at the very least.

Let's expand our thinking and think about this like we did in the first post. God is all the time at work in the world. Reminders of His truth and constant presence are with us everywhere. We could walk around saying "amen" all day long. Saying "amen" is one way to do that. What are some other ways of affirming God's truth in our daily lives?

Call To Worship

Bonjour Mates,

This is the first post on my new blog, Interactive Worship. Why interactive worship you ask? Well, that's because I want you to interact on the subject of worship. I'll get things going with an initial thought and you chime in with your thoughts and also with your thoughts about others' thoughts about my thoughts. Lotta heavy thinking gonna be going on here.

The first thought has to do with the Call to Worship. Our pastor, Paul has been going through the elements in our worship serivces Eastern Shore Presbyterian and has addressed the call to worship recently. The main point was that God is calling us to worship first. It is not us calling each other first. God is the initiator. Pretty cool that He is seeking us out.

Here's my question for you. In what ways does God call you to worship Him during your normal day? How has he called you to Himself lately? Give me some examples, like through a conversation with a friend, reading the Bible or a book, nature, watching a movie. Give me some details!

I love the hymn, "This Is My Father's World," especially the line that says, "This is my Father's world/He shines in all that's fair/In the rustling grass I hear Him pass/He speaks to me everywhere."

Post on, my friends. Let's stay on this subject please until my next post. Inspire each other.



Merci,

George