From the pastor,

Last month I touched on the idea of worship being, that we do not worship to receive for ourselves anything. We go to be in the presence of God and to give of ourselves to him. . This month I would like to expound on it a bit more and see how we as Presbyterians might worship. There is one thing I think needs to be put forth as a foundation of the reformed tradition, we are to seek the Holy Spirit to lead us. It is through prayer and meditation, it is by listening to the Lord and hearing in the conversation with others who are seeking that we find the Lord speaking to us. We as reformed believers cannot leave the Holy Spirit out of our lives and still claim our heritage.

This past month we had a special Presbytery event at the Atkinson Presbyterian Church. Our executive Rev. Bob Houser and the associate executive Rev. Sandy Faison came and presented a study on the Directory for Worship from the Book of Order. It was a very informative evening and those in attendance found it very interesting.

The reason I mention all of this is that we learned some things that are very, well new even though they are old. Little things about worship like we can raise our hands in praise. When we sing a hymn we are singing a prayer to God. Liturgical dance is an acceptable form of worship. Amen’s and praise’s may be expressed as we worship. We are really free to express our love, faith, and commitment to God in a great variety of ways. Even alter calls and personal testimonies are accepted and encouraged.

We participated in an exercise about how worship is played out and the participant’s roles. It begins with some questions to define the characters of worship. We begin by asking ourselves, who are the actors in worship____________?   Then we look to see who are the prompters____________? And then we define who the audience is___________________. I left blanks for you to think this through. As you begin to see who fills in these places in worship look and see which role you fulfil.

Think about all that I have given you as information and then let’s look at a description of worship by the theologian Keirkegard. Hope I spelled that correctly. He took a look at worship and came up with this theory. The actors are the pastor, liturgists, choir and the congregation. The prompters are the ushers, pastor, choir, etc.

It seems as though it makes sense so far or at least a little bit but when we come to the audience it changes a bit from what we usually think. In this model the audience is God, not the congregation..

That brings me back to my point in the last letter, we do not go to church to fill us and give us some special good feeling. We go to worship God, he is the center of all worship. He is the reason we arrive to worship in the first place. We are just players in the whole celebration.

As the celebration of Easter has passed and we begin fresh with the disciples, lets begin worshiping in a newer and more exciting way. Begin with our focus, remove it from ourselves and turn it towards God. If we make God the center of our lives, then we are beginning to get the picture. God wants us to seek him, to put him at the pinnacle of our lives. Who knows, by giving ourselves to God we just might get something back in worship.

We are now in the lull between Easter and Pentecost, the last and the first. Easter the last of Christ present with us as a man, and Pentecost the first of the Holy Spirit leading the disciples to fulfill the commission set forth by Jesus as he ascended into heaven.

By grace we will receive his glory!!

Shalom, Pastor WaynO