Worship

Today we visited the Hillsong community again for worship. I am impressed by the numbers of young adults which this congregation attracts each week. The quality of the music and the video productions of this community is amazing!

The past week on Iona was spent in twice a day worship experiences that relied upon guided liturgies in a very formal process. Today, we witnessed young people standing on their feet, loudly singing songs that they are familiar with, and jumping up and down as they celebrated the opportunity to be in worship.

It was indeed a stark contrast! Yet as our family reflected upon the experiences, we found that we found the quality of the one experience to be great, the impression was that we were watching a show rather than being really drawn into worship.

I do not want to discount the experiences of the majority of those gathered today because the sheer numbers point to the fact that the message is compelling. (The introduction to the offering was as straight forward and hard hitting a message on tithing as I have heard in a long time.) What struck me was that while I was not drawn deeply into worship in this environment, I suspect that the opposite would be true for many of these young people if they had attended the experiences of Iona. So worship is not just about the style. It is about the heart of the worshiper. It is about being ushered into the presence of God so that I offer my praise to the God of love who has redeemed us through Jesus Christ. So I have to ask the question, does style really matter? Or is it about the heart of the one coming to worship?