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?
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Living With The Unknown
One the last blog, I talked of the experience of arriving at a hotel only to be notified that our reservation had been canceled. After a lot of discussion and viewing our records, the manager of the hotel placed us in a Five Star facility for one night and then moved us back to our regular hotel today. We are in place for the next few days. We are very comfortable in our three star accomadations but had a glimpse of the more expensive digs for one night. I am not sure it was worth the difference as I find I am content where we are.
We also made a humorous discovery yesterday. We have been traveling by train within England and Scotland by using a rail pass. The seats have been good, four seats located around a small table. the family has secured two of these tables on each of our trips. Saturday we were traveling from Glasgow to London by train. The trip takes about 5 1/2 hours. We were 4 hours into the trip when a steward came by to check our tickets once again. He looked at us and asked why we were sitting in coach because our seats were "first class." He then told us to move up to the first class section for the duration of the trip.
We laughed at ourselves because we never expected to travel first class but were content to travel coach, thinking this was just fine.
It caused me to reflect upon our faith journeys. How often do we just go through life with the actions and attitudes to just get us through when God's intent for us is "first class." We have been adopted as children of God, joint heirs with Jesus. We do not need to travel "coach" but we have received the most glorious gift of all! Do we really understand the magnificent gift that has been given to us by God? Do we live with the full awareness of God's lavish love which has been poured out upon us?
We also made a humorous discovery yesterday. We have been traveling by train within England and Scotland by using a rail pass. The seats have been good, four seats located around a small table. the family has secured two of these tables on each of our trips. Saturday we were traveling from Glasgow to London by train. The trip takes about 5 1/2 hours. We were 4 hours into the trip when a steward came by to check our tickets once again. He looked at us and asked why we were sitting in coach because our seats were "first class." He then told us to move up to the first class section for the duration of the trip.
We laughed at ourselves because we never expected to travel first class but were content to travel coach, thinking this was just fine.
It caused me to reflect upon our faith journeys. How often do we just go through life with the actions and attitudes to just get us through when God's intent for us is "first class." We have been adopted as children of God, joint heirs with Jesus. We do not need to travel "coach" but we have received the most glorious gift of all! Do we really understand the magnificent gift that has been given to us by God? Do we live with the full awareness of God's lavish love which has been poured out upon us?
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