Passionate Worship

This past Sunday was another milestone for our church. You see, on most Sundays we average between 45 and 55 people in worship...this Sunday, we had 131 people in worship! There is no single service on record in the history of our church that has that many people in attendance. We give all the credit to God's faithfulness...thanks be to God!

It started almost 2 months ago when, after considerable prayer, I challenged the congregation in the newsletter and from the pulpit to have at least 100 people in worship on June 8th. We invited a friend (Kerri Crocker---check out her website at www.kerricrocker.com for more information on this gentle spirit and award winning independent Christian artist) to lead worship and share her testimony and we publicized it. Most importantly, we reminded people to invite a friend...and they did!

I have no doubt that God was at work in the weeks prior to Sunday and I have no doubt that God was at work during the service Sunday morning; but there is something I do wonder about...how were we different on this Sunday compared to other Sundays?

I would like to suggest that there were at least two distinct differences. First, our communal prayer life was deeper regarding this service. Simply put, there were more people praying for this service. These people included folks from our church, pastors and laity from within our district and conference, folks belonging to other ministries in the East Texas area (thanks Teen Mania!), etc. While we always have had people praying for our services, the depth and breadth of prayer relating to this service was extraordinary. Second, there was an excitement, a buzz, a genuine expectation that something was going to happen in this service...God was going to be encountered in a unique and very real way.

So when people arrived at Edom United Methodist Church this past Sunday, they and the service had been bathed in prayer and they were anticipating what gifts of grace that God had in store for them for that day.

If you are anything like me, it is easy to get roped into the usual; to become complacent with what is known. We can be creatures of habit and the habit of "doing church" can become mediocrity at its finest. But I don't think that is what God calls us to in worship. God calls us to passionate worship, to an authentic and radical encounter with the risen Lord. I believe whole-heartedly that passionate worship is as much about what we do to prepare for worship as it is about the worship itself. What would happen if we approached every Sunday like it was a "special" Sunday? What if we prayed more fervently and with more folks about each of our services? What if we came to worship every Sunday expecting to encounter the risen Lord?

I expect that the kingdom of God would grow by leaps and bounds and that we would be transformed into the worshipers we are called to be!