Should we not remind ourselves that worship is a transitive verb? We do not meet to worship (i.e. to experience worship); we aim to worship God. “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only”; there is the heart of the matter. In this area, one must not confuse what...
By the mercies of God, this new covenant community has been released from the darkness and foolishness of illicit worship to serve the living God in spirit and truth. In a very real sense this is the goal of the process of redemption, just as it was in the Old...
I wonder if in the rush of creative planning and the desire to see people enjoy our worship gatherings in the modern church, we have pushed to the sidelines what we are supposed to be doing… In the emerging church, we need to make sure we view our worship services as...
Most middle-class Americans tend to: worship their work; work at their play; and play at their worship. That which we worship, we serve, and that which we serve we will give our all—heart, soul, mind and body. from Work, Play, and Worship in a Leisure-Oriented...
A visitor gave his impressions of certain worship services carelessly conducted: "People who would hiss a play which was so ill-planned that the order of the acts and scenes was of no importance or would throw into a wastebasket a novel which was so utterly without...
So, by faith let us put on both lenses [worshiping in Spirit and in Truth]. We should look at each passage of scripture and examine each service or song or ceremony with both lenses on. To get a true stereo image, an in-depth, full-dimensioned image, of how we...
True vocation joins self and service, as Frederick Buechner asserts when he defines vocation as “the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” Buechner’s definition starts with the self and moves toward the needs of the world; it begins, wisely,...
How to achieve “unity of life”? You start by giving over space in your crowded schedule of work and family duties to prayer and the sacraments. But even people who pray daily can still fence off their praying and working lives in separate compartments. Unity of life...
We can handle God as long as he stays God. We can build him a fountain. But when he becomes a man we have to give him a cup of water. from The Substance of Faith —————————-Gender-neutral version: We can handle God as long as God stays God. We can build God a fountain....
Life, with its achievements and challenges, its joys and sorrows, gifts us with many opportunities to grow and serve. We serve when we willingly share the wisdom we have gleaned from our life experiences. The spirit of our life is made visible in the spirit of our...