I’ve participated in some incredibly passionate worship services over the years, but I’ve also felt captive in the pew during many passionless services. Sadly, those passionless services seem to be the normal in many Presbyterian churches today. Hear me clearly. As a young adult, I do not need flashy graphics, a loud worship band, projected images on a screen, or a cool, hip, and stylish pastor to evoke passion in worship. Passion isn’t synonymous with loud, big, and flashy.
Who is this Jesus we are worshiping? When I sit through a passionless worship service, I truly begin to wonder. I want to worship a Creator who formed the universe with a word and molded my very being from the fibers of the earth. I long to sing praises to a God, who shouts with excitement through the joys of life and holds me tightly, with mutual tears, in the pits. I want to surrender all I am to the workings of a Holy Spirit who guides my movement in ways I never dreamed possible for myself. I want to humbly bow to the most humble of babies who changed the course of history for eternity. I want to lay offerings before a God who offered His own Son to wipe away the distance I continually place between Him and I. I want to meet this Jesus over and over again, so maybe someday I will begin to understand the magnitude of a Love so grand, so extreme, and so passionate at this.
It can come in all sizes, shapes, and volumes. I don’t care. What you do doesn’t much matter to me. But how you portray my Savior, who has molded and changed my life forever, means everything to me.
About Jen Reiff
Ahhh. Would you come speak to our worship committee/team lol…
It seems as if communicators of the Good News, myself included, have often forgotten that the method isn’t the message.
That said, I think we also need to explore what worship is about, too. It isn’t about us. Or what we feel. Or what we like. Often times we expect worship to give us something. But it is really about giving something. Giving something back to the One who gives us everything and gave Everything. I’d like to say that it is an act of gratitude but honestly, some of the most passionate worship experiences for me have been those where I have gone to worship out of obedience rather than desire.
‘God. I don’t really want to do this today, I’d really rather sit here in the warmth than go out in the cold, wet morning. You already know that. Your Word says You desire obedience and that is all I can bring this morning. Today it is a sacrifice from an unwilling heart. Bless my obedience. Forgive my unwillingness.’
How great is our God who can take my grudging obedience and make it into resounding praise.
It is good to feel uplifted by our worship, but it is not necessary. It is counter-cultural but true. It is something we must learn, re-learn and share with others.
I’ve discovered that most of the passion in the worship is internal. I can be in the greatest worship service and not worship. Likewise, I can worship passionately in a “dull” worship service.
My Pastor often reminds us to prepare or hearts before church, to clear out our thought patterns on our drive to church, so when we do enter into worship we have increased our ability to receive. This is done by an act of faith. To come before the Father expectantly.
Go, Jen!
Judging from this article, the Bush Hill newsletter, and comments from various people, you are doing great ministry and growing in many unexpected directions, and helping others to do the same.
Hallelujah!
Carrie Mook Bridgman
When you said
felt captive in the pew during many passionless services
I have to say that is something that speaks to my heart big time. Growing up at a pres. church has made me love traditions but I joke with my brother how no one claps! Thankfully we have a movement towards breaking those shackles on our clapping hands with a service called Veritas, but I give you props that quote spoke to me.
Speak it loud, speak it plain! Passion is a wellspring from within. If the person in the pulpit has lost passion, it will not be communicated. Hence captives in the pew. Would that we all be refreshed with our “first love” of Jesus.
Passion actually means to suffer, which is why Holy Week used to be called the Passion of Christ.
In worship, we are the givers and God is the audience. If we’re only there for ourselves and what we long to feel, then we’ve missed the whole point of worship. We empty ourselves before God and give Him everything – heart, mind, body, and soul – singing, praying, praising, and hearing. We should come away empty, ready to be filled by the Holy Spirit in the experiences and encounters that we will make throughout the coming week.
If we see church worship as our personal spiritual filling station, then we’ve forgotten that we are there to serve, praise, and honor God through Christ. Too many people are looking for a concert, entertainment, and even cinematic experience. That’s not what worship is, unless it is the worshiping of oneself.