I was hot and in desperate need of caffeine with just enough time on my hands to swing through the drive thru at Starbucks. I ordered a coffee/vanilla frappuccino and pulled up to the window. The young employee reached out to take my money and asked, “Are you ready for the best frappuccino ever?” I thought, “Wow, yeah I am.”
Now by asking that question, the employee definitely raised my expectations, but he obviously felt confident enough in his product that it would deliver on his promises. The effective marketer working for Starbucks took me by surprise. I loved his confidence and his willingness to put himself on the line. It of course caused me to think about…worship.
What are our expectations when we come to worship our God? Are we there out of guilt? Are we there with our list of complaints about the service? Are we there casually indifferent or even just casually? I asked that question to Sovereign King Church at the beginning of our service this week. I asked them, “Are you ready for the best frappuccino ever?” The story got a chuckle from the congregation, but we eventually began to explore the line of thought.
We considered just why we were here together. Did we come to worship the most beautiful one, Jesus? Did we arrive with the expectation that we would interact with our Savior in a way that we hadn’t all week? Did we come with the hopeful expectation that God would be active and alive among us? Essentially, we short change the character of our God if we come any other way.
But the Gospel is always prevalent even in our shortcomings and even in our worship. We may not always come with the highest of expectations when we worship (we may even come with doubt or hate), but in worship, we meet our most beautiful Savior. Jesus instructs, rebukes, calls, changes, transforms, convicts, teaches, leads, and moves us in worship. So, with the knowledge and experience of that, my prayer for my church and for you is that we would arrive to worship our God (heck, wake up each morning) with the expectation of the best frappuccino ever.
Gordon Duncan is the pastor of Sovereign King Church and blogs daily as he spends a great deal of time in coffee shops.
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There are so many of my pet-peeves stepped on in this article I'm going to try to restrain myself.
First of all, worship is not just the act of singing songs to God. Secondly, the purpose of the Church meeting together is not to worship God, (see 1st Corinthians) although this will happen incidentally.
To take what you have just stated to the logical conclusion; we should dress in our Sunday best (out of respect and 'worship' for God), and we should up the ante in our musical worship. This entails longer music sets, more clapping, then more hand-raising, and finally more dancing (like David!).
That's a really dangerous line of thinking. Romans 12:1 is a better definition of biblical worship to God, and is wholistic.
I hope this can be taken out of concern and not out of disrespect or offence.
Honestly, I don't know what article you are talking about. No where have I even hinted that worship is just singing (to that end, our church doesn't even call our musicians the "worship team" but the "music team"). No where did I ever say or hint our best was how we dressed (not a tie in our church though they are welcome). Our best is bringing our heart with the hopes of meeting our God. I agree that reducing worship to singing is a narrow view of God and of how we worship Him. Not sure what frustrations you are responding to, but they are not found in this article.
I think Eric read the word "casual" differently than you meant it. That might explain one of the communication failures here.
Thanks Tammy, and as I take a second to think, I don't think I should have responded so quickly. My apologies for my defensiveness to all.
I think (hope) that we would agree that what we do as corporate worship should be great because it is an outgrowth of the worship we as individuals give to God in our day-to-day lives through the week.
Great encouragement and reminder to really come to God with our hearts and minds fully open! Thanks for a great shot in the arm of encouragement and conviction Gordon.
Hi Gordon,
Let me just ask some questions instead of my previous approach...
What do you mean when you use the phrase "come to worship"? In my experience, the Sunday morning service is composed of 'worship', corporate prayer, and sermons. I am responding to what is implied within the statement "come to worship".
If you did not mean to make a statement of worship being music, then why is this article in regards to the 'service'? Why do you use verbage like "come to worship...Jesus"?
Admittedly, this is a hot-button topic for me, and I have a lot of baggage and personal pain with this topic, so I hope my comments are not being taken as being overly argumentative. If I have pegged this article incorrectly, please enlighten me.
Hey, sorry I haven't returned to the discussion. I will soon and pick up where we left off. G
(2)
There are so many of my pet-peeves stepped on in this article I'm going to try to restrain myself.
First of all, worship is not just the act of singing songs to God. Secondly, the purpose of the Church meeting together is not to worship God, (see 1st Corinthians) although this will happen incidentally.
To take what you have just stated to the logical conclusion; we should dress in our Sunday best (out of respect and 'worship' for God), and we should up the ante in our musical worship. This entails longer music sets, more clapping, then more hand-raising, and finally more dancing (like David!).
That's a really dangerous line of thinking. Romans 12:1 is a better definition of biblical worship to God, and is wholistic.
I hope this can be taken out of concern and not out of disrespect or offence.
Posted by Eric | Posted at 09/12/2007 2:36 PMHonestly, I don't know what article you are talking about. No where have I even hinted that worship is just singing (to that end, our church doesn't even call our musicians the "worship team" but the "music team"). No where did I ever say or hint our best was how we dressed (not a tie in our church though they are welcome). Our best is bringing our heart with the hopes of meeting our God. I agree that reducing worship to singing is a narrow view of God and of how we worship Him. Not sure what frustrations you are responding to, but they are not found in this article. Posted by Gordon | Posted at 09/12/2007 3:09 PM
I think Eric read the word "casual" differently than you meant it. That might explain one of the communication failures here. Posted by tammy | Posted at 09/12/2007 4:38 PM
Thanks Tammy, and as I take a second to think, I don't think I should have responded so quickly. My apologies for my defensiveness to all. Posted by Gordon | Posted at 09/12/2007 4:50 PM
I think (hope) that we would agree that what we do as corporate worship should be great because it is an outgrowth of the worship we as individuals give to God in our day-to-day lives through the week. Posted by Fred (co-heir) Shope | Posted at 09/13/2007 7:42 AM
Great encouragement and reminder to really come to God with our hearts and minds fully open! Thanks for a great shot in the arm of encouragement and conviction Gordon. Posted by Emma | Posted at 09/13/2007 8:01 AM
Hi Gordon,
Let me just ask some questions instead of my previous approach...
What do you mean when you use the phrase "come to worship"? In my experience, the Sunday morning service is composed of 'worship', corporate prayer, and sermons. I am responding to what is implied within the statement "come to worship".
If you did not mean to make a statement of worship being music, then why is this article in regards to the 'service'? Why do you use verbage like "come to worship...Jesus"?
Admittedly, this is a hot-button topic for me, and I have a lot of baggage and personal pain with this topic, so I hope my comments are not being taken as being overly argumentative. If I have pegged this article incorrectly, please enlighten me.
Posted by Eric | Posted at 09/13/2007 2:23 PMHey, sorry I haven't returned to the discussion. I will soon and pick up where we left off. G Posted by Gordon | Posted at 10/02/2007 6:21 AM