We get a sense that people need to be reminded to share their faith and so we create a program or a timetable. We ask people to sign up to things o r attend events, and our meetings can start to feel like a campaign meeting in a political party. We kick off the year with all sorts of new structures, goals and targets that we're sure will be a vehicle for God's blessing, and we present them to the congregation much like you might present at an organisation's Annual General Meeting. We know that we need to pray to God for our people and our ministries, so we list them off to him much like we're placing an order at a drive-through window. I have no doubt that these things are all well intended. But what I feel is missing when we do this... is worship. Call it what you will: I don't mind if you call it a God-focus or a grace motivation. What matters is that we never make assumptions about how the church is strengthened. It is only in God that people are edified. So how might it look to shape our meetings to be services of worship? I think that the time when we gather together as Christ's people to sit under his word is specifically a time of worship. That is, it is a time when we enact our submission to Christ's lordship in some very particular ways: we sit under his word (which is a first order act of worship), we respond to him in words of faith and repentance, we sing and say together words of praise and thanksgiving, directed both to him and to each other, and through all of these things we remind each other of the kingdom and its implications for our lives. Now we can have strategy and planning meetings, we can set aside time in the week to review our approach and make improvements. We can have fun times chatting about interests we might have in common other than the kingdom of God. But there must be a time in our week dedicated to those activities at the end of the previous paragraph. This time of worship will actually provide the greatest edification of your entire week. But if it is watered down to just a ...Read more
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