A couple things struck me, and I am always forced to stand back in awe when the Holy Spirit moves in my life, confirming to me things that I previously have either though or spoken. During the service, the worship leader stopped and said that, "Birds never learn to fly unless they are forced out of the nest. Look at your own life and see what the nests are; what is holding you back from entering into a deeper relationship with Christ? You need to let go..." and fly. The other thing that impacted me was a song which we sung later on in the service: "All Who Are Thirsty"
All Who Are Thirsty
Words and Music by Brenton Brown, Glenn Robertson
All who are thirsty
All who are weak
Come to the fountain
Dip your heart in the stream of life
Let the pain and the sorrow
Be wash'd away
In the waves of His mercy
As deep cries out to deep
Come, Lord Jesus, come
Come, Lord Jesus, come
Come, Lord Jesus, come
Come, Lord Jesus, come
As deep cries out to deep
As deep cries out to deep
Chew on this, if you will, and consider it alongside Today's post #1...
2 comments:
Glad to hear you had a good worship experience. I remember the last time we discussed these services you were quite cynical. I know I certainly tend towards cynicism in this area. To be frank, Lucy, I'm actually quite skeptical of the authenticity of your experience. I would tend to chalk it up to skilled "worship leaders" and psychology. I've actually started attending these "services" (what a strange word!) with the primary goal of being emotional and getting a buzz. I think my best worship rarely involves singing, and almost never occurs in large groups. But no matter. I'm glad you're feeling closer to God, and I don't mean to doubt you. I just can't help myself.
Frank—er, Jacob!
Thank you for your response. I am glad that you are skeptical about my experience: shows good critical & analytical thinking. I think I must, perforce, restate my entry to be less vague in what I mean by "a worship service [that is] sensitive to the leading & the prompting of the Holy Spirit."
What I mean doesn't necessarily involve emotional states at all. In fact, I've had plenty of emotional experiences at worship services throughout my life after I had been baptized (coming on 10 years ago). What I mean, rather, is that those who are leading a service that is explicitly dedicated to worhip (ie, no intention of instruction, exhortation, ect.) are at a place where they act freely in response to the "movement" of the Spirit around them. They may have a certain set of songs that they want to go through, but this doesn't necessarily mean that they actually go through all (or any, for that matter) of them. A worship service that has leaders who are willing to break from the pre-ordained structure to respond to what the Holy Spirit is doing in the midst of the congregated believers is a powerful thing. Sunday night, there were two unplanned testimonies shared, a prophecy and an exhortational prayer—all coming from the congregation. Instances of silent prayer and "free worship" were also included, which may or may not have been applied ad hoc—I cannot say, for I wasn't around for the practises.
What I can say, however, is that in our conservative Christian heritages, we far too often put the Holy Spirit in a box, where we force him to work only in a manner that we have predetermined. While this may work to some extent, like the vector component of an oblique force acting upon a mass (sorry, my physics mind got the better of me), it does not work with maximal efficacy. A friend of mine who was there with me is a newer Christian & he's been brought up only in a conservative context, yet even he noted that worship done this way "is the way it should be done." There is power in yielding our plans and our structured organisation to the prompting of the Holy Spirit—it is a lesson we as conservatives must learn from the charasmatic tradition to gain a fuller interaction with God.
One may argue that it is all just emotional fluff, yet I would argue that emotions are not always (nor necessarily) fluff. My psychological training would scream in protest at this comment, for emotions are—on the contrary—actually very informative, pre-conscious cognitions that serve very important functions in our daily living. Furthermore, I would propose that since God created the human being with the capacity to emote, then it would probably follow that he would like to see us worship & enteract with him in this context—since we are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind (cf. Mt 22:37).
I probably have more to discuss about this topic, but I will stop here, as I need to get some sleep. Anyone wishing a more thorough discourse is free to e-mail me or to comment as well!
~L.E.~
Post a Comment