I am currently working with a church as a consultant. Part of my contract is to preach on Sunday.
At the beginning of the service, a lay person greets everyone and then says, “Let’s prepare our hearts and minds for worship.” Immediately follows a short piano prelude to allow everyone a few moments to refocus on God, and then the rest of the service.
Historically, the call to worship is a sacred moment in the service. The purpose is not self-expression and not cultural commentary but an invitation for God’s people to turn their eyes away from themselves and toward God. The songs, the prayers, Scripture readings and preaching all flow from the call to worship.
Throughout Scripture God has defined Himself. We do not define Him. Through the Prophets, God declared who He was. Through Christ, God revealed Himself most fully. Yet, in many churches today [and I will refrain from using labels] their theology projects cultural identities onto God. For example:
“Strange one, fabulous one, fluid and ever becoming one…incapable of limiting your vast expressions of beauty.”
In effect, instead of us mirroring God, God mirrors us. The result is a God not shaped by Scripture but by culture. In this way, the church then increasingly becomes a place where God exists to affirm humanity rather than humanity being called to submit to God.
What happens in worship helps shape what people believe. Sunday after Sunday, people are discipled by what they sing, pray, recite and hear from the pulpit. If worship teaches that God reflects cultural identities, they will eventually lose sight of the God revealed in Scripture.
The church was never called to reinvent God. The church was called to proclaim Him faithfully.
The church’s calling is not to make God resemble the culture but to help the culture encounter the living God.
When worship centers on humanity and no longer on God, what have we become but idol worshipers? And the idol is us!
– Rev. Dr. Pat Polis
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