Has lockdown changed how we should worship?
Coming back to church has been both a daunting and an exciting experience for us to think about. On one hand we’re desperate to get back to some kind of normality, and on the other we don’t know how to approach worship post-COVID. Can the experience of COVID help us worship better?
At the beginning of lockdown I felt God put on my heart that we needed to look at the restrictions of COVID as an opportunity. To approach God in a different way and to really examine what we bring to Him as our offering.
One of the examples that hit me was the story behind ‘Heart of Worship’ by Matt Redman:
“The pastor of our church, Mike, did a brave thing,” Redman recalls, “we stopped using the PA and projectors, packed away our instruments for a while and gathered in an adjoining room with nothing but our voices and Bibles — and, of course, our hearts. This led us into a whole new season. We stripped away anything associated with style, preference, or performance, and there was a real sense of discovering ‘the heart of worship’ again.”
Ask God: What do You want to do in us as a worship group? What do You want to do in me as a worshipper?
I recently read these verses and thought I should share them as a guide moving forward. We’ve heard some amazing songs over lockdown and we really want to move forward, to sing them live and do an amazing performance, but do we need to approach God carefully?
1 Cor 14: 16–19
16 Suppose some strangers are in your worship service, when you are praising God with your spirit. If they don’t understand you, how will they know to say, “Amen”?
17 You may be worshiping God in a wonderful way, but no one else will be helped.
18 I thank God that I speak unknown languages more than any of you.
19 But words that make sense can help the church. This is why in church I would rather speak five words that make sense than to speak 10,000 words in a language that others don’t know.
I feel from these verses that God wants us to approach Him carefully but also openly and honestly.
I saw a comforting image on Monday that I haven’t seen for ages. Malcolms empty shoes on the stage. He had taken his shoes off to play the drums and it made me think about Moses. Metaphorically should we be taking our shoes off and approaching worship in the same way that Moses approached the burning bush? To get closer and really listen to Him? To treat the platform in church as Holy ground? To love Him more with our heart and soul by bringing worship that isn’t just a good song?
Verse 26 of 1 Cor 14 says; My friends, when you meet to worship, you must do everything for the good of everyone there. That’s how it should be when someone sings or teaches or tells what God has said or speaks an unknown language or explains what the language means.
We’ve probably all experienced days when we’ve gone to church and had to approach worship with a heavy heart. To sing songs like ‘oh happy day’ with a cloud over our heads can be tough. As a suggestion moving forward, I wondered whether we approach worship with a Psalm each week before practice? Psalms are full of passion and happiness but they’re also full of lament. They speak to everyone at some point, whether in good times or bad, but hopefully they will help us approach worship with anticipation of where He will take us, wherever we are on that day.
At the end of the day, i love worship and I’m excited to get back to the heart of worship (and I hope you are too?) It would be great if you could share your thoughts, experiences and feelings about moving forward, with ideas, songs, blogs or ways of approaching worship in these new odd days.
Steve x
