Low Church Worship
The brakes went out on the car and we were not able to make it to our church today. There is a little independent baptist church a couple of miles down the road from our place. It just happens to be the church that I was baptised in, married in and my wife grew up in. My inlaws are members there and we figured the car would be able to make it that far, so we went. I don’t wish to offend anyone with this post, just tell you folks what is on my heart this evening. I feel cheated, sort of. It feels like I sat in church all morning and somehow didn’t get to worship the King of Kings. I missed singing the psalms. Now I don’t have anything per say against singing a hymm now and then, I just feel funny singing little 4 line ditties that sound like childrens music. I came to worship the King of the universe and it just didn’t seem like anyone else did. Perhaps it was the informal nature of it all that I was not comfortable with. They were nice folks, most of them my neighbors. They do really love the Lord, I know they do, but I suppose that we have different ideas on how one approaches the Creator of all things, He who reedemed us with His blood, conquered death and hell, and is making all of His and our enemies a footstool. It just seems like american churches have lost the real sense of who God is. None of these people would have approached an earthly king in the same laid back manner that they did King Jesus.
May 14th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
I suffer from this one. When we go to church [ the body of Christ] so often we are drawn into observing our brothers as an indicator of the whereabouts of Christ. If our brothers show a similarity to ourselves in their style of worship or their world outlook or their choice of music or their style of clothes then we think we have found the true presence as it were.
Slowly I am coming round to understanding that the family is the original community. It is in your own family that you the Father are placed as representetive of god the Father. My search for community has brought me back to where I left off, home. Sure we go to church , but as a family first. Joining with other families in collective worship but to , during and on the way back always as a family. Household is the term used in the bible. [family is modern speech and can today mean anything you want it to] A household was a multigenerational institution, with the elder members active and head. A family also represents the dead the living and those yet to come. Our stewardship as Fathers may be just one link in it’s chain but the things we did and are doing for good and ill will resonate through history right up to judgement day .
With that in mind God bless you as you navigate your family ark through the spiritual deluge.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I came upon your site through another blog, and while I can understand your discomfort, perhaps the whole point of worship is not HOW we worship, but WHO we worship. It may have felt childish to you, but remember, out of the mouths of babes comes worship also. Just because the style was different than what YOU were familiar with, does not make it any less pleasing to God. Just my two cents! :0)
May 24th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Hi Elizabeth
You wrote…
“the whole point of worship is not HOW we worship, but WHO we worship”
I still think HOW we worship says an awful lot about Who we worship. Anyhow, I wasn’t trying to pick any fights fights. Just thinking out loud. I do that sometimes