If you don’t look forward to the Sunday worship service at your church, then you must be in the wrong church! 

Or are you?

I talked to an acquaintance recently who told me about a new ministry he, his wife and some friends were beginning, similar to Experience Worship, but more of a cell group based ministry, intentionally out of the “church” atmosphere. Sometimes the fancy sanctuaries and people dressed larger than life is a far cry from the everyday life so many people are in need of.  The part his wife missed about Sundays was corporate worship. 

Worshipping with a group of believers can indeed be a powerful moment.  In its right intention, it’s as though it transports us from our daily struggles like being abandoned by someone you love, a dismal financial situation, a healing yet to be revealed, and delivers us right at the feet of Jesus.  It prepares our hearts to receive the word of the Lord and encourages us to forget our problems and focus our minds on the Lord.

But if you think worship is just about Sunday mornings, choir robes, and hymnals, then consider what a friend of mine told me about his recent trip to Africa. On their way (by foot) to church, he wondered what he would encounter.  How do people who are impoverished, abandoned, and fighting to survive, worship?  What happens when there is no fancy wall to wall carpeting, elaborate stage to house beautiful bouquets of flowers? 

They sing from the bottom of their heart, with power and intensity.  They worship with all their soul, because that is truly all they have to offer.  He said their prayer time was electric with fervency, calling on God with great passion.  They danced, unashamedly before God, with a freedom that must delight the heart of God.

Worship is so much more than Sunday mornings!  Worship happens when we bring our gifts and talents to God, whatever they are, and lay them at His feet.  When we offer them as our sacrifice and ask, “Please use my ability to bring people to a new relationship with You.”  It’s then He can and will use us. I invite you to Experience more than just another church service, another sermon, another choir song or worship song or for that matter your Sunday school class. I challenge you to worship Him every day, through everything you do. He’s there with you wherever you are, rejoicing over you and singing over you. Join Him in the song and dance. It’s what you were created to do.

Regi & Kim Stone