God has been going crazy at 24/7! Talk about JOYFUL worship! Two reasons why I think it’s happening:
- Our services have been more about Jesus than our church. When you have a church that spends all its time talking about how YOU are going to do things, what YOU need to change, how YOU felt about the music last week, what direction YOU think the church needs to be going, what YOUR doctrine statement is, how YOU are managing the church’s money, what YOUR vision for the church is, the things YOU think are important to have in a meeting…the souls God has placed under your leadership to steward are never led to the One from which all meaning and significance flows. The moment even one single aspect of your ministry stops being about God, the entire ministry becomes irrelevant and pointless, and its purpose is reduced to simply making you feel good about yourself for “doing what God called you to do.” God never calls people to do anything that makes them the hero. Churches must be all about how GOD wants to do things, what GOD is pleased with, where GOD leads you, and what brings GOD the most praise and glory.
- We’ve prayed for a spirit of celebration instead of a spirit of success. The reason we go to church services is not primarily so that God will do something, but because of what God has done already. The Sabbath was the day God rested from working the other six days. We should not ever rely on the one hour per week we have at church for God to do miraculous things. We should be listening for God’s voice and acting on what He reveals to us on the other six days, and use Sunday to rest and celebrate. So many Christian’s lives revolve around what they will get out of a church service, when really, they should be bringing something to put into the church service as a harvest of the work God has done through their faithfulness. We sing songs to God because He is faithful and praiseworthy…but unless we truly believe that, our voices are empty, and unless we are seeking God in the other 167 hours of the week, we will have a much harder time truly believing. Soren Kiergegaard said, “It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey”…obedience nurtures belief. None of this means that God doesn’t do miraculous things and speak to people and change lives at a church service, in fact it’s often quite the opposite—but we ought to come to church services with joy and thankfulness more often than despair and demands. God often only gives us more when we are good stewards of what we have already.
When we put God and His glory above ourselves and our own efforts, and when we are satisfied in Him instead of demanding of Him, INCREDIBLE THINGS HAPPEN.
