Years ago I would frequent another church’s Saturday night service. I was pretty burned out at the time, and I really liked the pastor of the church, so I’d sneak over there every once in a while to get a spiritual shot in the arm.
I’ll never forget one Saturday night the worship pastor standing up and telling the congregation,
“In my prayer time this week God told me that we are supposed to begin taking our worship to the streets. So what we’re going to do is rent a huge flatbed truck, put our entire worship team on it, hook our speakers up to a generator and drive it through the streets playing worship music and lifting our hands to Jesus!”
That’s just wonderful, I thought, because, I don’t know, people don’t already think Christians are freaky enough.
Lies Worship Pastors Tell You
As stupid as I thought the idea was at the time, I appreciated their desire to “get out in the streets.” The problem wasn’t their method. While I’m not sure turning 10 artsy people loose on a flatbed truck with microphones was the safest thing to do without air support, at least they were trying something.
The problem is their definition of worship: Worship = singing songs accompanied by music.
What the worship pastor doesn’t understand is that his people already “hit the streets” and “worship” every day of their lives. Through their work. And their attitudes. By the way they wash and wax their cars. Through the way they love their spouses.
But more importantly, the bigger problem with the worship pastor’s suggestion is it belies the fact that he has let his American, utilitarian worldview seep into his understanding of what it means to ascribe worth (worth-ship) to God.
What most Christians don’t get is that worship can’t be “turned on.” People can’t be “led into” worship. Christians are continuously worshipping. 24/7. All the time. Through everything they do, say, feel and give.
If you’re a Christian, you’re always worshipping.
Whether or not you’re doing it well is a different story.
This article originally appeared here.
