Home Worship & Creative Leaders Articles for Worship & Creative Why Your Worship Service is More Than a Pep Rally

Why Your Worship Service is More Than a Pep Rally

The pastor was a manipulator. 

He and the musicians would whip the crowd into a frenzy of praise and shouting, then they would sit back and laugh and talk among themselves while the inferno raged. When the intensity began to recede, they struck it up again and “laid on the ‘rousements,’” as one African-American brother called it. 

The congregation seemed not to notice or care that they were being whipped into a frenzy of religious emotion, but went along with the plan.

I walked out thinking what an insult that all was to the Lord. No wonder reasonably-minded people want nothing to do with such.

When worship leaders make a conscious decision to keep everything exciting, they start going for noise, celebrity appearances, dramatic stories, special effects and glitter. Before long, they realize they have created a monster. People who are addicted to these things find their appetite grows to monstrous proportions and are never satisfied, but want more and bigger and gaudier.

I will go so far as to say that in times of drudgery, we do our best work for the Lord.

When a job has lost its glamour and you have to make yourself get up and don your working clothes and get to it one more day, that’s when you make your highest statement about honor and duty.

One day, looking back, you will realize this was your finest hour.

When God seems far away—Oh, you do realize there will be such times in the lives of every believer, don’t you? If not, we have some remedial Bible work to do—you learn in a heartbeat whether you are going to be able to walk by faith or not.

When the encouragers vanish and you find yourself tackling the assignment without their support, you will know whether you are called of God. If you’ve not read the fourth chapter of Second Timothy lately, I suggest you do so, particularly if you thought that every day of the Christian life was supposed to be (ahem) “exciting.”

Paul was about to be crucified upside down. Imagine that. But, prior to that, he would face Caesar one more time. As it was the previous time, it would be him and the Lord there, his friends having been called out of town on that day for “more pressing” responsibilities.

Some concluding thoughts.

I read the above to my wife and asked for her reaction. She said, “It’s depressing.” Maybe so. I sure don’t mean it to be. My hope is to bring some reality, some counterbalance, to the demand that every service give us an emotional high.

I love exciting worship services. Two Sundays ago, our church began the service by baptizing five people. That was exciting. We welcomed back a young lady who had just spent her summer in Mexico sharing Christ in a remote village where there was no evangelical church, and her report was exciting. The pastor brought an inspiring message from John’s Gospel, and at the invitation time, the altar was crowded with people on their knees praying.

But, I would be highly offended if my pastor went into Monday morning’s staff meeting and asked the other ministers to help him find things to do for next Sunday that would make the service exciting. Excitement should be a byproduct of faithfulness, but not the main one and only at the discretion of the Holy Spirit.

I’ll say again, the moment we decide to go for excitement in every service, we have started down a troublesome path that leads to nowhere God’s people ought to be going.