I HATE YOUR NOISY WORSHIP

Here is a post I did last week as a guest blogger on Jeff's blog. I wanted to add a few more thoughts God has awakened me to, but for those to make since I thought I would first re-post that blog. More to come!!

Over the last few months God has been forming something deep inside of me in regards to worship. For years I have been a Christian, worshipped at churches, camps, conferences, etc. But lately something changed. There is something beyond a band, beyond lights, beyond a stage, beyond hymns, it’s more than a traditional service and it’s bigger than a modern service.

In Amos 5: 21-24 it reads: I hate all your show and pretense – the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living!

You must define what worship is. I see it this way. THE GOAL OF WORSHIP IS FOR MY HEART TO CONNECT WITH GOD’S HEART. That’s it! Its not about singing 1 song or 5 songs. 15 minutes of worship or 50 minutes of worship. The GOAL is that our hearts would connect with God’s heart. Alright so, if that’s the goal then what happens next is God begins to give us His heart. My heart should be changed in worship and I begin to get His heart. So the question is, WHAT IS GOD’S HEART? WHAT DOES HE CARE ABOUT MOST! I think its evident that he was passionate about lost people, hurting people, the poor, the lonely, the outcast and the broken. That is who he was around, that is who His heart breaks for. So in worship, if my heart is connecting with His heart, and I begin to have heart change and get more of his heart, and I begin to feel and care about what He cares about. Then I have to ask the question, WHAT AM I DOING ABOUT IT.

See this is where I think Amos 5 is key. WITHOUT ACTION OUR WORSHIP IS NOTHING BUT “NOISY HYMNS OF PRAISE”, or as the message puts it “I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.”

My goal for worship at Element Church is to facilitate and environment where your heart will connect with the heart of God. I want them to get fired up about what God cares about and leave to change the world. See most of us leave our worship times at church and do nothing, absolutely STINKING nothing. And then God shows us Amos 5. Too many of us in communities across America do nothing. We want the world to come to us and we never become the hands and feet of Jesus. BECAUSE OF WORSHIP the poor should be fed, the needy taken care of, cities given what they need most. But its not just pastors, its YOU connecting with the heart of God and partnering with a passion bigger than you. I love how the message says it:
“Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it.”

This is also why EXCELLENCE is key. Without excellence you become a distraction. Distractions hinder heart-connection. When things are done well, with preparation it actually creates an environment of freedom and flexibility. Lights, Stages, Rock N Roll, music, instruments, hymns, cathedrals, and sprung buildings are all tools to help CONNECT OUR HEARTS WITH THE HEART OF GOD AND CHANGE THE WORLD!

Adam