Tag: Worship

Crushing Traumatized People

After I got struck with chronic health problems a few years ago, I was forced to notice how much Pentecostal churches preach that if you just make some grand display of worship, you will be miraculously healed. But I’ve done the things, and I’m still sick, so I guess I did them wrong? It can be confusing, and if I were new at this, or hadn’t actually read the Bible, I would be defeated by my experience.

This approach to healing is not scriptural. No one ever came to Jesus wanting to be healed (or to get healing for someone else) where Jesus said something like, “Hey, worship God like your life depended on it, and maybe I’ll do it.” He never demanded worship to heal. He often asked for a display of thanksgiving AFTER the healing, but not before. If He asked for anything, it was a confession of FAITH.

I’ve heard it preached that God led Abraham to the Promised Land because he “worshipped” God by being willing to offer his son as a sacrifice. Nonsense. His attitude wasn’t joyful or thankful. It was depicted as somber and resigned. That was a story about OBEDIENCE and FAITH that God would somehow work it out, regardless of what it looked like. The same message referenced marching around the walls and “shouting” at Jericho, as though that “worship” brought down the city. But the army of Israel wasn’t “shouting” in worship the way the phrase is understood in modern churches. They were letting out a war cry in OBEDIENCE and FAITH in what God had promised.

It’s been a very frustrating few years for me now, and it’s been compounded by these “Pentecostalisms.” Let’s just worship, shall we? God is still God, and worthy of praise and worship regardless. Let’s not make it into something that obligates God to do anything for us. And it’s OK if I can’t run laps or stand on my head anymore, isn’t it?

I can’t find a book called “Thriving Forward” by Diane Langberg, but she has several with intriguing titles that make this quote seem legit.

Return to Organic Church Services

We have special church services many times a year. Can I suggest a new one? Can we have a service where there are no directions?

These days, it feels like we never go more than a couple of minutes without being told to do something. Come to the altar. Raise your hands. Shout. Dance. Jump. Clap. Say amen. Pray for someone. Tell someone your deepest problem. Reach across the aisle, and pick your neighbor’s nose. On and on and on. All the time. Every service.

And there’s this looming fear that we should do it because the person with the microphone is saying it under the unction of the Holy Ghost, but it’s so frequent these days that it’s no longer special. It just feels like spiritual calisthenics and time stretching.

There’s power in letting conviction take root. There’s power in letting it be awkward. There’s power when someone steps out and walks down to the altar without being asked. I’ve been that guy many times, and it changes your life. With all of the constant instructions, there’s very little room for steeping in the worship and the preaching, and being obvious about changing your direction any more.

Just once a year, can we have a service where we aren’t asked to do anything? Nothing. Sing or don’t sing. Say amen or don’t. Just let it ride. I just want to have an “organic” service for a change. I just want to sing the songs, listen to a sermon, and let everything else happen as the Spirit leads. All I ask for is altar music and enough volume so that I can pray without people hearing what I’m confessing over in the next section. Is it just me?