Thursday, May 17, 2007

the passion to worship


I was flipping through this book the other night, and had to share this section that I really love. It's from The Safest Place on Earth by Larry Crabb, a book on spiritual community.

"I sometimes wonder if the most serious mistake we make in our churches is trying to get people to worship. The passion to worship needs an opportunity for release. The Christian longs for a chance to worship. But frentic efforts to stir the passion produce only a shallow counterfeit. Both traditional and contemporary styles of worship provide that chance when the worship leader has nothing of himself (or herself) at stake and is therefore not trying to make anything happen for his/her sake.


We must learn to structure the opportunity to worship, to re-create the event that stirs our hearts, and then get out of the way and let the Spirit do the work of drawing us to Christ.


Only relaxed people worship well. And we can relax because we are forgiven. God is no longer thundering at us from the top of the mountain. Now He is whispering to us as a lover - a jealous lover to be sure, but still a lover - not a critic. Saints, people who relax in their new purity, love to worship. It's their favorite thing to do."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

GREAT post Jeannie. Haven't read this book, but I'll certainly get a hold of it after reading this excerpt.

Have I mentioned lately how sad I am that you're not singing on a worship team at MY church? You're a dream for ANY worship pastor!!

Josh H said...

and a hearty amen to that, dan!

Erin said...

hey, havent stopped by and said hi in awhile so i thought i would. will and i walked a 5k with kevin and connie the other day and i said, so anybody up for a trip to minnesota? i got groans, so i take it that was a no...ahhh...that week will forever be etched in all of our minds:) what wonderful memories of bonding:) so did connie tell you that our dear Andrea is getting married?