The Heart of Worship

Being born and raised in the Disciples of Christ, I understand the importance of going to a worship service on Sunday mornings and having things happen just as we like. We want our hymns, our prayers, and our traditions. Through the years I have seen the struggles congregations face when trying new things in worship. I even find myself getting caught up in the comfortable traditions I like. Yet, I wonder if those things are really important to the heart of worship.

This past semester I have come to better understand the meaning of worship. Every Friday night, I spend my evening volunteering at a church in Wheeling, West Virginia, that offers a recovery program for co-dependent, chemically dependent, and abused persons. The program starts each week with a worship service in which everyone, no matter why they are in recovery, participates. Some have been lifelong church-goers, and others have never had a church home. Yet when they come together the only thing on their minds is how thankful they are to be loved and accepted by God, despite their past choices. They don't fuss over traditions, no one has a seat they always sit in, and if things don't go as expected, that's OK. At times, I take away more from their 45-minute worship services than I do from our typical hour-long Disciples services. The people at this recovery program have taught me that no matter how a service is structured; all that really matters is that everything is done for God's pleasure, and not our own.

As second semester gets under way, I am quickly thrown into directly dealing with worship services at Bethany Memorial Church. For my covenant with HELM, I am creating a worship series and implementing it at BMC. While organizing these services, I constantly find myself getting caught up in the traditions and the hymns. Will the congregation enjoy the services I have put together? And just as I begin to stress myself out, I remember that the heart of worship is not the sermon, or the music, or our little traditions. It is praising God with all our hearts, and being completely genuine in that praise. If everything goes wrong with the services I have planned, that is OK with me -- as long as the chaos that comes from it is full of genuine praise for God.

There is a popular praise song called "Heart of Worship," and the chorus says,