Worship - Offering Yourself to God

Today I thought to share a devotional on the power of worship, taken from The Purpose Driven Life website, home of Senior Pastor Rick Warren.

The devotional explains what the power of worship is all about. As it states emphatically, "...worship is offering yourself to God..." Your whole self. Romans 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your reasonable act of worship. (NIV).

Many people think they worship God when they

• sing the worship songs on Sunday in church
  
• listen to good Christian teachings on the radio
• give of their time to help the poor
• give finances (for a tax receipt)

But as this article shows us, God wants our whole self. Read the article and discover ways fear is keeping you from offering your whole self to God. Keeping you from worship.


Worship - Offering Yourself to God

Bringing Your Church to a Higher Level of Worship

All of us want to be better worshipers, and in turn lead our congregations to a higher level of worship. Here are a few thoughts gleaned from 20 years of leading worship in dozens of denominations, cultures and languages.

1. Start where the people are. Begin with songs they know and love and worship God with those songs. Gradually introduce new songs that especially lead people to worship. Make sure that you, your musicians, and your sound people are doing a good job musically with the songs.
   
   
2. Be a great role model for your worship band and congregation. People learn by watching and if you’re the leader that means they’re watching you. Make sure you’re just not leading songs but that you’re worshipping God as you sing and play. Know the music so well that you don’t have to think about it. Rehearsal time is for learning songs and worship time is for worshipping. Be sensitive and loving to the people you lead. If they sense that you love them and they feel God’s presence in the worship, they’ll be glad to follow you.
   
   
3. Ask your senior pastor to teach on worship. As people realize that singing, shouting, clapping hands, raising hands, instrumental music, bowing down and other acts of worship are in the Word, they will be more open to doing it themselves. Encourage the other ministry staff and your worship team to be great models of worship. People generally take their worship cues from their leaders.
   
   
4. Make sure your walk with the Lord is strong. Make sure your worship team’s walk with the Lord is strong. Are you spending daily time with God in prayer, reading the Word and loving people? God’s power in your worship time is directly proportional to God’s power in your daily life.
   
   by Mark Cole (Arranger, Worship Leader)