You know that one song that you just love?  The one that when you hear it makes you feel like you are just so close to God?  Sometimes it’s just so easy to worship Him!  But what about that one song that you just can’t stand.  Yeah, it’s about God and Jesus and stuff, the words are real spiritual, but you just can’t worship to it.  Sometimes it’s just difficult.  The feelings aren’t there and it would just be forced, right?

So many times we spend our days just living our lives.  We just go about our normal lives and wait until Sunday provides (or doesn’t provide) that perfect opportunity for us to be able to worship God.  I know, I hear you.  The chorus after the bridge of that song is so powerful that you can’t help but worship!  That’s good but we are still leaving out a major chunk of our lives.  Paul tries to make us understand in Romans.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.

Romans 12:1

We are told to live our everyday lives for God.  That is worship.  Not just our sing church songs-pass the offering plate-listen to a sermon-everyweek Sunday.  Worship is far more than just the time that your bulletin has listed under the “Worship” category.  Well, maybe that’s all it is for you, but it should be our lives.  We have to make the choice to worship God in all we do.  When we only worship because it feels right, we are aren’t following the Biblical instruction we are given in Romans.

Worshipping is an attitude.  It’s not based on feelings.  If our feelings were the key ingredient then there would be nothing wrong with not worshipping God when we don’t feel like it.  But according to Romans, even when we don’t feel like it we should be worshipping.  We shouldn’t worship just to our favorite song.  It’s great if a song makes you feel closer to God or gets your emotions going because of who He is or what He has done, but if that’s all our worship is, then it is shallow and not truly honoring Him.

This week I’m gonna try to worship God with my whole life and not just the convenient, mountain top, camp high or planned “worship” times.  When Sunday rolls around and your church plays that song that just aren’t feeling, remember that worship is more than a feeling.  It is a choice.  Choose to worship God for who He is and not for how you feel.

As the church many times we miss the point of the music in our experiences.  I am not claiming that for all churches or that I am not guilty of this because I would be severely wrong in many cases.  But what is really the point in singing songs together while reading the words off the screen?  Do we do it because we like the songs?  Do we do it out of habit?  Do we do it because it makes us feel good?  Is it because the music is good?  Do we do it out of tradition?  What is it?  I mean if you think about it, as a friend of mine put it, it’s really a weird thing to come together and sing like that.  We really don’t do that very often outside of church.  I think that a lot of the time we just lose our focus (assuming it was directed in the right place to start with is a big jump but I hope that happens).  Our mind goes to things like the music is too loud, I don’t know this song so I will just tune out, I don’t have a good voice so I don’t sing, I don’t want people around me to hear me, etc.  But our main problem isn’t what is good or bad with the music or what we like or don’t like, but where our focus is.

When we are worried about any range of little things our focus is no longer where it should be.  We have now shifted to focusing on ourselves.  What do I want?  What do I like?  What if they hear me?  What if blah, blah, blah?  Our little world is now revolving around us and not where it should be.  If our focus is in the right direction, on God, then we stop thinking about what our neighbor thinks of our harmonizing or how we never really learned the words to this song and we starting realizing that God just wants our worship.  He wants our hearts.  When we are truly worshiping with our hearts it doesn’t matter if we know the words to the song.  It doesn’t matter if there are words to the song.  It doesn’t matter what the people next to us smell like, look like or sing like.  The ONLY thing that matters is that God knows we are just releasing everything to Him and expressing our hearts in a musical form!

My prayer for our church is that we learn that worship is more than singing songs.  I hope that we can see that this time of worship music, whether long or short, is a time for us to escape our crazy selfish lives and give all that we have to our Daddy.  I want the people there on Sundays and our staff and me and my band to see this time as a time to focus on He who created us and loves us and gives up everything for us.  It is a time to reflect on how very big our God is and how everything is done because He alone allows it.  It is a time to celebrate how awesome our God is and the things that He has done.  I pray that everyone from the grandparents to the musicians to the ushers understands that music is just a gift and a creative vessel in which we can easily glorify our God.

So sing your hearts out!  Clap and shout!  Rip up that solo!  Harmonize like the Beach Boys!  But do it all for Him.  Let’s stop singing just to sing.  Let’s really make it worship from our hearts.

A friend of mine and fellow blogger posted some great thoughts on his blog at ScottRodgers.tv.  I read it and it really got me thinking about the things we do in church and why we do them.  So I am gonna jump on the topic bandwagon and do it too!  

Why is it so easy to get into a rut?  I am not speaking directly at any certain church or congregation, but more of in general.  For those of you that know me or read my blog very often you know that I am a worship pastor and have been leading the music at churches and youth groups pretty regularly for the past 10 years or so.  I have lead in many different churches, youth groups or gatherings that all have their own styles and traditions.  I think that is awesome!  I know that there isn’t one church that is going to be the best fit or reach every person.  I like that there are lots of different kinds.  I like something completely different that many of my best friends!  But what I don’t like is when we are so set in our ways that we can’t see that our traditions or routines or whatever you want to call them are not impacting our lives at all anymore.

Now, I am not saying that every church needs to be like mine.  I’m not saying that at all!  I am saying that we should all be looking at the things that we do and the reasons that we do them.  Scott Rodgers wrote about the difference in singing in church and really getting into the music.  That doesn’t mean we should stop with the hymns.  I know people that absolutely love the hymns and really get into them.  That doesn’t mean we should stop with the contemporary music.  I grew up in a church that is a very vibrant and growing church that has a congregation that gets into their music.  It also doesn’t mean that we should stop with the progressive music either.  I myself get into this much more than anything else!  The thing is that there are people in each place that are just singing because that’s the thing to do and that’s what the guy or girl leading said to do.  That’s the craziness in church.

But it doesn’t stop with just the people in the crowd.  I believe it can happen to anyone!  I know it has happened to me before.  This past Sunday was Easter Sunday.  We ended the experience with Salvation Is Here by Hillsong.  We have done it before.  It’s nothing new to the church.  But still it’s funny to watch sometimes because I can tell by the expressions on people’s faces when they are singing just because and when they are really getting into the music (and by getting into the music I don’t mean just the beat but the lyrics and true drive of the songs).  The pastor spoke about worshipping a living Jesus instead of unintentionally showing the world a dead Jesus.  This sparked life into many people that morning.  They were no longer just singing some church songs, but they were engaged in the lyrics and passion of the songs!  He is a risen Lord!  Salvation is here and He lives in me!  He is the Way!

Why is it so difficult to be so engaged in the music?  We have no problem doing it at concerts of our favorite bands!  Why do we let ourselves (myself and many other pastors and worship pastors included) forget why we are doing these things?  Why do we let the most expressive, emotional, and passionate time of music become the mundane once a week blah?  How can we ever forget that Christ gave up everything to live a life on earth and die a horrific death for us?!  As Scott Rodgers said, “If you’re just ’singing in church’, maybe it’s time to connect His story with your story.  It’s time to express your response to what He’s done and is doing in your life.  Maybe it’s time to stop singing and start worshipping.  After all, singing in church is just strange.”