Setlist - 26 Jan 2014
Sunday morning at Kings

A rich morning, focussed mainly on worship.

I've been looking for ways to refresh and deepen our times of sung worship. There's a well worn groove that we easily slip into. It's a good one, but there's a great risk that we all go on autopilot.

Active participation in corporate worship is a spiritual discipline. It doesn't just happen to us because we turn up, hear the music, and open our mouths along with the lyrics. It's like physical exercise, which seems a lot of effort if you're not in the habit but which makes the body healthy.

Worship is obviously for God's benefit first and foremost, but the benefit to our spiritual health and the health of our church life is not incidental. That's the beautiful harmony of God's universe, that we are most whole when we give ourselves back to our Maker.

It's such small things that can increase the health of our worship. This morning I encouraged people to meditate on what God has given us before inviting a few people to pray response out loud. Probably seven or eight people immediately did so: many more than usual.

Then after Mark's sermon on John 4, I reminded people that the projected song words should just be a starting point for our worship. We should feel free to sing our own words, sing in tongues, or pray personal prayers of worship along with the singing. Again, that led to many more people bringing public contributions.

I'm actually disturbed by how easy it is to stimulate deeper engagement in worship. Why should I ever let things get stale? I need to take a lot more time in preparation for leading. It takes active preparation for the leader to effectively make room for active participation at the meeting.