That was indeed unusual for Baptist. Great for you guys. That was not a
every week thing at our church in Texas, but it happened frequently enough.
Every week at the end of the service the pastor would invite anyone to
come up for prayer for healing, problems you'd have or anything, any
need. Usually if you wanted to just talk to him or a few of the others
that would help out, you couldn't because they were so busy. I miss that
here. I think it is all kept way too quote, private. As Kathy and I had
dialogued, if someone were to come up for prayer here, it would be... "Did
you see that so and so went up for prayer?" instead of being genuinely
concerned and perhaps encouraging them next time you see them, people will
shy away from them here. Not all, but most. Instead of coming up for prayer
after a good message that got you thinking of where your life is in Christ,
you are encouraged to fill out communication cards for prayer. I think that
is so dry and cold. Actually I've been having some difficulty myself, not
saying anything to anyone else in the family, but I have been having some
question as to our church. Great people, and I hope they can get to a point
of being more real, more open with things. Perhaps I'm trying to move the
church I had in Texas up here, but it was so nice to have security in
knowing what you church was doing in the community, what difference it was
making, instead of hearing nothing of the kind. And of course the praying
after church. And worship service? How wonderfully flowing would it be if
between songs we were encouraged with... "Oh Lord, thank you for your
presence among us, thank you for your wonderful grace and mercy on our
lives, we sing to you this morning with not just words from our lips but
words from our heart oh God, it is our desire Lord to honor you this
morning, we stand as broken and willing servants and please accept our
worship as honor to you this morning", rather than hearing... "OK the next
song we are going to do here now is "This Is My Desire" Feel free to sit,
or stand or raise your hands, this is a time of expression here now if you
so choose, and well, ahem (clearing throat) let this be your desire".
I don't know, to me it is a matter of encouraging the heart, from an
encouraged and meaningful heart towards God. Not cold, not dry, not having
to instruct people to raise hands, clap, or kneel at the seat, but to bring
about an environment from a leader engolfed in worship in which they know
that is encouraged from a truly worshipful heart. Here we have the power
point guys getting miffed at the worship singer, I won't say leader, as we
do not technically have one, which is part of the problem, but if the
singer sings an extra chorus, the power point guys have fits. I've
literally told everyone at practice times, several times I said... "Look,
if we sing an extra chorus, they will follow, they are not idiots, the
words are there as a guide and not to be worshipped themselves. If we
cannot sing without following exactly what the power point says and for go
it for what the leader, or leaders are doing, then we are worshipping the
wrong God aren't we?" This falls on deaf ears. In a couple weeks we are
having someone come in and lead, I'm trusting they will truly worship and
people will notice the difference. I've talked to the music director or guy
in charge of the worship service about leading on some of the Sunday's we
have conflicts with the quote, leader, unquote, but he has a thing about
anyone leading with an instrument. He seems to think people will follow a
person better if they just have a mic. At first I thought it was a
blindness thing, but not really. He actually has a blind cousin who is very
independent and I don't believe that is an issue. They just have
quirky ways about worship that are very foreign to me. Perhaps this is why
I've enjoyed a non or inter-denominational service as oppose to the
traditional church loosening its belt with more contemporary worship, it
is not the same.
Brad
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