When Grace Becomes The Instructor [audio]
[Sunday Service January 8th, 2011 - Wade Petteys]
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Redemtion Was Not God’s Plan B [audio]
The fall of man didn’t take God by surprise, it was God’s intent and purpose from the start!
[Sunday Service December 18th, 2011 - Wade Petteys]
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What God Got Out Of Man’s Fall [audio]
[Sunday Service November 20th, 2011 - Wade Petteys]
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You Shall Not Fall [audio]
[Sunday School November 20th, 2011 - Ned Kneebone]
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Is Your Worship Vertically Challenged?
Being a partaker of the worship experience that is Gateway is a wondrous blessing in a whole slew of different ways and I am forever thankful that the Lord has seen fit to allow me to be a part of the body here. I recently posted on my blog, Producing Worship, and was asked to put a post here that speaks to Gateway a bit more directly, and not just in general terms as in my previous post. I pray that our worship experience at Gateway will continue to grow into exactly what the Lord would have for us.
All to often during worship services I have observed what I call vertically challenged worship. You ask, what do you mean?
How often have you been there amidst a worship service and you get that odd feeling that people are not really worshipping, but just there taking up space and mouthing the words(horizontal) rather than worshipping the Creator of the Universe?
Please don’t take me wrong, I’m not calling out anyone in particular here – I have been guilty of this in my past as well. Just recently I have been reminded of how much this practice eats me up and irritates me. So to discuss where I feel the focus needs to be directed here a couple of definitions that go hand in hand:
Vertical: at right angles to a horizontal plane; in a direction, or having an alignment, such that the top is directly above the bottom. *
Worship: reverent honor paid to God, adoring reverence or regard. *
Put the two together and I come up with:
Vertical Worship: the act of an adoring reverence or regard in an alignment towards God who is directly above.
You ask what this looks like? Usually you can easily tell the difference between those in the congregation that are vertically aligned and the horizontal ilk by where their collective gaze is; is it an upward focus, or more on each other, the worship leaders, band, or on whatever other distractions are going on in their life.
Now seriously I’m not trying to pick here, but if the focus seems to be on distractions and not on the Lord, I feel that we have broken away from what scripture tells us “make a joyful noise UNTO the Lord…”
And you have to realize that this isn’t necessarily the fault of the aforementioned leaders, band, solely, often its the congregation at fault. All to often even when the leaders etc are giving their all, the congregation, or a majority are way to distracted by life or the game coming on in a few hours…
Now to pull it all in, how do we put this into practice? Well, in a couple of ways; first is the fact that all worship is a personal thing from you towards Jesus. Secondly you need to allow yourself to be lead, this of course being done by being on the same page as the leaders and participating actively. And remember that everyone brings something to a service, so what are you bringing to the plate? Is it time spent with the Lord during the week so that you are prepared for service, or it all of your own distractions that prohibit you from doing your part?
Make a point to be mindful to keep your worship vertical, our leaders will pick out songs are about/to the Lord, and congregation – set your distractions aside! Keep the focus on Him who is worthy of the worship.
-Drew (@mrdrewjames)
*Definitions modified from dictionary.com
