I've been thinking a lot about worship lately, so Idecided to look it
up.
Worship is defined as
1:reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power; also
2:an act of expressing such reverence
3:a form of religious practice with its creed and ritual
4:extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem
or as a verb,
1:to honor or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power
2:to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion
(from Merriam-Webster online )
No wonder protestant worship services annoy me. What I've always said I loved about the Catholic Mass is that there is such a feeling of reverence from the moment you walk into the church. There are no children running around, no groups of people exchanging gossip, no visiting with neighbors...just prayerful worship.
Don't misunderstand me; I AM protestant. But I have never really understood the worship service. We sing; sometimes those songs are worship or praise but often they are 'rah 'rah songs that are more about how great it is going to be in heaven, or 'Lord help me' songs. We take communion; this is usually much more reverent. And we listen to a sermon.
I know they did all those things in the early church. Acts talks a lot about the early church. But somehow I think the sermon is, I don't know, misplaced. 30 minutes of worship before a 30 minute sermon just doesn't seem right. I mean, if we're only going to gather together for 'corporate' worship once a week, shouldn't we at least spend more time actually worshipping?
Just a thought. I'm not as dissatisfied as I sound. I just always want to grow our church to a better and closer relationship with God. So I think about these things.
1:reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power; also
2:an act of expressing such reverence
3:a form of religious practice with its creed and ritual
4:extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem
or as a verb,
1:to honor or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power
2:to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion
(from Merriam-Webster online )
No wonder protestant worship services annoy me. What I've always said I loved about the Catholic Mass is that there is such a feeling of reverence from the moment you walk into the church. There are no children running around, no groups of people exchanging gossip, no visiting with neighbors...just prayerful worship.
Don't misunderstand me; I AM protestant. But I have never really understood the worship service. We sing; sometimes those songs are worship or praise but often they are 'rah 'rah songs that are more about how great it is going to be in heaven, or 'Lord help me' songs. We take communion; this is usually much more reverent. And we listen to a sermon.
I know they did all those things in the early church. Acts talks a lot about the early church. But somehow I think the sermon is, I don't know, misplaced. 30 minutes of worship before a 30 minute sermon just doesn't seem right. I mean, if we're only going to gather together for 'corporate' worship once a week, shouldn't we at least spend more time actually worshipping?
Just a thought. I'm not as dissatisfied as I sound. I just always want to grow our church to a better and closer relationship with God. So I think about these things.
