In the last blog, we stated that the object of our worship must be God, and God alone. In the Kingdom, we have tended to focus on "parts" of God's mission to the point that different denominations have appeared based on a particular focus or certain areas of ministry sometimes being out of balance with God's call to the church. Biblically, the purpose or ultimate goal of the church is the worship of God. Some have tried to say the ultimate goal is discipleship. Therefore, their focus is on one to one discipleship or small group discipleship to the exclusion of any emphasis on worship or evangelism. Others have tried to say the ultimate goal or purpose is mission and evangelism. Again, the ministries of worship and discipleship sometimes suffer because of this mindset.
Once again, the ultimate goal or purpose of the church is worship, both private and corporate. The Great Commandment (Mark 12:30-31) informs us of this. The mission of the church is found in The Great Commission. (Matt. 28:19-20) You can't neglect worship and expect to be fruitful in evangelism and discipleship. Worship feeds and empowers our mission of evangelism and discipleship. And, if you have true authentic worship, you can only respond, "Here I am, Lord" in obedience to the missions' heart of God. In the next blog we will discuss some substitutes for worship that we seemed to have created in the church in our time. mjm
A Melody from Michael J. . . . a Personal and Worship Blog
