The worship of the church was never meant to be entertainment or a show. In fact, I literally cringe when someone from the congregation comes up to me and says, "good show." And, yes, it does happen. Too much of what the contemporary church calls worship is strictly on a horizontal level. We are performing for one another as opposed to seeking to connect with God Himself. We are not vertical in our approach.
If the things we do in God's house are basically all about us, God is not going to be in the house. We call it worshipping God and yet are more aware of one another and asking questions like . . . "How is this coming across? . . . Is everybody happy with the music? . . . How's the sermon? . . . How do we look?" . . . or "Are we still on schedule"? And before we know it our so-called worship is degenerated to being completely human centered. The focus is on us.
Another thing we do is look at the purpose of worship as being evangelistic. When we are focused on "how are the visitors perceiving this? . . . are we impressing them? . . . will they want to come back?" So everything being done, sung, and said is put through the filter of the perception of the outsider. Don't get me wrong. I believe in evangelistic efforts and events.
But on a week by week worship basis, the focus or the agenda is different. Worship should not be designed to attract people. It should be designed and prayed for to attract the manifest presence of God and then He and His manifest presence will attract people to worship. Our purpose in worship is to reach out to God. He is the audience of one...not the congregation. Another way of putting it is. . . we shouldn't be seeking results. We should seek Jesus and He'll give the results. "But seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." If we as His people will go after God, He will bless beyond our imagination or expectation. mjm
