On August 12 a small group of ARC members attended worship at the Cornerstone Prison Church. Cornerstone is an organized church within the walls of the South Dakota State Penitentiary, and I have the privilege of leading worship there every Friday night. On this particular occasion the men were “shaking the rafters” (as one inmate put it) and the passion was overflowing in worship. During a time of prayer requests, Pastor Mike asked that “the same spirit of worship at Cornerstone would descend upon our church.”
Part of my job as Pastor of Worship and Spiritual Formation is to help mold our people into passionate worshipers of Jesus Christ, particularly on Sunday mornings, but I have to admit I am at a loss about how to do this well, and I am asking for your help. Each Sunday I look out into the eyes of everyone, and there is a wide range of participation levels. Some are energetically singing and maybe even raising hands, others are totally bored, and the vast majority fall somewhere in between. It has been well-documented that when the children sing in church, they tone down their gusto several notches compared with singing downstairs. There is something holding us back.
I’ve tried to diagnose our general lack of enthusiasm in worship, and why we are so reserved and quiet, and some practical possibilities come to mind:
- The new sanctuary is such a big room that people can’t hear each other sing as well as in the past, and therefore we tend to be tentative.
- Most people aren’t listening to Christian music during the week, and as a result we find ourselves worshipping hesitantly as we struggle to learn new songs.
- Maybe I myself am the “lid” keeping the spiritual growth from happening either due to musical limitations or not having a strong enough spirit of worship myself.
- Some other factors not easily identified?
These are all practical issues that might be stunting our growth, but I hate to think about the possibility that the zeal of our worship (or lack thereof) perfectly mirrors the level of our love for God. What if that is true? I guess I’ve always assumed that most ARC members are deeply in love with Jesus, yet for whatever reasons we have a hard time being comfortable enough to express our gratitude and affection in the large group setting. Lately, however, I’ve been up at night wondering if the unthinkable is true: our worship is equal to our love.
Whether due to practical issues or spiritual issues, I think the time has come to take a good, honest look at our heart of worship. Therefore, my plan is to ask Arlin and the tech crew to constantly pan the audience’s faces during our broadcast in order to reveal who is engaged and who is not. Just kidding! I think a better course of action is to ask everyone in ARC to help me discern what is hindering us and how we can grow together to worship more passionately. Please approach one of the following members of the worship team (committee) with your feedback: Darrel Van Aartsen, Jim Ouverson, Cory Grimm, Katelyn Van Aartsen, Rachel Renken, Codie Zeutenhorst.
Cory Grimm