Not sure how I felt about this Sunday.

The theme of this week’s message was purpose… why do I exist? Our pastor delivered a simple message, shorter than usual.  Our purpose has already been determined: to please our Creator.  Bring Him glory.  Serve Him.

It’s an awesome theme.  Should be the theme of every worship service.  

Song list: 
Cry Out Your Name (Moore): ‘I cry out Your name, that’s why I’m created…’
‘Til I See You (Houston/Gillies):  ’I will live to love You, I will live to bring You praise, I will live a child in awe of You.’
I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous) and Your Name (Baloche/Brown): response following the message.
Glorified (Anderson): ‘Praise belongs to You, what can I do but sing? The greatest joy I’ve found is to lay a crown before my King….. I have but one voice, one heart, and one sacrifice. So would you take this life laid down and be glorified.’  (to listen to this song, see the previous post)

It was a worship experience thick with truth.  Musicians did a great job with the music. I enjoyed singing these songs.  Yet two things made me go ‘hmmm…’ by the time we were packing up mic cables. 

1. flow….  slightly out of whack.   There were a couple of elements that had to be included at the beginning of the worship service, and, honestly, it felt as though the congregation was in full ‘spectator’ mode by the time we invited them to participate with us. We placed more music after the message than before, so it seemed like the congregation never had a chance to fully engage before the message.  ’Flow’ isn’t everything, but it is something, so this bugged me.  If only I had, you know, complete creative control over such things… oh, wait a minute….

2. new lenses…. a friend of ours came to church for the first time on Sunday. His family comes from a very different faith background; this was the first time he had attended a Christian church.  He has experienced some deep stuff in life recently, and because of Neil’s friendship in the past, asked if he could come to church with us.  Because he has found himself praying and he doesn’t even understand what that means.  Isn’t that awesome?  He enjoyed our church, and plans on coming back, which is amazing.   But his presence there made me view our worship experience through very different lenses, which probably made me more internally critical than usual.  If only I had control over that inner voice… dang it….

My prayer throughout the morning was that God’s presence would be real to all who came with open hearts… and that we wouldn’t mess up the delivery of His message.  Actually, my prayer was, “Lord, please don’t let us screw this up”.  Elegant, I realize.  

Bottom line:  While the experience overall felt like a ‘B+’ to me, truth was proclaimed.  Worship was offered.  All was done with intent to bring glory to God.  And a most revolutionary truth was lived out: perhaps the glory brought to God actually does matter more than my ‘feeling’ about the experience.

How was your Sunday?

This post is part of Sunday Setlists.