I have the honor of preaching this coming Sunday, and I always enjoy the opportunities to share from my heart. This coming Sunday I will spend some time contrasting the early church in the book of Acts with the American church of today. I am going to discuss how the “me first” culture has infiltrated out church life, and how so many Christians seek out worship, studies, and even pastors that will meet their needs first and foremost.

I cannot imagine the thrill that it was to live in community as the early church did; being of one mind and one purpose. I have been serving on the Worship Task Force at our church over this past year. We are tasked with evaluating our current worship styles and making the proper recommendations to move us forward into the future as a healthy, growing and vibrant place to worship. There have been a lot of great discussions during our time together and also a few hurdles along the way. It is amazing how quickly we resort to protecting the kind of worship that we want, myself included.

I look forward to a day when I can simply worship, without a contemporary, or traditional, or even casual stamped in front of it. How silly we all must look to those outside of the church, and to Jesus as well. What happened to the unstoppable force that was the early church in the book of Acts. Persecution, imprisonment, and even death couldn’t slow down this rag tag bunch of disciples. And now all it would take in most churches is a new hymnal, a change in worship times, or a different coat of paint in the sanctuary to make everyone retreat and find a new home church.

All I can say is where is our focus. Are we coming together to worship the Risen Lord, or to make sure that our own needs are being met? Are we coming together to help carry each others burdens, or to keep a checklist of who is absent, and who just happens to be wearing shorts that particular Sunday? Have we been so focused on the Bible study, that we have almost entirely forgotten about the Bible doing? Now don’t get me wrong, we should get something out of worship, any time we are in God’s presence we will be blessed for it, but our focus cannot be on our benefit, but upon showing our gratitude, love, and joy that comes from the grace found through the cross.

We have not yet finished our task force, I just pray that when all is said and done we can simply count it a privilege that we get to talk about how we worship God at all. And I pray that we will learn to come together to SIMPLY WORSHIP the Risen Christ, the Creator of the World, the Living God.

April 14, 2010 <> Michael Warneke

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