Thursday, October 05, 2006

Is worship the mission?

It has been a while since I've actually written something. So, until I find some more time hidden under a rock somewhere, I'll continue to bring you thoughts of other like-thinking peeps.

Reuben Morgan, writer of many great worship songs, (one such that you might be familiar with is "Hear Our Praises") has written a great article about worship as a lifestyle. Wow, that was a long sentence! Anyway, I immediately related to this story because first, I constantly struggle with living my worship and second, my life-verse is Romans 12:1. In other words, it's a subject that is always on my mind.

Ladies & gentleman, I give you...

A FULL HOUSE - BY REUBEN MORGAN

"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is." (John Piper)

Jesus tells a story in Luke 14 about a man who invites a great number of people to dinner at his house but they all give excuses as to why they can't come. He becomes angry and sends his servants out into the streets to invite whoever they can find. It ends up that many people come but the master isn't completely happy... there is still room for more.

This story just makes me think about the way God encourages everyone to come to Him so that His House will be full. It's a picture of the Church and the Kingdom of God.

Worship presents us with an incredible picture of celebration in the Master's House, but it's clear that He is passionate about His House being. It's as though He is saying, "It's great you're here, and this is what you were made for, but there's still room. Go out and get everyone you can find." These two concepts have to go together - worshipping in the house AND going out to bring others in. We can't stay worshipping endlessly and neglect those who have not yet heard the Name of Jesus.

For us to truly worship God, two fundamental elements are needed: revelation (whereby God reveals Himself to us) and response (whereby we respond freely and uninhibitedly to God in awe and wonder). My prayer is that, in every worship setting, we worship in a way where we connect with the very heart of God and, out of that place, respond in action to impact and change our world.

The whole idea of missions is that we go where worship is not yet. It's loving people who ultimately need to know that they were created to be God-worshippers. Ephesians 1:11-12 says, "...For He chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as He decided long ago. God's purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God."

One of the things I love about Hillsong Church (FBC) is that we are blessed with an incredible, unique worshipping environment but, equally, we are encouraged to stretch and extend ourselves in changing the world around us - to live beyond ourselves... "blessed to be a blessing".

Each one of us is called to mission just as we are all called to worship our God. I just want to encourage you... be creative in missions. It just may be that the very act of cooking a meal for your neighbour has the potential to open the door to a conversation that ends in a soul saved for eternity. Maybe the very act of sponsoring one more child could just change an entire nation for Christ. Maybe an extra moment with your work colleague will pave a way for you to invite them to church.

We cannot worship exclusively, leaving the unsaved disconnected from our incredible Saviour. We've got to share what we know about Jesus Christ so that, when the world fades and our "missions" work is done, God's House will be full... for eternity.


Tonight I'm off to the Third Day concert in Little Rock. As much as I like Third Day, I'm looking more forward to their opening acts, The David Crowder Band & Hyperstatic Union. I'll keep you posted.

Until then...

1 Comments:

Blogger KathyH said...

That was a good word, Mark. I've been at FBC for a long time, and I think we're "getting" both worship and mission better lately than we ever have before. They really MUST go together.

Hey, I expect a full report on the concert!! Well, eventually, anyway.

9:02 PM  

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