Worship is formational

Our small group is studying this week chapter 4 in Marjorie Thompson's Soul Feast called Gathered in the Spirit, Our Common Worship.

Just how does worship affect spiritual formation? Or does it? I will be musing through the chapter this week with you.

Have you ever thought how difficult it is to plan a worship experience for a group containing rut-bound old coots, bored and restless boomers and young post-moderns looking for an "authentic" experience? Well, it ain't easy! I served on Highland's worship committee for several years and our struggle each Monday as we planned the next week was to meet the needs of our congregation and to spiritually form them in the process. See that word "process"--that is what spiritual formation is. Formation doesn't happen overnight, but it is a prolonged process in which the seeker must be as engaged as the Former (that is, God the one who forms) I really don't think many people see worship as spiritually forming. It is just something we do each Sunday morning, because, well, just because that is what we have always done.

If after you have spent 52 Sundays worshipping God, you do not feel any different and your spiritual life is not any deeper, and it all seems like a ritual to you--you are not being spiritually formed and you are probably not engaged. Thompson says that worship is the work of all those who gather together to honor, praise and glorify God. Work means involvement; work means a self-offering; work means a willingness.

In his book In Search of Wonder, Lynn Anderson says, "...the primary business of the church is worship." In his book Ceasefire, Perry Cotham writes, "Nothing, absolutely nothing we do when we assemble is more important than our worship to God."
Why do we not believe that? Instead of engaging, why do we spend our time in worship finding fault with the service, the worship leader, the songs selected, the program planned, the graphics displayed, the quality of sound, the color of the carpet, the softness or hardness of the seats, the color of the hair of the woman in front of us---my point is we are not engaged in this very important business of paying honor to
God, our creator and forgiver.

Psalm 51:15 "Unbutton my lips, dear God; I'll let loose with your praise." (The Message)