“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing.” (Psalm 100:1-2, NRSV)
A common regret I hear from pastors (at least those I’m in conversation with) is the challenge of actually worshiping on Sunday mornings. Often the pastor has many other things on his/her mind: delivery of sermon, logistics, peering out into the pews to see who is/isn’t there. That last one is a big one for church planters as “butts in seats” is key to a church’s survival.
I’m no different with any of this. But last Sunday morning during my morning prayers, I received a nice gift from the Holy Spirit. It’s been a challenging summer for many reasons and one of them has been the move of my church’s location to a new venue and neighborhood. I think I underestimated how much of a change this would be for folks and I’m guessing it’s one reason our worship attendance has declined. That, of course, has brought me some anxiety, but in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been more at peace with the situation and my role in it. I give thanks to God for that. The gratitude that comes from this peace really hit me last Sunday morning and it dawned on me that my worship that morning would be just that: worship. A chance to say thank you for the peace I’ve been feeling (in addition to the numerous other things for which I’m grateful). I had a sense that everything I did that morning would be an offering: how I would deliver the sermon, how I would preside over communion, how I would interact with the folks who attended. All an offering of my gifts to God for so many things. Once I came to terms with that, I found that any anxiety I might have been feeling about who would or wouldn’t show up that day melted away. What a difference that made!
In addition, I also had a sense that we must do everything we could to prepare the building for the one visitor who would come that day. We usually have at least one visitor so I started imagining who that might be. The name Lisa came to mind (I don’t know why, but I went with it.) We need to make sure we’re doing all we can to welcome Lisa, just like we’d prepare our home when we have guests over. We need to clean, be ready and welcoming, and have a sense of excitement and anticipation because, you know what, Lisa is coming today! That, too, changed my perspective about getting things ready for worship. (I frankly don’t know if someone named Lisa showed up, but I do know we had several visitors).
This post isn’t just for pastors–I think it’s for anyone who worships. Will you sing with gusto this Sunday? Share a welcome with friend and newcomer alike (especially newcomer)? Savor the bread and cup? Anticipate how God might be speaking to you through the Scriptures? If you’re new to worshiping, will you come with curiosity and questions? All of these things are gifts to God and I think helps us truly worship the one who was the giver of the gifts in the first place.