Do what you say!

I was watching some "Christian" tv the other night and they were singing some worship song that is pretty familiar to just about everyone (thank you Time Life!).  The band sounded great and the worship leader was singing his heart out but when they showed a shot of the crowd the response was disappointing.  At some point I will talk about the strength of corporate worship but what got my attention was not that nothing corporately seemed to be happening but that there was no response from the congregation at all.  I guess I  take that back.  There was something corporately happening ~ NOTHING! They were singing songs that talked about shouting, singing, bowing, lifting hands and they were doing none of it!

It reminded me of the scripture in Ezekiel 33:30, 30 "Son of man, your people are whispering behind your back. They talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors, saying, 'Come on, let's have some fun! Let's go hear the prophet tell us what the LORD is saying! 31So they come pretending to be sincere and sit before you listening. But they have no intention of doing what I tell them. They express love with their mouths, but their hearts seek only after money. 32 You are very entertaining to them, like someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice or plays fine music on an instrument. They hear what you say, but they don't do it." How many Worship Leaders and Pastors are having this very same thing happen to them every week?  I do not get the feeling that God was happy that they at least "showed up" to church.  He was expecting some response.  He is looking for people who do what they say. 

Our worship songs are full of responses toward God but do we just speak them or do we do them?  Would you be able to get away treating your spouse the same way you treat God?  For example, when you come home from a long day and your spouse comes to hug, do you say, "Honey can you hug me in about twenty minutes?  You can not expect me to be at work all day and then jump right into being with you the minute I walk in the door.  Give me a chance to get acclimated to your presence"?  Do you tell your spouse, "I know you want me to show you I love you outwardly but it is not my personality, just know that even though I don't show it on the outside I am showing I love in my heart"?  Do you tell your spouse, "I can't wait to be with you tonight", and then the whole time you are with them you are looking at your watch wishing you were somewhere else or even worse with someone else?  Real relationships would not survive the abuse most people on their relationship with God.

Remember, GOD IS REAL so worship Him like He is!!!

First Blog

Believe it or not this is my first blog! That is all we need in the world, right?  One more blog!  But after receiving many emails with various questions on worship, songwriting and even set lists, I caved in and decided to join the 21st century with my own blog.  I plan on this blog being an opportunity to share some of our set lists from our services and even some commentary on the services themselves from time to time.  But I also plan on using this as an opportunity to confront some of the new and old dry and dead forms of worship.  The blog itself is entitled Revival Worship but we must make sure to not get the cart before the horse.  For us to have revival worship we must first have a revived people.  Otherwise we are "a people who praise me (Jesus) with their lips but their hearts are far from me."  Revival worship must start at the core, YOUR HEART!  Revival worship can not be broken down just into songs, volume, style, form but it is always an issue of the heart.  I will use this blog to address some of the issues mentioned but your heart is what God is after and if he has that all of these other things will fall into place.  If you have never experienced revival then you need to check out www.worldrevivalchurch.com or you should just come and visit us in Kansas City sometime.