I receive "comments" about our worship services from time to time. Some are harmless, others are a bit more intense, and then there is this one I received today.
"I miss the worship service table of contents that used to be printed in the Sunday bulletin."
Interesting, isn't it? A "table of contents". Boy, I really want to have fun with this, but there is something strangely disturbing about this.
What have we created through the years in providing everything a "worship consumer" could ever want or need when attending the worship service of their choosing? I really wonder about the culture we have created......the expectation of "menu-driven" worship - after all, we just want to know what to expect, right?
I honestly do not want to be cynical about this, nor do I want to criticize a person who merely wants to know what is happening next. I do, however want to remind whoever cares to read this that when we gather to worship God, HE is the only One who should have an agenda. We all know it "should" be about Him, not us and what we want or expect.
So, I don't criticize this person for leaving me this note. I blame myself and thousands of other worship leaders for not doing their jobs.......for not using every resource available to us to create an environment where God is the focus, and He is so much the focus that it honestly does not matter what is printed and what is not. It just matters that we experience God in all of His wonder and beauty and then move on from that experience to live our lives diffently because of it......
I have no idea what that kind of table of contents might look like, but I will be looking for it from now on.......
DW
