I am a music director/worship leader at a Presbyterian church. After the 9:30 AM service this past Sunday, a friend, who is also an elder, spoke with me about his concern for the unchurched visitors in our midst. You see, twice per month we end the service by joining hands and singing Albert Malotte's well-known setting of "The Lord's Prayer". My friend argued that this would blow the seeker away and we'd never see him/her again. I hope I'm not misrepresenting his position, but the idea is that lost souls can't relate to churchy behavior -- they don't know the drill nor do they understand the lingo. The "seeker service" was born from this idea. I share my friend's burden for lost sheep even if we don't agree on the means to reach them.
When a seeker steps into the midst of a worshipping assembly, shouldn't s/he encounter God ... He who is high above all nations and yet closer to us than we are to ourselves? And shouldn't the language of our celebration reflect that transcendence and intimacy -- His power and peace? The seeker *should* experience things in worship that s/he will never witness in the world. There are signs that are peculiar to worship that may be outside the seeker's comfort zone. But these same signs resonate in the deepest places of the heart, calling all to conversion ... to become child-like. If an unbeliever doesn't feel uncomfortable (i.e., conviction) maybe we are not fully cooperating with the Holy Spirit in our times together.
"But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you." I Cor 14:24,25
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
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