Does Your Plane Need Two Wings or Just One?

A few weeks ago my wife and I had the opportunity to visit another church. Like all people we didn't know what to expect and we looked forward to seeing the difference and similarities in the church we are visiting and our home church.

Please understand that this is not composed in anyway to put down any church or people. It is an observation that I had time to reflect on and felt compelled to blog about.

We got to the church and was greeted immediately. There were staff in the parking lot to help you park, and people with smiles ready to direct you to your desired location. We brought my daughter to the children's room designed for her age group. We were met by the woman that runs that age group and she was very helpful and answering all of the "concerned parent" questions. We kissed our daughter good bye and proceeded to the sanctuary where worship was getting ready to begin.

This is always the most interesting part to me. Now call me biased but I believe our Church has the best worship team period. Maybe its because when I first learned how to worship it was with them. Now you might be asking the question, "You had to learn how to worship," and my answer is yes, and I'll get to that in a minute. My wife and I have visited a lot of churches and experienced a lot of different worship experiences. Most of the time the difference I notice is song choice and the way it is lead.

So everyone is asked to stand and we begin the first song. Nothing out of the ordinary for me. But the second song begins and we're asked to be seated. In my head I have a very articulate and intellectual question. HUH? Okay so we sitting down and I begin to look around and start to see people raising their hands and singing a long. It just so happens that someone I know who attends the church regularly was sitting behind me. I turned and asked him why are we sitting. He said that at this point they just want us to enjoy the worship. It was at that point that I could no longer be comfortable.

For those of you who know me, know I can get real passionate about certain things. There are some topics I don't mind giving the benefit of the doubt when debating, and this aint one of them. First and foremost worship is not for our enjoyment, it aint even for us. It is a privilege to worship. Second it saddens me how many Christians view worship as just singing. How many times have I heard "Oh, we can miss the first part of church it's just singing?" How many times have I seen people leave and comeback with a cup of coffee in their hand during worship? When I see this it both angers and saddens me. One of the things that really get me is when people sit and raised their hands in worship. Look, I know for some people they have a reason they need to sit and that is perfectly fine. But if God gave you two healthy legs, scratch that, if God gave you at least one healthy leg and good balance, I say to you get up! He doesn't deserve a half effort worship. He didn't sit down and die for your sins, he got up and died for you.

Later on one person who attends that church regularly asked my sister-in-law what my wife and I thought about the church. She replied that we had a good experience, which we did as far as the pastor and the message went. She told them that we are used to worship where we stand and praise. He replied to her that at their church they focus more on the word. When she told me that I thought to myself does a plane need two wings or just one? This is where I firmly believe that understanding who God is will help us understand how to approach him. God is not made up of parts. One part is not more focused on than the other. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are all equal. Gods justness is just as important as his love. You cannot separate or focus more on one and not the other. This may be extreme, but that's how misconceptions and cults thrive. By focusing on one aspect while contradicting the others. PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT read this as me saying that the church I visited is a cult or heading in that direction. Quite the opposite I took them as genuine bible believing Christians. Focusing on the word and worshipping go hand in hand. Remember we were created for Gods glory, think about what we'll be doing for eternity. You guessed it worshipping God.

Earlier I mentioned that I had to learn how to worship. What I meant by that is I can remember thinking that our church sings for a pretty long time before hearing the message. But when I came to a full understanding of what it means to worship, it is then that I learned how to. Its more than just singing, it’s giving glory and honor to God in everything that we do. And not just giving glory and honor but doing it with great effort. If you truly understand what God has done and is doing for you then how could you not get up? How can you not be brought to tears? I encourage all who have yet to experience this to ask God to open your heart and make it real when worshiping. It’s like an addicting drug and high that cannot be matched by any man made substance.