Nelson Plasencia recently gave our Prototype Elders (myself, Matt Walters, Mike Hosey, and Nelson) a chapter from the book The NEW GUIDEBOOK for PASTORS. The chapter is titled, The Pastor and Worship. I have included some excerpts from this chapter that really spoke to me...
“Over the past thirty years or so the church has experienced what has been termed ‘worship wars.’ Churches have fought, split, ranted, and ruined their witness in the community over the issue of music style.
From the gates of Eden, with the killing of animals so their skins could clothe Adam and Eve, sacrifice became a part of worship...our lives are to be presented as a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1).
Man was not only created for worship, but he was also redeemed to worship...the truth is we do not forget about ourselves, we rarely magnify the Lord, and we are not worshipping Him because we are more interested in what we are getting out of the worship experience. In that context, true worship cannot take place.
Listen to the wisdom of Warren Wiersbe: ‘If we look upon worship only as a means of getting something from God, rather than giving something to God, then we make God our servant instead of our Lord, and the elements of worship become a cheap formula for selfish gratification.’
With all that goes on in churches today in the name of worship, is it possible that we have come to the place where we worship worship rather than worship God? The mechanics of worship have become the goal, and the means has become the end. Worship must keep one thing in focus-God Almighty!”
Desiring True Worship,
Jeff Powell
