Sunday 18 February 2018

Don’t Get Distracted

We can have all the glitz and glam of church and make worship ‘cool’ but we’ve missed the point if we don’t have the presence of God. After all it’s the presence of God that changes lives and transforms us

Source: EvangelismHelp.com
I find myself writing this in the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool. I’m sat in one of the side chapels surrounded by such beautiful architecture, design and craftsmanship. There is such simplicity, yet the attention to detail is amazing. What I love though is that everything surrounding me does not distract me from what its intended purpose is. It’s a space which draws me into the presence of God.

Why do I share this? How is this relevant to us today? For me it’s simple, but something that even I sometimes get distracted from all too quickly, and it’s this… sometimes we focus so much of our time and energy into how things look in our church. In our worship times we have the lights, the smoke machine and maybe we’re even tempted to get a giant LED screen for the back of the stage. We want our singers to jump up and down, the band to at least sing along to the songs they are playing. All these are great and I love them and at times these things are really important, but the danger is that they can become our focus. Our job as worship teams is to create a space where people can come into the Presence of God, not create a space that replaces the Presence of God. Everything we do and bring, the surroundings we create and design should always have a purpose in helping to point people to Jesus.

Source: Patric Benziher - WordPress.com
Psalm 22:3 tells us; ‘But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel’. I love this verse as it reminds me that God’s presence dwells in us when we worship him. But our worship must come from a place of authenticity and not dressed up with bells and whistles!!! We can have all the glitz and glam of church and make worship ‘cool’ but we’ve missed the point if we don’t have the presence of God. After all it’s the presence of God that changes lives and transforms us.

As church leaders, worship pastors, worship leaders, creative freaks, let’s not get so caught up in how things look in the experience of worship that we forget the one true thing we should experience in our worship. The presence of Jesus. There is no substitute for that. I’m not against all the lights and technology, in fact it’s something I love, embrace and encourage my team to work hard at - but it has to have a purpose. As worship teams, our services are an opportunity for us to worship God and just as importantly help lead and encourage others to worship Him. Let’s lead from a place of authenticity without creating a distraction, keeping the main thing the main thing. Let’s create an environment which helps point people to Jesus.


Author: Simon Harper – AOG Worship Team

May God bless and enrich your life

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5 comments:

  1. There are so many distractions in the World that it is easy to lose the gift of the moment we are in. Let us always keep our focus on Jesus especially during our time of worship. Jesus gave His all for us so the least we should expect is to give our all for Him. Thank you for this blessing this morning. God bless

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  2. Thank you for taking the time to write this blog and Bless the body of Christ. ALL the Glory to God ALWAYS.

    Wow, imagine if the Bride of Christ come to service for the single purpose of being with the one whom her soul loves and heart adores. As the song says
    "It is ALL about you Jesus"
    Our hearts sold out for him and not our righteous deeds (Isaiah 64 v6)
    God Bless and once again Thank You.

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  3. All our worship should be from the heart and should be to glorify our Lord and King. Our worship should be such that all the focus is on Jesus and as the blog says 'we’ve missed the point if we don’t have the presence of God' and the presence of God comes when all the worship is focused on Him. I've seen so many times and been saddened by worship teams performing and making it about them, instead of worshipping and making it about Jesus and creating an environment for others to worship in His presence. Thank you for this article I pray that as people read it they grasp and begin to understand that worship is for God and God alone. Bless you.

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  4. thank you Simon for bringing this subject up in your Article , its something I have noticed more when visiting different churches . worship was never meant to be the CENTRE of the service , with the decline of those beautiful Hyms , being replaced more with the (bless Me songs )smoke machines , flashing lights ect. sometimes it can feel like we are in a concert instead of focusing on Jesus Christ our Lord and his living word being the CENTRE of the service .
    There used to be something called (THE MINSTRELS GALLERY ) this was a form of balcony often inside great halls and Cathedrals and used by musicians to perform , they were directly hidden from the Congregation below , this was so Jesus Christ our Lord would be the CENTRE focus , the musicians would be out of sight? least they distracted focus off CRIST . having said that we are all brought into Gods presence by some lovely worship songs and we thank God for them . God Bless you Simon I know you will keep your worship pure and lovely like this beautiful song in your blog .

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  5. Thank you so much for the encouragements and reminding every thing we do is to bring glory and honour to Jesus Christ when we worship is to bring his presence and not for ourselves but to bless his holy name may the peace of God be with all Amen

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