It's quite common to see statuses on facebook on a sunday or monday about people's experiences with worship. I often see "I had an awesome worship session today at church", or "You guys should seriously come to our church, we have an awesome worship team!", or "I just had THE BEST worship today at my church, God is good!".
In my OWN spiritual journey, a journey to seek Christ and try to get to know Him, I have learnt that worship is not dependent on where you are, the sound system, the worship team, or even the pastor's delivery of the sermons. In fact, it has nothing to do with all that (I can almost see alot of eyebrows going up right about now haha). But seriously, I believe that It has more to do with your relationship with Jesus . And more importantly: HOW MUCH OF YOURSELF you SURRENDER to Him on a daily basis (or at that moment of worship).
I remember writing the song "Found Me" about a couple of years ago. I had this tune when I woke up and the words just flowed out of my mouth. The chorus goes "I SURRENDER! My life I give to you, there's no one else but You. You rescued me.". And at that moment, I completely surrendered myself while writing this song and I found myself in tears and crying like a baby that I couldn't go on. Just me...an acoustic guitar...in my pajamas...unfinished lyrics and broken chords...but still deep in worship.
A Christian man told me once that he disagreed with my definition of worship, that he best experiences Jesus (and feels connected to Him the most) when the sound system is awesome and the worship band is spot on.
I didn't respond to it, but I had one thought in my head and it was...
"So are you saying that a child in Africa who is living in poverty and has no access to an expensive sound system (or a conference) has less of an opportunity to experience Christ?".
I want to clear something up:
I'm NOT saying that pastors' sermons are a waste of time.
I'm NOT against conferences or churches who have awesome sound systems and a great worship band. =)
What I am saying is that YES they may help, BUT they are just tools. We shouldn't be dependent on these tools alone. When we rely on attending a conference, or depend on WHO the pastor is (Oh yeh, we gotta go to this church coz THAT GUY is the pastor there), or depend on the worship band (AS IF it's THEIR responsibility) to have a closer connection with Jesus, that's when it becomes wrong. This is what I call "cheap worship", don't settle for it. Seek Him and you shall always experience His love no matter where you are.
This is when we need to think about our relationship with Jesus, and really be honest about it. Jesus didn't die on the cross for us so that we can experience Him in full JUST on Sundays and sometimes throughout the year when we attend conferences and festivals!
The WORD is the same and is always relevant, regardless of who is delivering it, when and where.
We need to challenge ourselves to REALLY seek the WORD, to have a deeper connection with JESUS everyday!
GOD BLESS!
