Going For God

This weekend I attended the Apostles Church, only I did more than attend, I really connected to God. Although the church staff and volunteers did things to facilitate my connection, I can't pin point anything specific that made this worship service so full of God for me.  They did not try to manufacture God's presence or manipulate my emotions to make me think I encountered God.  They were authentic, reverent, and appropriately funny. They valued Scripture highly and leaned on it mightily.

However, I think I repented of some "God blockers" that do not keep me from attending church, but they do keep me from connecting to God.

1) I prayed about and prepared for the service before I got there. I think in our "event" heavy culture, we have learned to just show up and 'hope' for a good ______ (show, performance, movie, game, church service, etc.). We have the lost the practice of preparing ourselves to meet with God.  Granted by God's grace and Jesus' blood, we can enter His presence at any time and any place; however, maybe our weekly worship with our church family deserves more intentionality. Maybe even if we are not the singer, volunteer, or preacher, we too have a role to play in worship? Maybe our role is the most important one, and prayer is acknowledging we want to connect with Him but need help overcoming ourselves? After all, God promises to draw near to us when we draw near to Him (see James 4:8).

2)  I forced myself not to critique the church but to look for God. This was so hard for me, and I had to stop several thoughts before they distracted me.  We all want to drink good coffee, find a seat relatively easily, listen to good music, and hear a good sermon.  And in our consumeristic culture, we have been trained by our likes and dislikes to be critics ... and if a "dislike" pops up, then we have a "right" to be critical, right?  Maybe. But should our "dislike" overshadow God? After all, God promises to always work through His Word (see Isaiah 55:11) and be there when two or three (or more) gather in Jesus' Name (see Matthew 18:20). This means even if we encounter a "dislike", God is still very likely to be present.

3)  I (eventually) got over myself and remembered that God is the true audience of worship. So being new, I was self-conscious when a family sat directly behind me.  I starting thinking about how bad I sing and how my southern accent screams "Not from around here!", and I became more aware of myself than God.  Then a remarkable thing happened.  The worship team started singing a song, and I could not see the lead singer (gasp!). She was out of my sight line, hidden behind a speaker bank (those crazy tech guys, don't they know I need to see the singer in order to worship!).  But the message of the song starting gripping my heart, and I starting singing to God, not through "the middle man" worship leader -- just me to God.  I even shed a tear or two (that's a big deal) and even danced a bit (that's an even bigger deal, just ask my wife) and did a fist pump. This carried over into the message:  I wasn't critiquing the preacher or waiting for him to amaze me with his oratory skills, I was simply connecting to God through the preaching of His Word.  I was convicted: how often do I think connecting to God hinges on the singer and preacher being "good" according to me?

Attending church "hoping" to hear a good sermon and some good music would be like going to Ruth Chris Steakhouse for an appetizer and coke; we could say we've been, but we'd miss the point.  We'd be settling for less than the best.  Ruth Chris is not known for appetizers, they are known for great steaks. Let's go to church for more than an event ... let's go for God.