So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)
Lately I have been re-examining why I do what I do. Why do I do the "worship thing"? Why do I sing the songs that I sing? Why do we even sing songs in church at all? Why do we do the same things over and over again when we are not really seeing any different results? Why does pastor get up and preach? Couldn't we watch some TV church and hear the same message? Do we do it out of love for God, or do we do these things because that's how we've always done it? Does the bible say, "This is how to have church?" or are we in a rut with our worship. Someone told me once that you'll go insane if you keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
If you are like me, and you have been asking yourself these same questions, I think we need to examine our lives. The scripture above said "Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering." Let me ask you a question. Are you giving every part of your life as an offering to God, or are you just giving Him your Sunday morning? That one question could make the difference between a true, pleasing child of God and a religious hypocrite.
If you are more concerned with the style, volume, or age of the songs than you are with offering up true praise to God, you might have a religious spirit. If you are more concerned with whether the pastor is going to be wearing jeans or a suit, you might have a religious spirit. If you are looking to get your "feel goods" on Sunday rather than reach to out to someone who is hurting, you probably have a religious spirit.
Experiencing Worship, The Study
Used by churches all over the world to help teach worship, the Experiencing Worship study can help your worship team too.
Your team will learn why we worship and gain a better understanding of how to worship.
One user said..."Your 5 week study course has made a tremendous impact on my life in the study of worship... I would like to express my thanks for a well written study course that leads into a higher realm of praise and worship."
Experiencing Worship, The Study