Worship is a Verb

We filed into the stadium. Tens of thousands of people gathered to shout, cheer, watch, and take it all in. We paid a pretty big ticket prices. Lots was going on before you ever got to your seat. One couldn’t enter the place without feeling the energy, the excitement, and the highest level of anticipation that something great was about to take place. During the event itself, I get involved. I find that I am pouring myself into the synergy and the spirit of the happenings. And when I left, I was on an emotional high … drained, but changed by the experience.

This describes my experience to some of the the sporting contests I have attended – NFL, NBA, college football, college basketball, soccer, World Volleyball League (Olympic qualifiers), a plethora of high school sports, and more.

But it also describes worships I have attended. Yes there have been some big ones … Passion’s See You at the Dome (3x), Promise Keepers @ RFK stadium, Harvest, Billy Graham Crusades, and the PK’s Stand in the Gap (800,000 plus men around the National Mall in DC). But it also explains the experiences I have had in smaller venues too (maybe not the high ticket price … but what would we be willing to pay to really experience worship? Maybe a topic for another day).

Many of us enter into worship once a week, or more. Do we come and sense the anticipation? Is there an aura of excitement? Do you invest yourself in the event and leave changed because of what God did there?

Too often we go to worship thinking of getting something out of it. We enter with a consumer mentality. And we sit passively while expecting to be fed. But what if Worship was more about what we put into it, about what we invest, and about how much we participate?

Years ago, as a class assignment, I read Worship is a Verb. This book, filled with basic foundations to worship is a call to action … moving us from passively sitting and taking in … to actively celebrating, communicating, responding, and more. And concludes with the point that worship is a way of life.

Today is not so much about a story on life, but a reminder of the true nature of worship.

It is a call for you to move from being one who sits and soaks … to one who stands and sings at the top of your lungs.

Where will you worship this weekend? What kind of worship will you give Him, the one who paid the highest of prices? And what will it take for you to get on out of that pew and worship, really worship?

Me … I will be at Evergreen and I am ready to get my worship on (body paint optional).