I’ve had a few comments lately that our worship services have been particularly good lately. I’m not sharing this to “blow my own horn” because if you’ve been reading this blog for very long, you know that it’s not about me. People will say to me, “Worship was sooooo good this Sunday!” I always say thank you, and then I usually say, “I know; it was awesome, wasn’t it!” That’s my way of subtly reminding them that the worship service is something I am participating and experiencing in much the same way that they are. I know what we’re singing before hand and I am of course leading the song, but I am still just another member of the “congregation” of people who are sharing the experience of God’s presence and remembering His grace together.
Lately, I’ve been having this conversation more often. Why has it been so good these days? Is there a new group of skilled leaders and musicians? Not really, it’s just the same ol’ folks with a few fresh faces. Have I been praying and communing with the Spirit more? I wish that I could say that I have.
I think that a lot of it stems from a deeper sense of humility that our congregation has been experiencing. Some humility is coming as fall out from some ministry failures that we experience a few years ago. Humility has also come as a result of some broken relationships. Our hearts have been broken as we see a faithful servant and friend in our church battling stage 4 cancer. All of us, especially those who are in the music team, feel this growing sense of the fear of God’s sovereignty mixed with a deeper longing for the resurrection and the liberation from the curse of sin. This is exactly what produces good worship: broken hearts, desperate dependence on the cross, a longing to hold on to the unchanging hand of our beautiful savior.
The band might be a little more rockin’ and the singers a little more unrestricted in their praise. But, it’s not because we’ve been practicing any more than normal. We are just feeling a little more dependent on Jesus to be our Lord.
A song we sang this morning says it all:
Mambo sawa sawa Yesu akiwa ezini, mambo sawa sawa
Translation: Things are already better with Jesus on the throne, things are already better.