Is something wrong with modern worship?
Stephen Miller, worship pastor at Real Life church in Austin, Texas weighs in on this important topic.
“We are so incredibly stoic and intellectual that it fails to sink into our hearts, or we’re so emotional that we aren’t really thinking about anything and God calls us to both.”
It can be hard to find the middle ground between an intellectual experience and an emotional experience.
“It’s not something that’s easy to do because I have my flesh competing with me; I have what happened in the car on the way to church that morning competing with total engagement.”
Many Christians fail to understand what’s actually happening when the body of Christ comes together to worship their creator, it’s about more than just good music.
At the same time, God has given his people the special ability to create amazing music. Stephen says that Christians should make every effort to fully utilize their God-given gifts and abilities.
“Worship leaders beginning to write songs that are deeply emotional and intellectual without alienating either side, you know writing songs that engage the head and the heart.”
Have we misunderstood the nature of worship?
“I think I grew up kind of hearing that worship was the warm up, sort of the preliminaries to the main event.”
Worship is not just about getting the hearts of the congregation read to hear the Word of God preached.
“They are hearing the Word, they are singing the Word, and they are memorizing the Word whenever they are singing.
Songs inspired by the words of Scripture are a fantastic way to fill our lives with the Word of God.
“That’s why all the men from bygone eras wrote those hymns that shaped our faith, because it’s portable theology. I might not remember what you preached on, but I can walk away singing theology.”
