Two Churches – Three Services

Posted on December 31st, 2007 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Blogs.

I had an amazing vacation. On vacation I love to visit other churches for a time of reflection and worship without the responsibility to lead. I had visited two totally different churches in totally different cultures. Here are the churches that I learned and here is what I have learned.

Gateway Church – Saturday Night at 5:45, totally contemporary, in Southlake, Texas which is a high professional, middle class section of Dallas.

Gateway didn’t have a choir but a larger praise team. This team spanned the stage which is shaped just like ours leading the congregation that was in front of them. Gateway writes their own music which meant that Rachel and I didn’t know a song. But that was great. Because its not about you knowing the songs, its about giving your heart through music. There were times when I couldn’t carry on with the song, due to the immersion of God’s Presence.

The Sermon was well prepared and well thought out. The staff had created a devotional that the entire church was to work through, along with a fast for the first 30 days (the fast was not 30 days, just the devotional). Along with the devotional was cd’s that gave a time of worship everyday as well as a 5 minute devotional to help their members start the day. Rachel and I are excited about working through the book together.

Highland Terrace Baptist Church – Sunday Morning 9:30, totally traditional but with contemporary music, in Greenville, Texas which is a lower middle class workforce outside of Dallas.

This is where things became interesting. The previous night I sang my heart out with songs I’ve never heard, but then I come to this church where I actually knew the songs but I quietly sang. The night before, the congregation was actively involved in worship. Here, they were passing out gum.

I know what this music minister was going through. There is nothing worse then giving everything that you have into a worship service, were everyone is just staring at out with a look of complacency. People seem to have wanted to join in worship, but they held back.

I am leaving out a part of the story, but the question that I have for everyone is, why do congregations join in worship at times and not in others? There are a lot of reasons, but for the sake of learning, I need you to answer the question. What helps engage the congregation in worship?

3 comments.

John Skipworth

Comment on January 3rd, 2008.

I think a lot of it has to do with the music. I do think that some people are connected to a traditional service but I personally feel more connected to the contemporary service. I think it has a lot to do with feeling. Some would say that it is not about feeling and I would agree to an extent. However I think contemporary music is more inviting. It almost begs you to join in.
I am always amazed at young children (having a few myself). They have no inhibitions about it. They connect and move to how the music makes them feel. If you don’t believe me then just watch a young child when an upbeat song comes on. I think it is in our spirit.
Psalms 95-98 talk about praising and worshipping God.
Back to the question: I think it has more to do with the environment that we have created in the traditional church. We don’t want to be out of place. We don’t want to be called charismatic or pentecostal. We fear offending someone. Could it be that our half hearted worship offends God?!?!

Brian Sparks

Comment on January 3rd, 2008.

It’s funny, when I was in the ABA, pastors poked fun of the SBC for how liberal they were. They were just positive that all SBC churches were open-communion and sing contemporary songs with clapping and drums and guitars and the whole works. Now that I am currently service at a SBC church, most of the churches are still so very traditional. Our church has Heavenly Highway Hymnbooks (Thank goodness I don’t have to use them). But a lot of the SBC churches have stopped associating themselves with the larger SBC churches because they think that we must be doing something ungodly to get to the size we are (a whopping 500).

It never ends. I wanted to lift my hands up at Highland Hills and explode in joy but I didn’t know how they would handle that. You are right John.

Stanley McCall

Comment on January 13th, 2008.

A book worth reading on worship is “Are We Missing Something” by Keith Dorricott. It is available at http://www.kdpublications.com

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