Worship within the context of the small, intimate, simple church gathering is one of my favorite subjects. I love the type of worship I have come to experience within simple church.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the awesome, live music that sometimes accompanies the more performance-oriented big worship events. I still enjoy, on rare occasions, the excitement and, yes, even depth of corporate worship, that can accompany the large worship setting. But my appetite for this type of worship experience has dwindled to almost nil compared to the fulfillment I experience when worshiping with a handful of close allies, friends, confidants. When these folk open their hearts with an expression of worship, I am able to connect with their deepest cries and honest hearts. It is as though I am worshiping soul to soul. We touch God together and he becomes incarnate, in our midst, through the flesh and blood awe and longings of people I know well.
I believe the "art" of house church worship is still developing. We have become music-dependent, overall, as worshipers. I do not mean that music does not have its place. As I have already indicated, I am a music lover. But music itself is not worship nor does it automatically release music. Most of us are familiar with Matt Redman’s story when he wrote these words to his now-familiar worship song:
I´ll bring You more than a song,
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required.
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear;
You´re looking into my heart.
Matt’s church had discovered that they had become dependent on externals (particularly great music) and had lost some of the fire of worship–something that can only come from hearts that are simply and purely hungry for God. Sometimes, maybe often, we need to strip away all externals and allow our hearts to re-engage with the process of raw, non-externally-supported worship. Obviously, when combined with the intimacy of house church, this can be a powerful experience.
The churches I am involved in do, in fact, often make use of music: guitars, other instruments, and Cd’s. But we soon realize that we are not seeking to bring the "big church" worship experience into our simple church gatherings. Most of our churches usually begin to explore other forms of non-supported worship expressions that can be so personal, real, authentic, and meaningful.
Here is a short list of what I call "unsupported worship expressions." This is not meant to be in any way complete nor definitive, rather just some ideas to work with that might lead a group to more personal, intimate worship times:
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Simple, spoken praise or worship. Not horizontal prayers but vertical adoration, appreciation, thanksgiving, acknowledgment of who God is
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Read a psalm or passage of scripture slowly and meditatively. Leave time for reflection and then, perhaps, more spoken worship
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Spontaneous song without music
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Read a psalm or passage of scripture and leave time for some journaling… then perhaps share the journaling or return to worship
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Suggest that each person declare one of God’s names and then speak worship to him based on that name
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Use a psalm as a guideline to speak your own worship to God
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Try more meditative music during times of reflection on a scripture or on the characteristics of God
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Silence and waiting on God’s presence and voice
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Put up a poster for people to draw on during worship or time of reflection
I would suggest that it takes some patience for a group that is used to more externally-expressed forms of worship to grasp the significance of what can take place within simpler, intimate settings. But once people become accustomed to the personal-ness of this and can engage their hearts, they inevitably become hooked. This style of worship has indeed become my staple diet and a powerful part of the sustenance for my spiritual life.
Comments
12 responses to “Intimate Heart Worship”
This is so true. I am challenged by your questions. I also appreciate the suggestions.
We have used some of these in a variety of church, para-church and home church settings. And, after the fear of man is tackled, the release of the goodness of the Lord to enable us to praise Him (for we can’t even do that without Him)is amazing!
Some who are not musicians begin to hear and sing songs that echo His Word and thus His heart towards us; some draw simple drawings,and the expression (enabled by the Lord), helps us to understand a heart felt need, or a see a portion of scripture with new depth…I could go on and on.
But, I have found the reality to be, that my/our worship and adoration of Him is only limited by our thinking that we need to be “good” at it somehow.
Children/Young people who are released to share what they are hearing and seeing are (in these settings), having their hearts set afire…they begin to own their individual hearing from God. That, I am convinced is one of the keys to seeing our children walk in the fullness of God all of their lives. If they touch the hem of His garmet for themselves, and we encourage them in their expression (no matter how simple or imperfect), are changed forever.
I am continuously amazed, encouraged, and enlivened as I see the individual people who are the Body of Christ engaged in learning how to love Him corporately-intimately. Truly each one present at our little gatherings, has a word, a hymn, a song…we(the Body/His Bride) are SO-O-O beautiful together!! Her(the bride’s)diversity is overwhelming!
Thanks for listening while I learn.
Hi,
I would agree that these expressions can be very meaningful and edifying in smaller churches.
Also, it is OK to sing corporately without instruments in a small group. It would be a shame if people through this out in the process.
Thanks!
What a great post. I have generally found worship in smaller groups to be sort of a sad attempt to imitate worship in a larger setting. I love the way this post describes your worship experiences in a smaller setting and am looking forward to implementing some of them in my small group. You seem to take things that I have thought about and wrestled with and put them into words beautifully. This is my new favorite blog. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
One of the things we’re working through. We’re leaning toward some form of bimonthly worship retreat + still connecting with institutional churches’ worship events occasionally.
I had a challenging conversation with a 19 year old who told me that the Big Band Worship event left him cold, while worshipping God through serving Him in practical ways was a more meaningful way of honoring God for him. The more expressions of praise for God, the merrier for everyone including HIM!
This is a very challenging post for me and I know it will be for our group as well. I love the ideas and have enjoyed this type of worship in the past and look forward to more of it in the future as our group learns to break free from the “‘big church’ worship experience” to which we’re all accustomed.
I’ve enjoyed times on what was termed “conversation prayer” in the past where as the Spirit lead, any and all interjected their thoughts, praises, and even fears before the Lord as we cried out to him. I was amazed how short two hours of praying felt.
Thanks for sharing!
Here’s a thought. Let’s say the definition of worship is a self-sacrifice of one’s total being (heart, thoughts, emotions, will). For some this sacrifice might also include a total surrendering and freeing from a multitude of possible distractions that can occur when trying to engage with the Lord. Despite the obvious opposition, some of these distractions could also include state of mind, people, noise, personal style, space, preference, and difference in singing voices.
I strive to make this sacrifice in order to reach the fullest connection to my maker. But, I can be challenged at times by “the distractions”. Fortunately, I’ve found that God desires to have a complete connection with me even more than I do with him. And he doesn’t appear to be to concerned with my style, body language or form and moreover, whether or not I’m playing honky-tonk piano with my friends, singing in a corporate setting to a full electric rock-band, having contemplative prayer and adoration with a few in an intimate setting or just sitting by myself thinking about him with or without music. All of this to say that all of these “forms of expression” have been “personal, real, authentic, and meaningful”.
Could it be “music” is too subjectified. We all know about the power, love and important role music played in the bible and yet it’s still a topic of discussion almost in an adversary way. Isn’t it conceivable to think that an entire “church gathering” should be considered “worship” regardless of whether or not music or any other form of expression is present or not? I wonder why music is singled out?
Perhaps it’s not in the music but in the corporate larger gatherings that we can encounter greater “distractions”, making it more challenging or more taxing for some to enter into God’s presence? Yet, is music the real culprit for our own failure to touch God? I wonder why so much attention is drawn to music’s use or non-use as it relates to “worship” in “the church”. Isn’t it on us to worship and make the connection with our savior regardless of our surroundings or musical or non-musical accompaniment?
My goal is to live my life in a way that pleases Him in all that I do (as challenging as that can be). And I believe that by doing so, I’m presenting the ultimate act of worship, having nothing to do with or without music. This act sometimes is isolated and many times shared with others. It often times has a good Rhythm and tight groove and other times is completely silent. I have found neither time or form of expression to be more intimate, connecting, fulfilling or pleasing to God, but both to be nothing more than beautiful, creative and necessary ways of having a relationship with my creator.
So, if someone is loud, waiving a flag, dancing, kneeling, painting, praying, drawing, sharing, journaling, reflecting or playing funky tenor saxophone, my hope is to connect with my creator right where I’m at, because I know he’s always ready to meet with me. And his passion to meet me is not “dwindled” by any amount of music but instead encouraged by any form of expression I sacrifice.
Until more recently my worship experiences in a smaller more intimate settings left a lot to be desired. I think the reason was that to a large extent (as has been stated) we were trying to recreate a larger group experience. In a smaller setting I have often focused on the quality (or lack of) the instruments or vocals. I’m not sure why or where I came to believe that you had to have high quality music to worship but I did, at least unconsciously. But recently that has changed for me. A group that I have been meeting with began to experience worship in a powerful way. None of us can sing very well and when we use any instruments our guitar player would tell you that it would be a stretch just to call him mediocre. I cannot put my finger on what changed. I guess it’s human nature to try and figure out the formula so you can duplicate it. One of the things that I think we are beginning to learn is the difference between worshiping in the presence of other people and really worshiping as a group. Corporate worship is so much more than worshiping in the vicinity of other people.
Thanks for the comments you all have made. A lot to think about.
Having now started several house churches, worship is the one thing that seems hard to flow. Perhaps it is the New Zealanf culture, where we are uncomfortable singing in the first place, but it seems that it is a real area of struggle to get worship in what ever form to flow and be anatural part of a small group.
Hi there Travis, loved what you are saying here about house church worship. Need to meditate on these things as some of them are new to me, but really good. Looking at worship from a different perspecive. This is a great blog, will keep coming back to it and keep in touch with you.
John Marcus Kyoto Japan
Roger, I have to take this opportunity to thank you for really facilitating and advocating this kind of raw, open and very authentic worship. I had done this before on occasions, (before BLake) but those times were like aberrations to me then. They were always very mysterious, intimate times with God and the other worshippers, and Holy Spirit was always very active among us. But you really went with it and I experienced how powerful and freeing it could be. I say to those who have tried this but feel some discomfort or awkwardness, keep pressing in and risking, keep it very simple, just go with a melody or a thought, a rhythmic sound or a feeling and express it. As the group pushes through and achieves some trust and familiarity, then God has begun his work! A great part of this is God’s purpose and desire to bond us to each other and to Him intimately as One.
It is great to read about all the things you can do that enhances our worship.
I’m sure that in our creativity we can add a lot to the list.
What I’ve noticed in many writings about worship is that they sometimes forget essentials: worship is an expression of our love for and dedication to our God.It’s reactive, just like our gratitude is: to notice what God has done or given and trying to really live and express our thanks.
That’s why I sometimes like to just hear people pray and worship God from their hearts.
It’s like listening in to an open hearted conversation of two lovers.
Of course music is only secondary then. The presence of the Father is what the meeting is really about. But music could be dominant enough to hinder our meeting with the Father whether in a bad or in a good way.
I recently found “these” house church sites and am fascinated by the concepts presented– in particular right now, yours on worship. In my various church travels I appreciated the big church -uninterupted- worship periods of minimum 45 minutes to be the ones that would allow my undisciplined, too easily distracted by any noise around me, mind to focus in on only the Lord and being in HIS prescence. One particular “non-denom” that has world wide church plants was the only place I found it to be led by the Holy Spirit, and also at some points added voices from corporate members.
I think the biggest plus of big over small groups is that the music being played is loud enough that EVERYONE can also sing at their own volume even if its off key, LOL, without it being a distraction.
May God bless you mightily in all of this,
Barb in Tempe