Engaging Our Hearts and Minds in Worship




What makes a worship service great? Is it the music, the preaching, the lighting? Or is it something more?

According to the Book of Common Worship, “Worship is at the very heart of the church’s life. All that the church is and does is rooted in its worship. The community of faith, gathered in response to God’s call is formed in its worship. Worship is the principal influence that shapes our faith, and is the most visible way we express the faith. In worship, through Word and Sacrament, the church is sustained by the presence of Christ. “

When we come together to worship our Lord, we bring him our love and adoration through prayer, music, Scripture, the Sacraments, and the preaching of the Word. In the book of Revelation the host of Heaven worships him with great praise and declarations of His Glory, Majesty, and Power. We have the opportunity to gather together as one Body and offer him our worship with hearts fully focused on Him. In Psalm 22:3 the psalmist says that God's throne is the praise of his people. "Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel."

This past week I had the pleasure of sitting with the congregation during worship, and was thinking of these things when the service started. I found myself hoping for Christ to be present in the room and in my spirit as we moved through the songs and prayers. I thought about Christ singing our praises to the Father with us, and the Father hearing his perfect voice declaring our love and praise, and was reminded of the wonderful grace that covers our sins and allows us to freely sing before the Lord, and marveled that all of Heaven might be singing with us.

"To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God."
William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury

My heart is challenged to consider these things as I enter to worship this week. I pray that my mind and heart would both be engaged so that I might truly experience God’s holiness, truth, beauty, love, and purpose. May it be so for all of us.