Last nights gathering of Vineyard Recovery was another stone laid in place as God continues to build this meeting. The entire service was about "worship". I know that to some who were present, it may have seemed like all we did was listen to some incredible music, but things changed as the evening progressed. I would be kidding myself if I thought that everyone who came last night understood what worship is and what it means to move into an intimate time with God through the worship. Now that isn't a shot at anyone. I know that there are several different models as to how people define worship. There is the "let's sing 3 hymns, hear the choir, have a special song and then let the preacher do his "thang" style of worship. Then there is the "let's crank up the jams and get funky for Jesus". To some, worship is an adjective to describe what kind of service they have. "Oh yeah, we have a 'worship' service every Sunday morning. There are some who consider just showing up for church, being present and listening to the message as being worship.
For the Vineyard, we think that worship is our highest calling. That through worship, we move into God's presence to simply proclaim our love and life to Him. Worship is never about me or what I can get out of it. If something happens during worship.....if I'm suddenly aware of God's presence in a new and different way, then that's a bonus. But worship is never centered on self or what one can receive because of any effort made. Oh yeah...one last thing. Worship is not a spectator sport. That means you don't sit there and watch. The band isn't there to perform.......they are there to lead us....to draw us into turning our thoughts and our heart to God. To forget about the struggle of life so that we can look to the giver of life. Worship is something that we participate in. Worship involves the heart first, but is expressed through our body and voices. Some like to raise their hands when they worship. Some like to simply shut their eyes and sing the songs. I love to watch my wife when she worships. She gets lost in God. I mean that when the music starts, Vicki has said that "everyone and everything disappears and it's just God and me."
Nori and Barbie Kelley and their band WIND provided the vehicle for us to worship through last night.
Great crowd and lot's of old friends came to be a part. This was a time for the band to reconnect with their roots of being called to "move into" God's presence. By that, I mean that we become aware of who God is and what He has done to us and through us. The music that was played reflected this heart of "I love you Lord" as we moved from song to song. Think of it this way...."We sang TO God last night....We didn't sing ABOUT God." Big difference.
At the end of the evening, we moved into a time of ministry and prayer. I was fortunate to have a lot of Vineyard folk there who understood what this time was all about, so I enlisted their help and had them move throughout the room praying for everyone. With the worship team playing, "I LOVE YOUR PRESENCE"....you could sense that God was totally "In the house". We had a number of people who were saved. There was a healing reported which always gets my spiritual juices flowing. As John Wimber would say, "Atta Baby God!!!" That is kind of a non-religious way of saying, "Hallelujah!".
As the evening wrapped up and I stood back to take it all in, I saw groups of people standing all around the room talking, laughing, hugging...there was a real sense of family. Isn't that what this is all about....being a family under the name of Jesus? I think so.
Everyone was gone. I was making the rounds making sure things were turned off and put back in their proper place. As I turned off the lights and headed to the door, I stopped one last time, turning to look back into the room.....and I thought to myself, "Boy, God...you did good! What's next?"
We'll see...
We'll see...
God on you...
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We will not be meeting this next Saturday (May 18) Due to a worship conference being held at Gadsden Vineyard Church. But we will be back on May 25....thanks.
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