Worship In House Church

Regarding worship I want to encourage our own house churches to broaden and to bring.

To broaden refers to broadening our worship expressions. We take time, normally, to let everyone participate in speaking or singing expressions of our gratitude, praise, and love towards God. However, whether by training or background, it's easy to become limited in our expressions. Here is a list of biblical expressions that we can look through and consider how we can bring a fuller expression of worship:

Expressing appreciation & gratitude

Confessing our sins, our lack, and our need of Him

Declaring His attributes

Declaring His promises

Speaking words of praise and worship toward God

Speaking words of love and affection toward God

Exhorting the congregation to worship and praise Him more (Psalm 150)

Reading a psalm

Singing a spiritual song: a known song or a spontaneous song

Speaking poetic verse: known or poetic

I believe that, perhaps because of prior church training, we are hesitant to really step out and explore various ways to speak of God's glory and to worshipfully speak to God. The book of Psalms is an excellent training manual for this because of its variety of expressions.

Secondly, I want to encourage all of us to learn to "bring," as in 1 Cor. 14:26-- each one brings a psalm, a hymn, etc. The power of house church is that each one can bring something to contribute, not just a worship leader nor even a worship facilitator. As each one looks for something that produces worshipful awe, and purposes to bring it, the whole body is greatly built up. There is so much "out there" to bring if we just keep our eyes open. For example, I was reminded this week of the list of God's names and attributes at the back of the Experiencing God workbook. So, I purposed to bring the list and see if God would have me declare some of God's names during our worship time. Imagine if each person brings something that has stirred their heart during the week! Awesome!

There are so many ways to express worship (which we can broaden) and so many ways to enhance our time of worship when we each bring. The result, I believe, can be a far greater explosion of the wonder of God drawing us into far deeper intimacy. After all, when all is said in done, that is what we are after: just that deeper intimacy with Jesus.