It’s hard to believe it has now been over four years since the process of interceding, hungering, praying and waiting for the Third Day Church to appear,began. Initially, we knew nothing of the prophetic implications of what was happening, only that as we hungered for God and pressed into His presence, our meetings continued to grow in intensity, participation level and length.
I want to share this newsletter as a response to some questions about worship in the Third Day Church, as this seems to be the area most directly affected by this move of God. The best way to do that, is to recall some of our initial reactions and how these rising issues required we make certain adjustments. We knew all along that something was up, something different was being offered us, and that we had to face both legitimate concerns and direct opposition, head on.
As we faced these issues, God gave us great grace and clarity. Hopefully, some of our responses to these issues will help stimulate fresh stamina for you to respond to third day worship.
Nothing so readily reveals our cultural mind set and corporate experience of worship and the things of God any quicker, than the American standards we have set for the length of an average worship service. Richard Riss, a commentator on revivals, says that the first impact of renewal or revival or refreshing on a local church, is its affect on the structure, or normal schedule.
I was raised in a somewhat rural community, and we were unashamedly Pentecostal in our worship and desire to let God’s Spirit move. But, even in our case, let a Sunday service go past the sacred noon hour, and you could, rest assured, expect or know, that someone’s roast dinner at home was turning into a ‘burnt sacrifice’.
It is amazing how we can easily sit and watch a two or three hour movie, add dinner and coffee to the evening out, and have no second thoughts. Even though it took four or five hours to complete, it was an evening well spent. From a sporting event to a concert, all of these things take time to enjoy. Why not then allow ourselves, NO!, why not allow the Lord some extended, prolonged, open worship?
1. Pace your spirituality, relying on God’s strength as you “wait” on Him, listening to Him to lead you in worship.
2. Pace yourself physically. You don’t have to stand or dance or hold up your hands for the whole meeting.
I’ll never forget the Sunday I talked to a brother before service began. He was bending, squatting, pulling, etc., in the back of the bar where we were meeting. When asked what he was doing he responded, This is the first church I have ever gone to that I have to stretch before worship begins so I don’t pull a hamstring!Let God show you how to get ready for a variety of postures of praise: kneeling, bowing, laying prostrate, dancing, leaping, sitting. Learn to enjoy lingering in His presence, allowing Him to give you moment by moment direction on how He wants to be worshiped. Prepare both heart and body for the adventure.
If you have small children, come prepared to help them enjoy the full worship experience, short, wiggly attention span, and all.
1. Bring coloring books with crayons for them, or their favorite books to read.
2. At times during worship engage with them directly and intentionally to join you, or better yet, you join them in the worship expression that is on their hearts.
3. Be with them, holding them, walking with them, dancing with them, connecting with them in their worship of God.
4. When the mood or move of the Spirit shifts in a meeting, use these opportunities as ‘teaching moments’, giving them reflection on what God is doing. Ask questions. And then respond to their answers.
5. Seek feedback from them when there is a prophetic word or prophetic song. Let variety have it’s work in them and in you, as you worship with them. Listen to them.
6. Above all, let’s train a whole new generation of kids to have passion and focus for the things of God and the things of the Spirit. Let’s challenge them to be more excited about Jesus than their Game Boys, scooters and skateboards.
7. Work on new ways to engage children during the meetings. For most it will mean an important shift from a lecture-only-style of communicating, to forms of getting the message across which allow and facilitate interaction, even with ten-year-olds.
If you have been a worshiper very long you know that it is not in a certain style of worship or form or manifestation, which determines whether God is being radically and extravagantly worshiped.
Worship is to be God-ward not man-ward. So try to get your eyes of comparison off of others,and discover how the Father wants you to worship Him.
Above all, be congruent in your physical actions with what is going on in your heart. It is blatantly incongruent, unauthentic and ungenuine to move into outward expressions of worship simply because others are doing it, if in your heart you are being drawn into a more contemplative or silent or serene place in your worship before God.
But, it is just as insincere to be contemplative or silent or serene, when in your heart, you feel like dancing and leaping and praising God. God is always looking for heart-felt worship. Worship becomes religious when we refuse to be brought to new places in His presence. Even if those new places are more quiet and reserved.
Also, don't hide in your personal reservations when God is wanting you to bust out in dance and celebration. Whatever it is, He is calling you to be authentic. After all, we don't worship worship, we worship Him.
The point is worshiping in pure obedience to Him. He is the one who is leading, and He will call us to many new ways, new steps, and new turns in our worship experience. C.S. Lewis conveys it, "He cannot bless us unless He has us. When we try to keep within us an area that is our own, we try to keep an area of death. Therefore, in love, He claims all. There is no bargaining with Him."
So what part of your anatomy does He not have full and complete access to? Your feet? Your hands? Your head? It’s all His and He wants it all, especially in worship. Romans 12:1, 2.
The Bible gives great importance to the human body. In fact, it is viewed with dignity and is really quite inseparable from one’s essential person.
It is never viewed as an unnecessary addenda to the spirit. Man is not a pure spirit like God. He is and always will be a body person. To the point that in the resurrection, it states in I Corinthians 15, "if the body is not raised, nothing is left."
Finally, remember that Sundays cannot be your only worship experience. What about kinship meetings where the worship is more personal and intimate? What about your private times with God where it is just you and He? (Calvin Miller, "Worship is a table set for two.") We are called to be worshipers as a lifestyle, not just in meetings.
So, whether the issue is length of service, children, worship style or whatever, it is about Him. It is about the worship that pleases Him. It is about the worship that He is seeking, John 4:23. It is about the worship that He is worthy of. It’s about the worship that makes Him happy. Welcome to Third Day Worship!