- Worship and Mission -

Worship leads us to the heart of the Father for Mission.

There is a very special dynamic when the people of God come together and start to sing in worship. We know from Scripture that God inhabits the praises of His saints and to experience this habitation is powerful and life-changing. If it is life-changing for us who believe, how much more may it impact those who do not yet believe?

"It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men." C.S. Lewis

So when we gather to praise and we cry out in worship as we tell God how much we love and adore Him, whether through the words of a song or from the cry of our heart, God speaks to us in the depths of our souls. Imagine that – almighty, omniscient, omnipresent God talks to you.

What does He say?
Well, I hear a steady stream of reassurance that I am loved and cherished, and that I am wanted and needed, by my Father in heaven. I also hear that everything that He has promised, He will fulfil in His time. Amazingly, as we worship, our desire is to bless God, to honour and thank Him and as we do this He blesses us.

My children often come to me wanting reassurance. Needing to be close to dad, they often come up and give me a lovely hug. When we are spending time together they will sometimes sit on my lap. This is a special time because instead of just looking at me, my children are now in a place where they can see what I’m seeing and feel what I am feeling. In our worship we experience the same. It is as if having looked into His face and been reassured by His presence, we have now climbed onto the lap of our Father in heaven and we can see what He’s seeing and feel what He’s feeling.

And what do we see?
The Father is looking at His lost children - those who need Him in their lives and His hand at work on their behalf. His heart is turned towards them and He feels their pain. He longs for them to come to His peace and is ready to go to woo and win them back to His heart. Since this is what is interesting to Him then it is what we will be inspired to do. So in turning to worship God we ourselves are turned around to see the needs of others and how we can bless God by doing what He would do to meet the needs of others.

"As worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in holy obedience. Holy obedience saves worship from becoming an opiate, an escape from the pressing needs of modern life." Richard Foster

What do we do?
Now, we go out and take the love of Jesus with us, but to what end? It is so that these lost children might be found and that they might also come to worship the Father and experience what we have experienced. The horizontal dimension of our worship, which is expressed by us reaching out to others in evangelism and service, meets the vertical dimension of worship as we sing of our love to God, as we heap on Him all the praise of our hearts and all the worship that He truly deserves.

"Worship changes the worshiper into the image of the One worshiped." Richard Foster

So what characterises the ‘missioning worshipper’?
I think it is this – joy. A joy which comes from work that is well done and a sense of achievement as friends and family come into the kingdom of God and become worshippers themselves. Consider the story Jesus told of the prodigal son and how joyfully the Father responded when the son returned.

"And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry." Luke 15:20-24

This is our heavenly Father’s joy when one who is lost is found and that joy is ours as well. Think of the celebration in heaven every time a sinner becomes a saint.

"I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance." Luke 15:7

It makes you want to dance, to sing and to celebrate. Look at the Father again – His smile is wider than ever – His pleasure tangible.

"Without worship, we go about miserable." A.W. Tozer

"Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." Psalm 107:2

By Dave Wellington