I think it's easy for people to assume that church is a building, a room, a steeple... objects. Materials used to encompass people. It's easy for us to forget what it actually is.
WE are the church. You. Me. My friend Mary. My Pastor. His wife. We were all created to love God. And through Him, love others... love the church (Mary, Pastor, his wife... you remember?).
So often it's easy to get caught up in the makings that we, the church, put into a service. The lights, music, planning, etc.. I'm not saying those things aren't important. I'm not saying that I don't like any of those things - heck, it's my job to be apart of those things! But I AM saying that the church would survive without them.
Now before you get yourself all worked up, trust me when I say some of those things are my favorite part about church. Those things HELP us engage in worshipping God. But they're not stopping us from doing it. If we took away the lights, the soundboard, the instruments, COULD we still worship God for WHO He truly is?
When people come up and complain to me about the sound, a video, the lighting, or the words being off, I have to bite my tongue. I believe we can worship God in any circumstance. I believe we can worship Him in the darkness, I believe we can worship Him when they're leading the music time in another language, and yes, I'm even going as far to say that I believe we can worship Him without any instruments or singers! When the people come up to me, I honestly want to ask them to check their hearts. I want to say to them "These things are just tools... they are tools to LEAD you into worship. Where's your heart at? Maybe you should check your heart before you come back here and complain.".
Yes, I value my job and I'm not going to say that. Instead, I apologize and explain all the different services we offer and suggest that maybe there's another one more fitting for their style of worship. Blah, blah, blah.
But then I question myself. Am I hindering THEIR walk with Christ due to my reply? Am I giving them the "I want to keep my job" answer, but not the "stretch your walk with God" answer? Where do you draw the line of an inappropriate reply with a "challenge your walk" reply? How are you to be honest, but still encourage another believer in love?
I know; there are a lot of questions in this post. Even still, I want to leave you with two more to ask yourself. Where is YOUR heart at? During the services, are you so focused on everything else around you that you aren't worshipping God?
I'm almost scared to ask this last one, but I challenge you to be honest with yourself when you answer it.
If we took away all the lights, the music, the building, everything; would you still be able to worship God?
