Started reading a new book entitled, "Emerging Worship: Creating worship gatherings for new generations" by Dan Kimball. It has some pretty powerful opening thoughts with regards to what "Church" should look like, or be about, especially when trying to reach those who are 35 years or younger who in many ways have seemed to abandon the church as we know it.

On p. 2 of chapter one he begins to contrast the meaning of a worship service vs a worship gathering..  "Ironically , this term used to mean a time when the saints of God all meet to offer their service TO God through worship and their service TO othersin the church." over time the meaning has gotten reversed and somewhere along the line the church has almost taken on a gas station mentality of where people come to be served, to get their weekly fillup, even pop in to the quickmart for coffee and donuts.

But in days of old it was the place where the christian community came to serve, it was far from a gas station mentality, it was not a place of receiving, but a place of worship to God where saints cam offering their lives, thier prayers, offerings of praise, confessions, finances, and service to others in the community.

These are not subtle differences, they are polar opposites and in many ways I think the author is right, in reading mega church growth materials the focus in america today does seem to be a consumer mindset. DO we have the right childrens church, worship team, high tech effects, etc. Some people church SHOP, a weird phenominon. we read as leaders books like the 5 star church where we want to wow people with the love of Christ and often times it does take armies of servants to pull all of this off.

All that being said, it may be time to rethink how we do church. To maintain the excellence, the caring, the serving, but also engage people in a different way where they see the value of their service, their reason for coming to church not to be served, but to serve others. To engage to bring their sacrifices of praise, offerings, and service to their God and King.

How wonderful if we could engage people in this way. Their lives could become a LIFESTYLE of praise and worship to their king, not a church filling station mentality where they are filled up to go about their week but that they were all ready filled up because their work, their everydays lives were acts of worship to God and church itself became the overflow experience.

Lord I long for those days, make it so in our churches, in our own lives. May our very lives be love songs to you oh God..