True and Proper Worship - What Worship Team Members Need to Know

Worship

As Merriam Webster defines the word, it refers to the "reverence offered to a divine being or supernatural power; also :  an act of expressing such reverence." Another definition is "extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem."

No matter how this world defines the word, there is this definition in the book of Romans that clearly states the guidelines as well on how to give true worship to the Living God. 

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." - Romans 12:1 (NIV).

How to achieve True and Proper Worship?

Offer your bodies to God! This means total surrendering, leaving 0% of your lordship in your life and giving Him the 100% Kingship over it!

Offering your bodies to Him requires the following guidelines to be applied in your everyday life:

1. Living Sacrifice. This means doing His Will over yours, putting aside the pull of this flesh for the sake of obedience to Him.

2. Holiness. He is a Holy God. Hence, those who want to behold Him must make every effort to be and stay holy as Hebrews 12:14 says, "...for without holiness, no one will see God."

3. Pleasing to God. Being a member of the Worship Team in your local church, you must have this knowledge of His Excellence in everything He does. It is but expected of you to "...play skillfully..." unto the Lord says the great Psalmist in Psalm 33:3.

Making these key points about Worship a part of your lifestyle would mean a tremendous outpouring of His Spirit in your life! 

Enjoy worshiping the King of kings and the Lord of lords! 

Spiritual Anorexia on Church – Top 10 Causes

Anorexia, or loss of appetite, is a medical condition a person needs to be alarmed about when diagnosed. Even though causes may vary from light to serious ones (kindly refer to http://www.medicinenet.com/loss_of_appetite/symptoms.htm), it still gives discomfort to the affected person. Such abnormality may happen to everyone.

On the same hand, “Spiritual Anorexia” exists. It is when a person losses appetite in listening to God’s Word, reading the Bible, and worship. Churches (this includes the unbelievers) nowadays experience “Spiritual Anorexia.” This is a sad truth that every believer needs to be alarmed about; hence, must take precautionary actions before it happens to the local church where he belongs.

Below are the top 10 reasons why this happens:

1. Mismanagement in the Church. When system and order are not present in a church, a church-goer tend to find another place of worship, and when gets tired may end up never going to any church anymore, returning back to his old ways.

2. Character of the Believers. It is a duty of every believer to live a life that encourages other believers (as well as the non-believers), not becoming a stumbling block to others, to the ‘Baby Christians’ and most of all to those who do not know Christ yet. This takes a lot of character to perform such duty. The fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 must be clearly evident in every self-professing Christians.

3. Broken Trust. When a ‘Baby Christian’ experiences a situation wherein his trust is not handled propely by a more matured Christian, there is a great possibility that he could no longer be seen in the Church and worst, might generalize this bad thought to all Christians.

4. Hypocrisy. ‘They look and sound so holy when in Church but do the other way when they’re outside the Church.’ Sounds familiar, right?

5. Monetary Concerns. I have known many Christians skip church just to have enough money to pay the bills and/or debts. This might also happen when a believer tries to evade the person to whom he is indebted to.

6. Poverty. “An hour spent in church might give me and my family a meal when otherwise.”

7. Concerns of this World. “…but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” – Mark 4:19

8. Boredom. A believer who finds everything in the Church a routine, lacking anointing and power from God will most likely get bored and would loss the passion to come early in every fellowship, and worst would never attend to any of it anymore.

9. Complacency. Both believers and non-believers who think their level of knowing God is good and desires no more to grow more nor to dig deeper in Him would soon find himself no longer interested in the things that would please God. His laziness consumes his passion for God.

10. Worldliness. Both believers and non-believers who find joy in satisfying themselves over God would surely loss their spiritual appetite for godly things.