* Warning – This post is a rant*

It’s been bugging me. A lot. I mean I finished reading the book ages ago and I’m still bugged and irritated. It’s got under my skin and to mix my metaphors I now need to get it off my chest. I mean honestly.

Craig Groeschel is the pastor of megachurch, LifeChurch.tv – it’s all very cool in a church 2.0 kind of way. They have 12 locations who all via satellite share in the same worship and listen to the same sermon. On their website they tell you when the next ‘experience’ is. Anyway they want to give people great worship experiences. Oh really.

I don’t know if anyone has told LifeChurch.tv this but there’s only one person who is supposed to experience really great worship and that’s God. Because don’t forget people, it’s WORSHIP. Adoration, devotion, the passionate heartfelt expressing of love to God. It’s not about me, it’s not whether I enjoy it or not, it’s not even about the standard of the music or the quality of the singing. You can have all that but if it’s not about God then He won’t be satisfied and neither will we.

I don’t get to experience great worship but I do get the chance to do something that God can’t do – worship. There isn’t anyone for God to worship because God is the only deserving recipient of worship in the universe. God can only receive worship. I on the other hand have the awesome privilege of offering worship. Sometimes however, my worship isn’t great. Unconfessed sin can stop my worship being great, so can laziness, distractions, selfishness, tiredness – they can all make my offering halfhearted and mediocre.

The worship leader’s job is not to entertain me and not to give me a great experience but to draw me gently or with force into the realization that at this moment God wants my worship and my eyes need to be drawn to Him, my life needs to be offered, my hands need to be lifted and my knees need to sink to the ground, my heart needs to be surrendered. The worship leader needs to call me to stir myself from my sinful stupor and to give God worship. And any worship offered in love through Jesus Christ is ‘great’.

So God should experience ‘great’ worship and I should participate in giving great worship, fortunately God is gracious and as we meet him, He meets us. As I exalt him, my heart is lifted, my spirit renewed, my vision cleared, my soul restored and if that happens I’ll leave feeling encouraged, inspired, stirred, cleansed – I’ll ‘feel’ like what a great time we had.

If that’s what LifeChurch mean by worship experiences, brilliant I’m all for it. If they mean a professional band, some great drama and cool lighting and sound. I’ll not trade up for that. Better music does not equal better worship. Don’t get me wrong, being led off tune is no joy, but let’s not get those two things mixed up.

Rant over. I feel better now.