Well....the end of worship as we know it....yes...it's time. For a few years, i have been concerned about the 'Sunday Morning Show'. The shallow music, the use of 'multi-media' in worship presentation, and the delving into our culture to achieve relevance in our worship. Not that all of these things are bad in and of themselves, but our dependence on them to 'get us in the mood' is dangerous. GOD is all we should need to 'get us in the mood'. Just because , on any certain Sunday, i may come to church feeling down, defeated, angry, unsaved, or any other negative way, does not mean that i need a bombardment of video, music, and sound media to 'bring me up'. All i need is to remember that God is STILL there, and lean heavily on Him. If i NEED sound, visuals, or outside 'stuff', i am in need of Him even more!

If i do come to church feeling any of the above, when i hit the door and see the other saints, i am quickly lifted up by knowing that, somewhere, one of them is feeling that way also. And when the worship begins, it's all ok! i have been places where there was always a need to experience a physical manifestation of God. Oh, i HAVE felt it...many times, and many times here at CCiPH, but it was always a pleasant surprise, not an expectation. NEEDING that type of manifestation always seems to cheapen it when it does arrive.

One Saturday night, back at CCC in Florence, ken had us open our Bibles to...i forgot whether it was Psalms, or anywhere we wanted, but open our Bibles to a place of our chioce, and, with instruments, SING the verses. Make a song of them, no matter how non-rhyming, and present it as worship. Why not? Was it not worship? It was right out of the Word....word for word! It was awkward at first...not seeming to 'fit', but was really freeing. We didn't HAVE to make it fit, or rhyme, or sell records! It was singing God's Word right back to Him! Certainly, He was pleased with it. And....isn't that what it is about? mark