Many years ago, I was at a meeting where Roger Jones shared how to enter into worship.
I recall it was based on the model of temple, where you start outside and progress into the holy of holies:
The model is that you start with praise. General songs declaring the goodness and greatness of God.
Moving in, we thank God for what he has done for us – Thank you for saving me etc
Moving inward, we have collective sings – we declare, we proclaim, we worship, we love etc.
Finally in the holy of holies – it becomes personal – where we individually express our love – I worship, I love etc.
I have not really described this as well as I hoped – it really was some time ago.
However, I did find when planning worship that as a model it worked.
By seeking a progression from general praise about God, through to what he has done ending with a personal declaration of worship and love, we ended with some really precious times of worship.
Now I am a bit older, wiser and more cynical, I now think it’s possible that this was an unintentional form or emotional manipulation.
Those leading from the from can easily manipulate a crowd.
- The emotional / romantic nature of the songs
- The repetition
- The shallow meaning
- Focus on me
- The production values and budget that goes into large / mega church worship – millions of $.
I’ve heard there was a secret chord
Leonard Cohen
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah