What Is Our Devotional and Worship Emphasis?

For several weeks we have been following each morning, a small devotional guide that came into our hands somehow. It is from a conservative background similar to ours of by-gone years. I noticed that the basic thrust of the meditations is quite uniform- concern for holy living and the need to be watchful lest somehow we might have some spiritual impurity creeping into our lives. This set me off thinking of what other emphasis such a devotional might have. I also had to think of Sunday morning church services, and how likely that same church group of that devotional might also be mostly concerned with the clean Christian life. There are also 2 other focus possibilities in our devotional life as well as our church services.

Church services can be a worship services with an emphasis on worship to God. This is to recall the wonderful work of God and praising and worshiping God for who he is and how he cares for all mankind and his whole universe. I recall a service in Florida some years ago in which the sermon was so focused on the person of Jesus, who he is and what he has done for us. The sermon was deeply worship of Jesus and drew my heart into deep appreciation of who he is. That was a church service 30 years go and it stayed with me. Church music can also focus on who God is, compared to much church music of the 19^th century that focus a lot on encouraging each other, like the “Each day I'll do some golden deed.”, and much other Gospel music.

A third focus of devotional material and a church service might be on the outreach of the kingdom of God in mission and personal witness. A church service may emphasize regularly many items of interest, concern, and intercession of the outreach of the kingdom of God around the world, including our personal world. Reports of missions and missionary work, and the progress of the Gospel around the world can be shared a lot by the leadership and members of the church. The church is concerned for the world which God loves and wants to be known. Here intercession for outreach, missionaries, the persecuted church, and the local outreach are primary concerns of the church. Worship takes place with pastoral concerns also, but the church is seen as having a mission in the world, not just being good people and praising God for who he is.

Certainly all three areas of worship are valid. The challenge is to have some balance and focus. It seems the outgoing Christ-centered life and mission would be what God is most interested in. “God so loved the world” that Jesus came to earth to express that. Faith is lived outwardly, not with only concerns about believers' personal lives and rejoicing in who God is. Personally, as a past pastor and missionary, I favor the emphasis on the mission of the church- reaching the ends of the world with the good news of the love and yearning of God for all mankind. Other interests should also be there to complete our devotional and church life.