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Who Is the Audience?

What do you expect out of church? 

If you are about to answer that question, then back up and think about it again.  I would imagine that the first thing that popped into your head was a worship service.  Since church and worship are two separate things, let’s reword the question…What do you expect out of worship?

STOP!  Don’t answer that.  That question is one of the biggest problems that Christians try to answer.  Who is the audience?   Last time I checked, God is the audience.  We spend so much time and energy trying to make worship (or what we call “church”) meet our expectations.  Too often, worship is about us.  I didn’t like that song.  That prayer was too long.  Why did the preacher talk about that today?  We’re going to be late for lunch.  When did we become the object of our worship?

God must be at the center of our worship.  We are called to praise and honor Him who has created us in His image.  When we begin evaluating the quality of worship according to our needs and desires, we diminish the purpose of our praise. 

We often think that we come together to hear a great lesson, encourage each other through singing and pray for those who are sick.  While all of those things are good and important, they are not the purpose for our worship.  The 19^th Century Danish Christian philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, said that “worship has three components: the performers, the prompter, and the audience.  It is vital to know who plays each part!” (Mike Cope, In Search of Wonder, p. 31)

Consider what the psalmist, David, wrote:

¹ Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

² Worship the Lord with gladness;

            come before him with joyful songs.

³ Know that the Lord is God.

            It is he who made us, and we are his;

            we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving

            and his courts with praise;

            give thanks to him and praise his name.

⁵ For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

            his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100 NIV)

Notice that it is the Lord God who is the recipient of David’s praise.  It is for the glory of God Almighty that we worship.  God is the audience.  He is our Creator, our Redeemer, our Salvation. 

The question should never be, “What do you expect out of worship?”  The question must always be, “How am I honoring and glorifying God through my praise?”  Who is the audience?  God is the audience.  Worship has never been nor will it ever be about us.  Worship is for God alone.  It is His name that we praise.

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,

            from everlasting to everlasting.

Let all the people say, "Amen!"

Praise the Lord. (Psalm 106:48 NIV)

Pruning

I have a holly bush in my front yard that is just nearly dead. For a long time, Susan and I have talked about what we could do to improve the curb appeal of our house. There were six holly bushes in front of our house. At one time, there must have been seven, but one died so a previous home owner pulled it out and put a birdbath in its place, leaving a hole in the hedge. We decided that we would remove the two holly bushes that were around the brick column of the front porch. One morning, I borrowed a tow chain and pulled them out of the ground with my truck.

The plan was to just throw both bushes out. However, after pulling them out, I thought, “Hey, why don’t we put one of these bushes where the birdbath is so that there is a full hedge.” The roots were badly damaged but we thought we would try it anyway. I dug a hole and put the bush in making sure that all of the roots were well covered. It’s been a couple of months now and the bush looks terrible. From the street, it looks completely dead, but there is some new growth on it. I think that if we will give it a good pruning, we might save it.

Sometimes, the same thing happens to us. We go through traumatic experiences that seem to rip us apart physically, emotionally and spiritually. While the bush in my yard is dying from the outside in, we tend to wither away starting with the heart.

Fortunately, there is a master gardener. Our God has the ability to give new life to a once dying heart. Jesus said, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful,” John 15:2 (NIV). It may be painful and there may be a lot of pruning that needs to take place. There may be times when the pain seems unbearable but if you allow God to work on your heart and mold you into the person He has called you to be (and in the place where He has planted you) your life will turn out more beautiful than it was before. You will be stronger and more resilient through the work that God does in your life.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
(Psalm 139:23-24 NIV)