Rediscovering the Joy of Worship

As a lifelong Christian and an ordained Presbyterian (PCUSA) minister, I’ve been to my fair share of worship services. Sometimes out of duty, sometimes out of desire, and sometimes out of desperation.

I remember going to church the Sunday after my oldest daughter was born. She had been born on a Wednesday and we had only been home from the hospital for a couple of days. But that Sunday morning, there was nowhere else in the world that I wanted to be than in the midst of my community of faith, praising God for this blessing that had just entered our lives.

Lately, it has been a chore to go to church. After all, I really ought to take my children to church. And my mom is so much happier when we are sitting there with her in church. And, of course, as an ordained minister, I’m supposed to go to church, right? Duty, duty, duty.

Truth is, that feeling of duty can really get in the way of worshiping God, of opening myself to the healing power of the Spirit that I need as much today as I always have. But, there are lots of other things that can also get in the way of the Spirit and get in the way of worshiping in healthy and life-giving ways.

Male language for God and even worse, hymns and prayers that use “man” and “mankind” to refer to the people of God. Sermons and prayers that fail to tackle the most challenging problems that we face as a human community. Going to worship and feeling isolated from the people around you. Being part of church that is fighting and broken. Feeling alienated by messages that exclude you. There are so many ways that church can harm us instead of heal us.

Yesterday, I visited a church that reminded me of how uplifting worship can be when I’m not constantly on my guard about whether or not I am going to be assaulted spiritually. The minister at this church is well known in my community for her passion for justice, a passion that she lives out in her ministry and in her daily life as faith leader in the community. The Word that she preached was strong and challenging and resonated with my theology.

But even more importantly, the liturgy and the community were carefully and meticulously inclusive. This is not a church that simply posts a banner on their door proclaiming that “all are welcome,” it is a church that embraces and embodies the love of God for all people. There was no male language for people or for God to interfere with the power of the Spirit flowing through the room. There was no presumed heteronormativity to alienate single people or same-sex couples. While it was predominantly white, there were a handful of people of color. Most importantly, the people were friendly and generally happy to welcome someone new to the table.

This is what church is supposed to be. A place where people actually feel welcomed and a place where one is able to feel the power and love of God moving through the people.

I have written before about how difficult it is sometimes to make myself get up and go to church. It’s true that the world is changing and that most Christian worship services feel like a throw-back to an older era. That’s because they are. Christian liturgy embodies the history of our tradition even as we seek to imbue it with new language and elements that speak to the spiritual needs of 21^st century Christians.

I love the tunes of many of the old hymns, they resonate in my soul and my memory in a deep and profound way that I cherish, but the lyrics and theology of many of those same hymns can cut my soul to shreds and leave me agitated and distressed. Thankfully, there are song-writers and lyricists who continue to craft new words to those ancient tunes that bring new life and joy to worship for me.

Figuring out how worship can continue to bring joy to people’s lives is a critical challenge as churches in the US figure out what it means to minister in ways that resonate with 21^st century people. Finding new ways to celebrate the sacred is a witness to the vibrancy and continuing relevance of faith in our lives.

Today, I visited a neighborhood church out of desperation for inclusive language and a justice-oriented vision of Christian worship. Finding a worshiping community that embodied and ministered to my spiritual needs helped me rediscover the joy of worship and reminded me of how finding the right worshiping community can transform duty into desire for the sacred.