It should be easy, shouldn't it???

I think every christian goes through a time of being unhappy with church and especially worship. I also think that most christians who have a blog write something in it about how/why they are unhappy and what people need to do to make it better.

There is the first problem. PEOPLE don't need to do anything. It's all between God and the worshiper. It doesn't matter how you worship, as long as your heart is in the right place. It shouldn't matter what other people do or what you want them to do. They worship in one way, you worship in another. It's all for the same God right?

I'm hoping to write this blog with a lot of insight as the "worship leader's daughter" and from coming from a pretty traditional christian family (who is very music revolving). I really hope this is useful.

I came to the realization that it doesn't matter how it just matters who you worship, several months ago. I think i've had that mentality for a while, but it finally became real about 3 months ago when we visited Jeff and got to see how his church service was done. Since i didn't have a blog then, I didn't write anything about it, but today we got a recording of one of his church services in the mail and I re-realized some of that stuff.

Jeff's church is a small, black church. Maybe 100 (?) people in the congregation. They meet at a local high school. Opposite of FBC tradition, the worship team doesn't have any type of practice during the week or before the service. They come in on Sunday morning, play the music they feel God has led them to play, and do it for God only. Not to please people.

Most people reading this know me well enough to know that I am totally not a racist person AT ALL, but you may have noticed that I described Jeff's church as a black church. That shouldn't really matter, but I believe that in most instances, black people have the right idea- it doesn't matter that the songs sung on Sunday are 10 or 20 years old. It doesn't matter if they are hymns. It doesn't matter if they are loud. What matters is that they praise and glorify God.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like predominantly white churches are the ones who have trouble pleasing people and in turn may not please God. After experiencing Jeff's church, I feel like those people really get it. They don't care that they are singing an out of date song. They don't care that one song is really loud. They don't care when the person standing next to them in church worships God by dancing or yelling or clapping. It doesn't matter! They have a one-on-one, personal relationship with God. That's what church and worship should be about.

Anyone who has led worship at FBC has gotten some kind of complaint about the song choice, the volume, or the instruments. People who leave comments like that just need to give up and, instead, encourage those who are trying to lead people to a place where they can experience God. They need to stop worrying about the dumb little stuff and just let it be what it is and have that personal relationship with God. Let go of what you're used to. Experience something new and different. Experience God.