Dangerous Worship by Tami Cinquemani

I recently had a minor surgical procedure that required me to go under general anesthesia. After the procedure, my husband brought me home, and I crawled back in bed to sleep. Later in the day when I was feeling up to visitors, my best friend, Nicole, dropped by to see me. I love my relationship with Nicole – we “get” each other, and our friendship is incredibly easy. When Nicole stopped by, I knew there were no expectations. If I wanted to talk, she’d talk. If I fell asleep, she’d be just fine. If I got tired and just wanted to be alone, I could tell her without fear of hurting her feelings. Nicole is a truly amazing friend.

I was told to take it easy for a couple of days after my surgery, so that weekend I participated in an online worship experience. I spent Saturday and Sunday mornings “church hopping”. You can get a real bird’s eye view of a church service on the Internet. It was during a camera shot of a woman flipping through a bulletin while mouthing the words to a song of praise that it hit me. The magnitude of the moment was completely lost.

People are before their God to offer worship to Him, and they’re shuffling papers, texting, yawning, and checking their watches. And this is common regardless of denomination, worship style, or day of worship. Unfortunately, this is common in my church . . . and sadly, this is common in me. It’s not possible that we are truly realizing the fact that we are coming before our Creator – our Savior – our Alpha and Omega – and that He is actually meeting with us so we can offer Him our heartfelt and selfless worship and beg to be changed into new creatures. Have we come to consider a worship service no differently than I viewed time with Nicole after my surgery? Do we seek an “easy” God who has no expectations of us and doesn’t care if we are distracted or even fall asleep during the time He set aside to be with us?

In his book, The Dangerous Act of Worship, Mark Labberton writes, “If we are committed to protecting who and what we are now, then our greatest need and greatest danger will be in meeting God. Of course, this is also our only hope. This is the wake-up call we may not want, but it alone leads us to new life. Becoming new will complicate our lives. Whether in the power of the whirlwind or in the still small voice of the Spirit, meeting God is no small incident.”

I need to understand and experience authentic worship because I don’t want to remain who and what I am now. I want a complicated new life. And I don’t ever want to walk into a worship experience again thinking of it as a “small incident”. In every opportunity I have to worship God, I want it to be the most important, challenging and life-changing privilege of my existence.

Tami Cinquemani