Are you sitting comfortably?

Visited a Church last night... don't think it's helpful to use the patented Rylett Five-Star review strategy on people's acts of worship, but I do (of course) have some questions and some opinions...

Gen asked me how it was when I got home and my one-word would be "comfortable". This has nagged at me ever since, and this morning I remembered the welcome offered to visitors: "We hope you will be comfy".

Comfy... does Jesus call us to be comfy? He is the God who comforts those who mourn but I don't believe that there is a biblical precedent to be comfy? So why is the aim of so many of our Church meetings that we might be comfortable? Were the disciples comfortable as they saw demons cast out and outcasts welcomed in? Were the Pharisees comfortable as Jesus challenged and rebuked them? Was Paul comfortable as he moved across the empire speaking of Jesus?

Those who lead our Churches need to stop inviting us to be comfortable and start preaching the life-changing, transforming, healing, challenging, comforting, but never comfortable word of God.

Anyways... I was able to worship the God who is due all my praise and I thank him for speaking to me last night during the word, as a result I have had a rather uncomfortable day and I will worship Him more as a result.

Who do you worship?

We were created by God as worshippers. So the question is never
'whether' you worship, but 'what' do you worship. You can either
Worship the God in whose image you were made, who lived and died
because he loves you and so that you might live a life of freedom in
relationship with Him. Or you could worship your possessions, your
job, your friends, your family the list goes on.

Want to answer the question for yourself? Well look at your life and
ask "what do I sacrifice things for?" because true worship involves
sacrifice. If you sacrifice relationships because you are 'too' busy
at work then you worship your job - that doesn't sound fulfilling?!

As I was walking in the rain with God this afternoon I saw this sign:

Worship is for God and God alone! We do not worship because of what we might receive but because he is worthy or all our praise, all our adoration and all our lives. That's what makes him God!

Do real men sing?

"The sight of men in their 30s with arms outstretched, baring their souls", if only this was the sight in our Churches across the UK? Alas it is not the description of Sunday Evening at Holy Trinity but that of a recent review of Noel Gallagher's first solo concert.

Time and time again people have said to me "Men just don't like to sing", "Men won't express emotion". "Rubbish", I cry "of course they do!" But where and when is interesting; in a football stadium, check; in the shower, check; at a rock concert, check. At Church... not on your nelly misses. But WHY? Why is it that once a man walks into a Church he leaves his emotions at the door? Or if that is not the case then why is it that as Church leaders we are so incapable of reaching the male emotions.

A friend posted this link on his blog some time back where the implication is that even Mr Redman has bought into the belief that men don't sing: http://takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.com/2009/08/on-men-and-church-singing.html Oh Matt, they do, they do! But how are we going to release them, give them freedom to sing with the same "soul baring" fervour as they do at a Noel Gallagher gig or a football match?

If you want to read more about Noel's solo gig, go ahead I love this quote:

The sight of men in their 30s with arms outstretched, baring their souls as well as their paunches to the stage, is one that Noel Gallagher must be used to by now.