Public worship is an interesting phenomenon of our spiritual lives.  It has about as many definitions as we have people in attendance.  There are hundreds of needs within a given congregation.  How can a handful of worship leaders meet everyone's expectations in a brief time of worship?  They can't.  The Holy Spirit has to translate and communicate.  Truth has to be internalized.  Music has to be appropriated into our emotional being.  Prayers have to be composed by everyone.  We invoke God's spirit upon us and unless we allow Him to have our undivided attention, worship becomes little more than a few moments of boring spectatorship.  Worship is something in which God participates.  In fact it is not worship unless He does.

Should we always expect people to come to church with something as serious as God on their minds?  Should it be made easier for the Holy Spirit to capture their attention?  Should folk be lured by some kind of gimmick and then zap them with God?  Is it too much to expect people to hunger and thirst for righteousness?  Must we first serve an appetizer or perhaps a preview of coming attractions?  Has God lost His appeal?  Do we need the ways of the world to give Him secular creditability?  What is worship to the person who does not consider himself or herself spiritual?

Worship is an event that gets something going between God and the worshiper.  It introduces the living God in such a way that His unconditional love is obvious and His understanding of life's pain provides hope.  Public worship does not happen in a vacuum.  It occurs in the context of people.  There is a sense of belonging and being identified with the people of God.  We are conscious of others and others are conscious of us.  Worship is as public as everyone singing together, but as private as one's personal pilgrimage.  If God is sought He can design a blessing to meet everyone's particular need.  What a call to worship when the Psalmist said, "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord!" May it always happen for us when we yield our minds to God's truth, our hearts to His love, and our lives to His great commission.