Sermon Text: John 4:19-24
Sermon Excerpt
Today we focus on passionate worship as one of the five practices of fruitful congregations. Passionate worship isn’t about music style or volume or instrumentation. It isn’t a one size fits all experience.
Passionate worship sounds like a nice ideal, but how does it compare to what is really happening each week at the services held at America’s many houses of worship? How has worship changed in recent years? Are there any research based best practices from which we can learn?
I can’t answer all of those questions much less all of the questions you may have. I will, however, offer some wisdom from recent research alongside some of my personal experiences.
First the research . . . the Hartford Institute for Religion Research has been seeking to understand what really happens in American congregations for many years. In 2000 and again in 2010 they conducted the “largest national survey of congregations ever conducted in the United States.”
They found “several characteristics of worship were positively related to growth in attendance,” including
- offering multiple worship services and
- describing worship as joyful, innovative and inspirational.
They also found that change isn’t easy. In reality . . . (read the full manuscript)
So What?
We are called to worship in spirit and truth. Our worship should be passionate. It should be welcoming. Congregations should strive to offer multiple worship services that create an experience participants see as joyful, innovative, and inspirational. Faith communities of all sizes and from all denominations/traditions must commit to honest evaluations of their worship services as a regular part of their ongoing planning work.
- Which of these words do you feel is an appropriate description of most worship services in your local congregation: joyful, innovative, inspirational?
- What percentage of those worshiping at your church today do you think were passionate about the experience?
- How does your congregation gather input about the worship experience? Do you believe such input is taken seriously in the ongoing planning process?