Reflections on worship...

More thoughts on worship by James Torrance...

"Worship is a narrative and symbolic activity, meant to evoke response."

"The role of symbol in worship is not to convey doctrine or promote ideology, but to provoke an encounter between God and God’s people."

I love the concept of worship as narrative...the telling of or singing of the story of God. I love the idea of an encounter between God and humanity!

Today was the first time I led worship just me and my guitar and one vocalist. I was nervous and lacking some confidence. Some of my insecurities started to come out not having my band/team with me. "What would happen if people really see me, hear me, and find that it/I am lacking?" was the question. Another was "could I do this [leading worship] in such a way that would not be distracting to others?"

I was reminded of these two quotes. Worship is not about me as the leader, musician, singer, etc. it is about telling, re-telling, and remembering the story/narrative of the Gospel. And in doing so we are drawn into a place of response. The "here I am send me" response of Isaiah. God was gracious and by His Holy Spirit I was able to help in the faciliting of re-telling of the story. As a result, we had a wonderful encounter with God!

Tomorrow is Sunday and I have much to praise God for! I pray that you all have the opportunity to respond once again to the narrative of the Gospel as told through a time of intimate/corporate worship!