Rebecca Groothuis, who contributed greatly to the egalitarian components of my pastoral theology, has a wonderfully provocative question in her article Let’s Put Worship Back in the Worship Service. Though the article is a decade old, her proposal that we focus on ministry to God in worship before ministering to those in need challenges our current missional order of priorities.
I think that we often get swept into combining the worship impulse with our outreach impulse into a single activity. By ministering to his people we are worshipping God and in this mashup, He will be singularly pleased. Our separation of these activities and the subsequent recognition of the quality of our worship will result, Groothuis suggests, in a reordering of our ministry. It is not without benefit. The greater focus on worship as vocation contributes to our discipleship which in turn contributes to a greater missional impulse. What do you think?
LOVE | ACCEPT | FORGIVE 