Worshipping Outside of the Box
Recently I had the incredible joy, honor, and privilege of traveling to India to partner with various ministries, leaders, pastors, and worship leaders that serve all throughout the beautiful country.
During this week our team did training in SOZO ministry, MarriageStrong/RelateStrong, music ministry, and Biblical theology. It was amazing to see the immediate impact of these teachings, and it has been incredible to hear about how the Lord is bringing restoration, forgiveness, healing, freedom, hope, new songs, and His full life to the leaders, their families, and their ministries.
Although I could share a thousand stories from this trip on the teachings, training, and ministry time, I want to elaborate on a time in worship that was life-changing for me. It was one of those moments in which we entered into the time thinking we had something to teach when in all reality, we had more to learn than to teach. God is wonderful like that, and I’m always open to learn and grow more!
One of these days we linked up with a worship ministry through teaching on prophetic and spontaneous worship. Little did I know that these leaders carried such passion, depth of joy, and partnership with the Holy Spirit that I would be doing the learning.
After a few songs of worship, we opened the microphone to allow the worship leaders to sing out their prophetic and heart songs. What had started as a few leaders proclaiming songs in English turned into five and a half hours of worship in both Telugu and English! This time included moments in exuberant dance as well as moments of intense proclamation. We sang from our hearts, we declared from real freedom, and we participated in the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!
We encountered gracious times of throne room worship as well as majestic glimpses of heaven on earth. It was beautifully and gloriously what all of our hearts longed for, and we only stopped because our team had to get back to our hotel. In all honesty, I believe this was a peek into eternity and preparation for our hearts of the worship that is to come and can be now as well!
The most impressional aspect to all of this is that five and a half hours in God’s presence felt like thirty minutes total. There was no rushing, there was no competition, there was no performance, there was no numbing out, and there were no walls put up to the Lord’s love or to our time in worship.
In other words, worship brought us into the rhythm of eternity.
It was during this time and after it that I have reflected upon what this means for my life moving forward. As a Beloved Son who leads worship, I want to walk in honor and respect for the places in which I sing. This leading sometimes means that I need to limit songs or that we need to cut sets shorter to honor the speaker or the timing of the service. However, I would like to say that when we rush in our worship that we are missing out on authentic praise and actual connection with the Lord.
It is with this said that I would like to suggest that we worship outside the box. Much like thinking outside the box is a metaphor that calls us to consider from a new perspective with creativity and alternative practices, I believe that worshipping outside the box gives us opportunities to uniquely go beyond the surface in our gatherings and our lives.
The way I like to think about this is in the image of an iceberg...
Most of the times we barely scratch the surface in our times and actions of worship because we limit our praises with boxes in time, performance, or numbing out. These limitations turn our declarations of highest adoration and encounters with the King of kings into karaoke songs and entertainment for the masses.
Beloved, the tip of the iceberg is good, but there is SO MUCH MORE. We worship the God who can do immeasurably more than we ask, think, or imagine, and as we immerse ourselves in the height, length, width, and depth of His love, we will find ourselves filled to the fullness of the measure of God (Eph. 3:14-21).
With that said, I want to give a couple of steps for how we can do this with our lives, in our gatherings, and ultimately, together for all eternity.
Abide Rather Than Perform:
I’m not saying that striving is a bad thing, but I am saying it can be. When our performance and excellence takes precedence over our connection with the Lord in worship, we miss the truth of the Gospel: we are loved and connected through Christ’s finished work, not our attempts at earning. When we make worship a performance and make perfectionism our focus, we rush right past the opportunities to flow with the Spirit of God.
However, when we make our praise about the Lord’s performance at Calvary and His resurrection power strengthening us to proclaim the highest ovation, we are better empowered to abide in the throne room opening space for heaven and earth to kiss in the presence of the One we have slowed to be with. Again, I’m not saying working is terrible but I am saying that when our work takes the focus over Christ’s work, we are worshipping ourselves and rushing past the One who wants to love us into wholeness.
So what can we do? Dallas Willard states that the key to the life of the believer is to “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from their life.” In other words, find whatever it is that makes your rush, and get rid of it. A.W. Tozer says it like this in The Knowledge of the Holy, “God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.” In life, in worship, and in all things abide with the One who never hurries. You’ll find that you are living and worshipping at a much better pace.
Engage Rather Than Numbing Out:
More often than not in worship, it is easy to disengage to focus on the music, on the harmonies, on how somebody looks, on what the person next to us is doing, or on making sure our service is running on time. However, when we glance away from the One to whom all music, harmonies, actions, and time is for, we numb out from the opportunity to engage with the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer.
These actions are hard because we frequently numb out the most when there is a place of pain that surfaces or a challenging phrase to declare in worship. I don’t mean to be rude, but the more we run from the sorrow, the less we will find freedom and the less we will experience joy. When we turn ourselves off to pain, we limit the peace we can feel as well. When we numb out, we miss the full weight of loving connection with the One who chose to take the total weight of the cross on our behalf.
Similarly, when do not proclaim out phrases that are difficult to sing or speak, we miss out on the opportunities to experience what we need to feel and unify with others. We may feel like we can’t trust God or that He has let us down, but just because we think it does not mean that is the truth. We worship the Faithful King, and our perspective is limited to our time, rather than the eternity of all things working together into goodness. On this same point, sometimes we need to sing songs in other languages to show that our Hallelujah is not limited to a particular people or type of speech, but rather our worship is of every tribe, nation, and tongue (Rev. 7:9). Instead of numbing out to other languages or uncomfortable phrases, I’d much rather engage in worship outside of my comfort zone because when I do, I find myself receiving and giving in actual connection to the One who is Love and Connection Himself.
So what can we do? Quite frankly we need to engage in patience with God, others, and ourselves. Henri Nouwen writes, “A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.” When we give ourselves to moments of patient waiting and listening, we open ourselves to hear our hearts, to hear from other’s hearts (in every language), and ultimately, we will hear from the One who formed, knows, and loves our hearts.
Beloved, these are two steps of a limitless number of things we can do to worship outside the box. I genuinely believe that when we stop rushing by abiding and when we cease numbing out by engaging we will see a breakthrough in our worship and lives given to the Lord.
I experienced only five and half hours of this unboxed worship, but there is truly an eternity of these moments for us to abide and engage in. We worship the Limitless, Measureless, Boundless, Eternal God of Love. Let us worship Him outside our boxes and engage with Him in a posture of truth and love. We may just find that our services and lives will turn into spaces that allow heaven and earth to meet. Amen.
“There are no unique postures and times and limitations that restrict our access to God. My relationship with God is intimate and personal. The Christian does not go to the temple to worship. The Christian takes the temple with him or her. Jesus lifts us beyond the building and pays the human body the highest compliment by making it His dwelling place, the place where He meets with us.”
—Ravi Zacharias
