Heart of Worship
09.10.23
“When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come.
Longing just to bring something that’s of worth, that will bless your heart…
I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You, Jesus”
For the past two weeks we have incorporated “The Heart of Worship” into our worship services. This decision was made intentionally as we have entered an entire sermon series titled “Rooted in Worship.”
I wanted to share the story behind this song directly from the words of its author Matt Redman, who is a household name in the worship music world.
“The song dates back to the late 1990s, born from a period of apathy within Matt’s home church, Soul Survivor, in Watford, England. Despite the country’s overall contribution to the current worship revival, Redman’s congregation was struggling to find meaning in its musical outpouring at the time.
“There was a dynamic missing, so the pastor did a pretty brave thing,” he recalls. “He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.”
Reminding his church family to be producers in worship, not just consumers, the pastor, Mike Pilavachi, asked, “When you come through the doors on a Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God?”
Matt says the question initially led to some embarrassing silence, but eventually people broke into a cappella songs and heartfelt prayers, encountering God in a fresh way.”
As we seek to be a church that seeks to Encounter God in all that we do, I think this is a good reminder that regardless of who or what is on the platform, we are all graciously invited to gather together each week to bring our praises to God.
We are going to talk more about the other ways scripture instructs us to worship God, but for now I think it is best to just reflect on this one question.
Am I coming into the congregational gatherings on Sunday, or into my daily routines with any space in my heart that is ready to simply praise God for what God is doing? Are we producing worship to God with our lives or just consuming it?