Worship Ways 50 tips on more fully engaging in worship by changing your habits, breaking routines, and developing intentional practices of worship. This isn t intended as a worship manual, or a one-sized fits all list. Some of these ideas will be useful to everybody, some will only help a few people. They probably aren t all for you. But odds are there s something in the list that follows that can help you take a step forward in being a more engaged worshipper. Grace and Peace, Steven Hovater
1. Listen Come with a listening heart. Prepare yourself to attentively hear what God might be speaking to you in all that happens in worship. 2. Come Early Try and get to worship a little while before everything begins. It ll give you time to connect with people and settle yourself into the mindset of worship.
3. Stay Late Don t rush away when everything is over. Take a moment and reflect, or connect with somebody else. Remember, gathering to worship isn t about performing a ritual. The community is important. 4. Unplug Leave the phone at home, or turn it off. Sure, the bible apps can be helpful, but it can also be useful to separate from the screens.
5. Plug In On the other hand, sometimes you can use social tech to extend the conversation. Send a tweet about the sermon, or post a question from worship on facebook. Just be intentional about it. 6. Move We all know that where we sit for worship can quickly become an ingrained habit. Sometimes just the act of physically moving yourself to a different spot can help you focus more intently on worship, or give you a different perspective on the worshipping community.
7. Sleep Almost everybody needs more rest. Get some extra sleep, and you ll find you have more energy to engage in worship. 8. Expand your Scope What other texts connect with the theme of this week s worship? What other hymns could join the conversation or spin things differently?
9. Receive a Song Generally, we hope everybody joins in the songs we sing together. But occasionally it s good to close your mouth and just listen. Receive the song. Hear the church. Then, join back in! 10. Crank the Volume Sing louder than you are comfortable singing. Turn up the volume. Don t choose your singing volume based on how you think you sound. It might feel crazy at first, but after a little while you ll find that you re more engaged and less self-conscious.
11. Be Hospitable Treat everyone you see, from the most veteran members to the first-time visitors, as if they were guests in your own home. 12. Read Ahead Each week, our church (like most others!) publishes the order of worship, and it includes the text that we ll read together and that the sermon will grow out of. Read ahead, and begin reflecting on the text before you come, and it ll likely become even more meaningful to you.
13. Take Notes Take crazy notes. Not just about the sermon, either. Write down lines from songs, bits of conversations, reflections from communion take crazy notes. 14. Be Physical Worship involves our whole being not just our emotional or cognitive selves. Think about your posture, feel the songs coming from your throat.
15. Stretch You d be amazed how a good solid stretch makes almost anything better. It will make you more prepared to engage in worship, too. And yes, I mean physically stretch. This is not a metaphor. 16. Talk in Church We ve all heard the opposite of this, but there are plenty of times when it s actually a good idea to lean over to your neighbor and extend the conversation. We don t come to worship in individual cubicles we come together for a purpose.
17. Talk Back There s a reason why there s a long tradition of saying things like Amen, That s Right, Yes, and Come on in worship. Speak up! It s a way we fight the tendency to see worship as something done by the people with the microphones. 18. Pray for the Spirit s Work Worship is something that we do in partnership and response to the Holy Spirit pray before beginning that the Spirit will lead your worship to God! Pray for your responsiveness to the Spirit.
19. Smile at Kids Help kids know that they belong and have a place in the church. Most of the time, they don t need a theological treatise. But you better believe they notice whether or not people are simply kind to them. They know whether or not you want them there. And when you greet them kindly, you ll naturally have more of a sense of why you re there, too. 20. Find One Thing Immediately after you leave worship, try and think of one thing that you feel like the Lord was revealing to you. It could have been in a conversation, a hymn, in the sermon, or in a moment of silence. It could be from anyone, or any moment.
21. Don t be a critic Stop judging worship and how it s led. A cynical, critical spirit just isn t going to help you in this part of life. It ll kill your capacity to worship. 22. Sing to Someone. This may sound weird, but pick somebody around you and sing one of the songs to them, at least in your mind. In your heart, give the song to that person.
23. Sing the Words Experience the sound of the songs, but don t get lost in it. Chew on the lyric, too. 24. Fast Prepare yourself for worship with a fast! Abstain from a meal or two in preparation of the church s gathered worship.
25. Sketch Don t limit your notes to verbal expressions. Sometimes sketching an image may help you explore what s happening in an even fuller way. 26. Commune with Intent During the Lord s supper, mull over every moment. Linger on the act of receiving or passing the elements. Take a deep breath while tasting the bread and wine. Share the moment with your neighbor with a meaningful word or look.
27. Debrief Talk over what happened in worship with someone else. Where did each of you sense the Lord s work? (Note, make sure you remember number 21, Don t be a critic.) 28. Attend to the Absent Pause to take note of someone that you don t see in the gathered church. Pray for them. Perhaps reach out with a text, letting them know you missed them.
29. Practice If you receive the order of worship in advance, see if you know all of the songs, or if you have children, ask them if they know the songs. Sing it with them if they don t! It ll help them, and you, engage. 30. Recreate the Text from Memory Later, try and write down the text, whether a story or piece of prose, as best you can remember it. Then, check your version against the actual text. What s missing? Why?
31. See Anew Occasionally, try and take in everything that happens in worship as though you were there, hearing and seeing it for the first time. 32. Pray the Order of Worship Take the order of worship, and simply pray through the service. Ask the Lord to be present in each moment, in each element of worship, and among the gathered church.
33. Pick a Song Take one of the songs of worship, and sing it to yourself the rest of the week. Make up a little dance to it. Belt it out in the car. Whisper it at your pillow. Make it your ringtone. Live it. 34. Free your Worship Tone Try to develop your capacity to worship with different emotional tones. Celebrate, mourn and lament, be joyful, somber, inquisitive, concerned. Learn to engage through a range of emotions.
35. Seek the Lord Come determined to find the Lord. Where is God being revealed during worship today? 36. Explore the Places of Worship This may sound a little airy and fuzzy, but worship can take us to places have an explorer's spirit about worship. Dig around. Be curious. What is the world of worship like?
37. Surrender Come ready to change. What you take from worship may need to mess up your life in its current form. 38. Shift your Perspective. Pick somebody else in the church whose life seems to be in a different state than yours, and worship from their perspective. Celebrate with the celebrating, mourn with the grieving. You can learn a lot about a brother or sister by worshipping in their shoes.
39. Reconcile Jesus himself says that making things right with another person comes before placing a gift on the altar. Honor that. 40. Consider God s Character Your worship will be richer if you always keep returning to the character of God. God invites you to lay aside your fear and come to the divine family table. That s the God you re worshipping.
41. Own Worship Don t expect somebody else worship for you. Worship isn t something only done by the people on stage. Be an active worshipper. 42. Keep a Worship Journal If you collect a running list of the different ways worship is shaping you, it s a great idea to go back and read some of those over time. Celebrate how God is leading and forming you as a disciple of Jesus!
43. Connect the Dots How does this week s worship connect with what happened last week? How does it connect with your personal prayer time, or with what s happening this Tuesday? 44. Prepare to be prepared. Become malleable. Prepare yourself to be shaped, pray that you ll be changed. Expect that worship will, over time, alter the course of your life.
45. Accept the Sending One of the most important things about worship is the way you leave it. 46. New Song You don t have to set out to write the next version of Amazing Grace, but trying to take some of your experience or aspiration of worship and composing a verse or two is a great exercise.
47. Imagine the Historical Church What if you imagined yourself not only worshipping with the physically present congregation, but with the whole chain of God s people who have gone before? You might have a different sort of experience. 48. Consider the Future In a similar way, think towards the future, both towards the realization of our hopes in Christ Jesus, and your own possible place as an ancestor to future generations.
49. Take Note of the Silences It s been said that there s a lot of music in the spaces between the notes the rhythmic beats of silence that really give music shape and form. The same is true for worship. Worship in the off-beats too, taking advantage of the bits of silence along the way. 50. Go Long Think of your growth in worship not as a quick leap, but as a long journey. Keep stringing small steps together, over a long period, and you ll find yourself growing!
Thanks for Reading! I hope this list of worship tips and practices can help you grow as a worshipper. If you have any ideas for things that I might add to the list, I d love to hear it! If you've found it useful, I d love for you to share this link with your friends or your own social media channels: http://stevenhovater.com/worship Grace and Peace, Steven Web: stevenhovater.com Twitter: @stevenhovater Facebook: @stevenhovaterpage