A Counterpoint Tradition and Giftings

Whew, finally back from ATF. It was a long trip, stressful, somewhat bumpy, but ultimately successful. It was a productive experience for me (as a youth pastor), and I have a lot of ideas fermenting right now, so expect a lot of posts to come this week.

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Last week, I spoke about the benefits of traditional liturgy and how they can augment worship. Today I am going to provide a counterpoint, if you will, of a second (but no less important) evangelical tradition. I'm speaking of the black church, tambourines in the pews, praise-the-Lord type of worship.

Today, our church hosted a Prophet from San Francisco named Ron Jones (and his team). It was a stretching experience for our congregation, as we are practically unilaterally a middle class, suburban, rural white church. We've had a long-standing relationship with Prophet Ron and we invite him and his team to minister usually once a year or so. I applaud our Pastor for his commitment to the whole body of Christ, and that he doesn't get trapped into a narrow view of Christianity; that he is willing to step out of his comfort zone (or push us out of ours) to submit to the will of God and participate in the Kingdom. It was fantastic. The worship was heartfelt, and energetic, and physical, and I was sweating by the time corporate worship ended.

One of his team chose to perform a dance she had choreographed as worship. Now, I'm a typical Myers-Briggs introvert. You couldn't pay me to dance in front of anyone. I don't even like public speaking. I'm not usually one for emotional displays (stiff upper lip and all that), but I was really affected by her dance. There is something spiritually sweet about someone excercising their God-given gifts in obedience to Christ. She was so focused on God and worshipping Him during her dance that I doubt that she even noticed us. As I watched her, I thought of when we're told about the judgment seat of Christ. I'm not going to enter into any debate about what exactly the judgement will entail, but Romans 14:12 says that we will give an account of ourselves to God.

If God has entrusted us with certain gifts (be it dance, writing, or what have you), it is our spiritual act of worship (no, moreso our duty) to use those gifts for God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:16: "Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" We have a duty to use the gifts that God has given us to the furtherance of His kingdom. Does it matter if we want to? Does it matter what others think of us? Of course not. All that matters is that we are obedient to His will. If we are obedient to God's will, then everything else is will fall into place on its own.