Tag Archives: Worship

3.6.15 Can You Worship God While Holding a Cellphone?

I like technology and its many benefits. I especially like my cellphone. How many of us can say we imagined a device like this twenty years ago? I love these features:

  • Its portability
  • Internet access
  • Quick and efficient communication via texting.
  • GPS for easy navigation.
  • Apps that replicate software I like to use on my PC

What’s not to love about cellphones? Plenty: cellphones interfere with our worship experience. Are we so desensitized that we don’t notice how we undermine not only our own worship experience, but the experience of everyone around us?

Photo Courtesy @Shutterstock.com/Blaj Gabriel

Photo Courtesy @Shutterstock.com/Blaj Gabriel

I attend an 8:30am worship service in our beautiful chapel, with 100-150 members, more intimate than the gathering of two thousand people who arrive for the 9:45 service. I love music and feel more connected to God when we sing hymns with rich theology. Another bonus of the 8:30 worship service is the presence of Mac Bynum, a gifted musician and recording artist, who also is a masterful pianist. He can take any musical piece, create arrangements filled with beautiful arpeggios, and usher us into God’s presence.

Last Sunday was no exception. Mac had just finished playing a moving offertory piece, creating a worshipful setting. During the moment of silence before our pastor stood up to preach, a cellphone went off, a weather alert that pierced the quiet with a loud, honking noise. While this racket reverberated throughout the chapel, I noticed a gentleman frantically locating his cellphone so he could turn it off. He looked embarrassed. On the one hand, I felt sympathy for him. The last thing he needed was our glaring disapproval. On the other hand, I was irritated.

Why do any of us believe we need a cellphone while worshiping God with our fellow believers?

Is it possible that we’ve fallen in love with gadgets and all the bells and whistles that come with them? Have we become irrational to think we need to see our emails and texts right away? Yes and Yes. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we are growing an addiction to our phones. According to one report, people check their phones 150 times a day.¹ When the Times magazine polled their readership, they learned that 84% out of five thousand surveyed said they couldn’t live without their phone. One in five people check their phones every ten minutes.²

I bet many of you have the same problem in your worship gatherings. I can’t tell you the number of times I have seen people scrolling on their phones while our pastor is preaching. I watch people texting away as if they were sitting on their living room couch. It’s not just the young people who do this!

Why bother coming to worship if our focus isn’t having a special encounter with God?

I’ve noticed new etiquette rules developing around cellphone usage. For example, I discovered online a rule regarding dinner invitations. If someone wants to open her home and create an atmosphere to build relationships, then we should put our cellphones away. Yet the norm is that we Instagram our plate of food before we even eat it! Imagine being the host. Would you consider it rude if your guests were more interested in their cellphones than engaging with you and the other guests?

I wonder if God ever feels like an ignored host. He invites us to meet with Him. He wants us to engage with His Spirit through music, Scripture, and prayers. He wants us to celebrate Him with praise and thanksgiving. Here’s what He’s expecting according to Psalm 95:1-7:

1     Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.2     Let us come before him with thanksgivingand extol him with music and song.

3     For the Lord is the great God,

the great King above all gods.

4     In his hand are the depths of the earth,

and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5     The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.

6     Come, let us bow down in worship,

let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;

7     for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

 

When I read this passage, I know in my heart that cellphones and worship don’t mix. When He looks down at us, I wonder if He feels disheartened when He sees how distracted we are with our phones.

Can we honestly say we’re devoted to giving God praise while a cellphone is in hand? Don’t you think we are being rude and disrespectful to our Creator? We have to ask, “Why are we here?” Do we attend worship out of obligation? Or do we go with a strong sense of expectancy and anticipation that He is ready to minister to our souls?

I know there are exceptions—situations and people who need to be accessible: Many Children’s Ministries rely on cellphones to text a parent during a worship service to pick up a sick child. We have doctors who are on call. They get a pass. Some people access an online Bible to follow Scripture readings. If we bring cellphones to worship gatherings, it should only be for reasons such as these. The majority of us don’t need to have our phones with us.

I believe we can enhance the worship experience for all attendees by leaving our cellphones in the car. Otherwise, we become a distraction to those around us. More importantly, we can give the Lord our undivided attention as we worship Him.

 

Can you imagine how your worship experience would be enhanced if you were not distracted by someone’s phone?

If you were asked to draft a cellphone policy for worship gatherings, what would your rules be?

 

Blessings,

Lee Ann

 

¹http://www.kpcb.com/blog/2013-internet-trends

²http://techland.time.com/2012/08/16/your-life-is-fully-mobile/

2.12.13 Will We Lean on Our Staff?

     I am enjoying my home church in Austin, Riverbend. As I pull into the parking lot each Sunday, I see drivers waiting in over-sized golf carts to take people from their cars to the front entrance. As churchgoers stream up the sidewalks, I notice the familiar greeters stationed at the door, ready to give us a warm handshake. As soon as I step inside, I see Helen, a woman in a wheelchair, who always hands me the worship bulletin.

     To make eye contact with Helen you have to kneel so that she can see you. Her head is often tilted to one side with her eyes looking toward the floor. Yet Helen is not hindered by her disability. She has been a faithful volunteer since I’ve been in Austin. My guess is that she’s been serving in this capacity for much longer. Touched by her servant’s heart, I always remember to thank her.

Helen, a faithful servant

Helen, a faithful servant

     Worship bulletin in hand, I ascend the ramp leading to the main walkway of our sanctuary. Because our sanctuary is designed like an amphitheater, it is shaped in a semi-circle. The walkway separates the lower section of pews for people who prefer to sit closer to the stage and the upper section of pews for those who enjoy a birds-eye view of the platform. The stage is the lowest part of our sanctuary backed by a wide window that reveals tree tops and a peaceful sky. It is a breath-taking view that enhances the worship experience.

     I take my seat, and watch the young families with children find their favorite seats and the guests trying to decide if they should sit closer to the stage, or stay at a distance in the balcony. As I watch everyone pile in, I’m struck by the men and women who come to the sanctuary assisted by walkers, canes, or wheelchairs. Most of us don’t think twice about getting out of bed, getting dressed, and getting out the door, but those who have disabilities make a special effort to be here. It probably takes them twice as long to get around and put themselves together to be able to attend worship.

     It’s easy to be inspired by their obvious effort to join other believers, but what inspires me is deeper than their physical effort to worship. I find myself asking, What really drives them to be here? Surely they’re not coming out of legalism that says, “all believers ‘should’ attend worship every Sunday.” I found my answer reading an Old Testament passage in Genesis 47.

     Jacob and his children were rejoined with Jacob’s son, Joseph, in Egypt due to a famine. Jacob was 130 years old when he made this move. Seventeen years later, Jacob senses that his death is imminent, so he decides to do last minute estate planning. He calls in Joseph and asks him to swear that he will be buried with his other family members in Canaan, not in Egypt where he’s now living. Verse 31 says, “Then Joseph swore to him, and Jacob worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.” Jacob is 147 years old! Jacob desired to worship God, even though he was frail and had to lean on his staff.

     I think Jacob was driven to worship God at 147 years old because he had a deep, abiding love relationship with God. God never failed him. God was always faithful in fulfilling His covenant promises. God delivered him in times of hardship, whether it was working for his Uncle Laban who kept changing the terms of his work relationship, or whether it was the fear that his brother Esau would kill him, or whether a whole community would kill him and his family because of two sons who mass murdered all the men of Shechem. Jacob wrestled with God. Jacob had to know that God was worthy of all glory and honor.

     Helen reminds me of Jacob. I bet she’s experienced a God who has always been faithful to her. Because of her devotion to God, she has never let her disability stop her from serving God by handing out worship bulletins, or worshipping God with us. Our day will come when our bodies will become less cooperative. Some day we will have a “staff” to assist us. Will we be driven to do whatever it takes to worship with other believers when we’re disabled and tempted to stay home? Will our effort to worship by leaning on our staff be a reflection of our lifelong devotion to cultivate a growing love relationship with God?

     If you’re not sure, what are the obstacles in your way to connect with God and worship Him? Is there anything I can do to help you or encourage you?

Blessings,
Lee Ann