Worship Made Flesh

A favorite worship leader of mine wrote this article a couple of years ago.

Worship Made Flesh

By: Murray Sanderson
Date: October 18, 2002

We've been blessed by a wonderful era of worship renewal! God is doing great things in our corporate worship. The song service is the most obvious recipient of this Holy Spirit renaissance, but the Spirit is also moving to renew our focus on scripture reading, Lord's Supper observance, and proclamation of Christ as well. I thank God for what He has done and is still doing to help us stay fresh as we take delight in Him corporately.

God is restoring to us the joy of our salvation, not solely for refreshment and inspiration, although He certainly has brought those two in abundance. By example, Jesus showed us how necessary it would be for us to withdraw from the world to a lonely place (which we do individually and corporately) to reset our compasses. As He did with Christ, so now He does with us, the body of Christ: He is restoring our souls inside the church walls so that we may more mightily and courageously worship outside the church walls!

If you thought adding a worship team was a big deal, brace yourself for the next exciting phase of worship renewal. The title of this chapter of worship reformation could be, "The Worship Made Flesh," meaning that we are ready now to be incarnated? Christ in us, the hope of glory for the world. Jesus was the Word made flesh, and now we are Jesus made flesh. He calls us to focus on others around us, to dive into the deep and sometimes murky waters of social justice, to humble ourselves by lifting up the poor, to spend time encouraging the brokenhearted.
It's this Isaiah 58/Romans 12 worship renewal that can be a real challenge. The first era of worship renewal was a big step, but God has even greater challenges in store.

When God set His heart on reaching humankind, He sent judges, priests, kings, and prophets but then determined it was best for Him to come in human form. His message of love, peace, and hope to a dying world was best and most fully expressed in Christ.

In the last ten to fifteen years, we've set our hearts on reaching God through worship renewal. We've incorporated worship teams, congregational readings, vocal solos, fancy projectors and yes, the big kahuna, the use of the dramatic arts. But now He sends us out like He sent His Son, to leave the delights and pleasantries of the auditorium and go outside into the streets. Without allowing our worship services to suffer in any way, we now turn our focus outwardly, allowing God to reach the world with our beautiful voices and outstretched hands. To be sure, we are following in the steps of Christ (God's Word made flesh), the quintessential worship reformer.