Corporate Worship: Fill-up Or Pour-out?

A lot has been said about gathered corporate worship being a culmination and celebration of what God has done in and through Believer’s lives during the week. I believe every pastor and worship leader’s heart desire is for gathered worship times to be vibrant and spirited, full of heartfelt praise and intimate worship.

For many Believers, gathered corporate worship is a place to get “filled-up” rather than a place to celebrate. We come empty, rather than overflowing. We are looking to receive, rather than looking to give. (I even worked with a worship ministry member in the past who called gathered corporate worship her therapy, because she spent her days between Sundays empty and lifeless.)

Have you ever felt this way? Do you find yourself entering a worship center with other Believers hoping for a touch from God, instead of entering abounding with praise?

Too often we find ourselves struggling during the week. The pressures of life, the weight of parenting, the stresses of the workplace, the burden of difficult relationships all contribute to emptying us of life rather than making us full of life. We feel loss, failure, insignificance, and defeat.

We cry out to God, but many times we feel like He isn’t listening. We “try to do better”, but find that our efforts are not enough. We pour out our hearts to a close friend (or with everybody on Facebook), but many times they turn it around and make it about their own struggles, rather than offering us significant solutions.

What can we do to change this? How can we live lives to the fullest, so that we can hardly wait for gathered corporate worship? (Not so we can be filled, but so we can let out the praise to God that is building inside of us.)

I will be spending the next few weeks in this space sharing biblical and practical solutions to help us become more vibrant Believers who worship out of personal fullness, instead of people who are desperately seeking to get our "Sunday fix". Watch this Blog for more. Until then… Lead Well!

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