After All, Worship is Primarily a Preaching Event

We’re starting a new sermon series at our church this Sunday.  The series is titled, “Church: Why Bother?”  That title comes from a book by Philip Yancey by that same title.  We’re going to be looking at why the church is important, why people should “bother” with church.  Do you consider the church to be significant?  Is there a place in your life for the church?  If so, why?  If not, why not?

Sometimes people like Jesus but don’t like the church.  Sometimes people have had some kind of bad experience associated with church.  I understand.  There are plenty of reasons not to bother with church.  But are there also lots of reasons to get over it and participate in the life of a local church?

I think so, and I think a place to start is with worship.  Many times when people give church a try they start with attending a worship service.  Many times when people leave the church it’s because of something associated with the worship service.  As such, worship is often the front door and the back door of the church.  And many people consider the worship service to be primarily a preaching event.  A lot is riding on whether people get anything out of the sermon.  It’s very possible that many people, when asking why they should bother with the church, are actually asking why they should go out of their way to go listen to somebody preach a sermon. 

So I think a helpful place to start thinking about why one should bother with church is to remember worship is supposed to be exactly that; worship.  It’s intended to be a gathering of people acknowledging God is Creator and is beyond us and yet with us and is perfectly moral (holy) and is, for those and so many other reasons, worthy of reverence, respect, and response.  Worship is to be a preview of heaven in that those gathered are all focused on God, and because of the object that shared focus and orientation is a beautiful, uniting power.

If we think about ourselves personally, genuinely, from the heart, worshiping God in ways that are authentic to us we are closer to what the Bible really says about worship.  The Bible doesn’t say worship is primarily a preaching event.  The Bible says worship is primarily about God and our connection to God.  If that’s where we start our thinking about church we’ll discover it truly is worth the bother.  When it all comes down, it’s His church, and He is worth the bother.