Is a worship service a stale event for you? It appears to be for many of the people I see in these events, and I think I might know why.

My quiet time this morning brought me to Psalm 47 which commands “Clap your hands….shout to God with cries of Joy….”How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth!” Does anything like that EVER happen in your church? Have you ever done it yourself?

Last Summer I took my daughters to Kansas City to a concert performed by the British boy band One Direction. Thousands of screaming teeny boppers—some who would be silent in their churches the next morning—were swaying, shouting, singing, and clapping because of their appreciation for the band. Make no mistake, it was worship, of a form.

Now back to church…..I think we don’t clap, shout, say, and sing, because we don’t value and appreciate. And we don’t value and appreciate because we don’t understand. We haven’t seen God for what He’s worth. We haven’t experienced Him simultaneously high and lifted up, but also living right inside us. For many it’s really nothing more than a few songs and a talk about a figure who we only hope is more real than Santa Claus, but we aren’t sure.

If we realized WHO God is and HOW MUCH He cares for us, and understood HOW ACCESSIBLE He is and WHAT He yearns to do for us, we’d worship for all it’s worth. No one would have to tell us to clap, and shout, and sing. It would be spontaneous.

Perhaps the problem is that we are holding worship services (with the emphasis on the word HOLDING). Maybe it would be better if we “let go” and released people into a natural flow of worship that can’t be programmed in 3 songs and an offering that set up a sermon.

It’ll happen naturally, when we see Jesus for who He is. After all, He said of himself in John 12:32 “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me.”

Lift, friend.

Lift, preacher.

Lift, singer.

Lift, prayer.

Lift, elder.

Lift, brother.

Lift, offering bearer.

Lift, ladies.

Lift. Lift. Lift. And then, let go.

And you might want to get some earplugs, because the cacophony of praise could get a little loud and raucous  when you lift and let go.

When you see Him for all He is, your heart will be full and your worship will be anything but boring.