Worship Not Routine

I was thinking today about church. About what church is. About how a church {service} should be. We moved out of our church that we served in together for 6 years to help work in a brand new church very dear friends of ours started.

First we met under a tent, then as the weather got cold we met in the Pastor's living room. In October a church in the community who only met on Sunday mornings offered to let us use their building when they weren't having services.

I grew up in a traditional church setting. There was a basement with Sunday School rooms, there was an auditorium with pianos and people who knew how to play them, there was a choir loft. Same with the church I went to in college and the same with the church I attended after marrying Todd.

Then everything changed. I went from all that I knew of how church should be outwardly to being under a tent with a small sound system. No piano and an occasional guitar player. A dog that would help himself into service that we would have to usher back out. The kids just wanting to play because of course we're outside.

My head had to unwrap from around all I ever knew about church and how it should be. Get rid of my preconceived ideas and everything I knew and let God teach me about HIS church not my idea of church.

We have Sunday School at 5pm on Sunday evenings and then church hour at 6pm. Our midweek service is on Thursdays. We still have the same small sound system. We have two men that can play guitar... our pastor (who will stop in the middle of a song if someone would like prayed for {of course that comes first}) and another man who comes when he's able to get off work in time. We have no piano player.

Even though the routine of church is nothing like I'm used to and I've struggled at times over the last four months to actually worship God because "it doesn't feel like church", God has been teaching me tremendous things about what church is.

Mainly.... its not a routine, its not in how many musicians you have on stage, its not about what time you do what.... Its about gathering together and worshiping God... Below are a few scriptures that have helped me open my mind about how to embrace church, not routine....


Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭25‬)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (‭Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬)

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (‭Matthew‬ ‭18‬:‭20‬)