Movement of Healthy Churches: Sign 4 – Spirit-Empowered Worship

The worship life of a church is an indicator of its health. How do we seek the Holy Spirit’s empowerment in worship? Ps Jireh Ang leads us to find out.

When we look at signs of health in a church, one quick indicator would be found in the life of worship at a church. And we must know that worship is so much more than just music or singing; worship is what we give worth to or in whom we place worth. The true nature of worship lies in the condition of our hearts and where our priorities and dedication are placed.

A Reality Check
As a worship leader, the story behind the song “The Heart of Worship” by Matt Redman, has been a great reminder of this true nature of worship as well as a caution not to steer away from it. Mike Pilavachi, who was Matt’s pastor then, had observed that their church (with all the “works”— from the equipment to the well-rehearsed worship teams) seemed to be going through the motions each week and, though they were singing songs that even allowed for people to have a chance to “get down” to business with God, their hearts were far from Him. He noted that they had become “connoisseurs” of worship rather than participants of it.

Doesn’t this sound familiar? Jesus, in response to the religious leaders, and referencing Isaiah 29:13, said in Matthew 15:8-9 (NLT), ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’

When we look at signs of health in a church, one quick indicator would be found in the life of worship at a church.

Return to First Love
This realization and reality check is where it begins—that our hearts are far from God while we continue to do church as we have always done. If we desire health in our churches, our hearts ought to return God, our first love. We want to honor and worship God with our hearts and not just pay lip service. Because when we return to the heart of worship, we will respond to His loving kindness and His majesty, and we surrender to Him, then an exchange begins. We will see God move through the Holy Spirit to guide, empower, and transform our lives and our worship experiences. We will develop and be led by the moving of the Holy Spirit, into a deeper connection with God.

A few years ago, while attending a course studying church models and rethinking church, I was challenged to evaluate with some questions like these:

Does God love what we are doing (in our church)?
What did He see as we gathered?
What pleased Him the most?
Do we pray like we should?
Do people even come with passion for Jesus?
Do we mean it when we sing the songs we sing but don’t live it?

Admittedly, I had a sobering time trying to answer these questions. As I reflected, I thought of the preferences and even prejudices that have framed how we have worship gatherings each week and I laid them up against these questions. I wondered if we had led people to show up to church if there is the “right” stuff rather than showing up with an expectancy of our God being more than enough. Perhaps these are similar questions we can reflect on in our desire to lead and build a healthy church.

If we desire health in our churches, our hearts ought to return God, our first love. We want to honor and worship God with our hearts and not just pay lip service.

Seek the Empowerment of the Holy Spirit
As we start this journey to alignment and building health, we must first return to our reliance on the strength and empowerment of the Holy Spirit—our precious and promised gift. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit to empower us in our journey and to do work He has entrusted us to continue. The Holy Spirit empowers us by revealing truth in our lives (like coming back to the heart of worship); by revealing truth in our lives that we have sin and have done things that are not pleasing to Him. And because He is intimately connected with Jesus, our worship is then able to be directed with the revelation He brings and for us recalibrate and to bring Jesus glory (John 16:12-15). And when our churches and our faith communities begin to live the Spirit-empowered lives of worship and sacrifice, we will see signs of a healthy church.

With this healthy alignment, a Spirit-empowered worship in church will obviously involve the Holy Spirit actively guiding and transforming the believers, engaging their whole heart (John 16:13). The church will be Jesus-centered, exalting and magnifying His name in worship (Ephesians 519-20); with preaching and teaching rooted in the Word to generate faith and conviction (2 Timothy 3:16-17). There will be an element of spiritual transformation whereby the Holy Spirit enables believers to victoriously overcome sin and with obedience to live according to His Word and serve others (Galatians 5:13, 16-17).

Jesus, in answering the Samaritan woman at the well, tells her,

John 4:23-24 (NLT), “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

He is letting her know and letting us know that worship goes beyond physical locations and the traditions we have. He wants us to understand that the Holy Spirit and the truth He reveals must guide our worship. That we need to be rooted in the Word and its truth. And when we merge our spiritual passion with the spiritual truth, we will be healthy and empowered by the Spirit.

And when our churches and our faith communities begin to live the Spirit-empowered lives of worship and sacrifice, we will see signs of a healthy church.

Ps Jireh Ang is the Associate Pastor at Emmanuel Assembly of God. He wears numerous hats with his portfolio, and he is most passionate about connecting people with the love of Jesus. He grew up in Singapore and lived in the US for many years. A graduate of Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington (USA), he was in the marketplace and a bi-vocational church planter in the US.