Sunday, February 17, 2008

38 Hindrances to Worship

From Paul W. Martin @www.preacherthoughts.blogspot.com

In my class on Worship at Toronto Baptist Seminary, I asked my students to identify five ways they are a hindrance to the Corporate Worship of God. Their lists were very interesting and I assembled a bit of a highlight reel here. I think it is a great question to ask yourself before next Sunday – how do I hinder the worship of God at my church? Here are some of the items my guys came up with...

  1. Not even thinking about how God desires to be worshiped
  2. Sin in my life
  3. Not showing up at all
  4. Being grumpy
  5. Not arriving grateful for the cross
  6. Not praying in advance
  7. Being tired or lazy
  8. Taking pride in my contributions to the service
  9. Distracted by the details and running of the service
  10. Showing up late
  11. Processing other things than what is happening in the service
  12. Worrying about what my kids are doing
  13. Looking for a pen and writing a cheque
  14. Not fixing relational problems with others in the church
  15. Thinking more about the process of worship than the One I am to worship
  16. Roaming mind
  17. Pride in thinking I could do better than what the person up front is doing
  18. Not going to bed early enough on Saturday night
  19. Watching car races [insert your program of choice here] so that a) I am late for services and b) my mind is dwelling on them not the Lord
  20. Not worshiping God through the week
  21. Not paying attention to what I sing or say in worship
  22. Worrying about what I wore
  23. Wanting the service to be perfect and growing discontent with mistakes
  24. Being more excited about friends than God
  25. Timing the pastors prayers
  26. Viewing the singing as a time of entertainment
  27. Trying to get friends to laugh by distracting them in immature ways
  28. Enjoying the melody of a song more than delighting in God
  29. Pride of thinking I could play a certain instrument better
  30. Criticizing every little aspect of the service in my mind
  31. Pride of thinking God must be impressed with the way I am worshiping!
  32. Doing outward things in order to gain others’ attention
  33. Sitting with people I know will lead me to talk and not pay attention
  34. Thinking about the problems of my week rather than on the worship of God
  35. Not confessing sin
  36. Failing to prepare for worship
  37. Over-analyzing songs and sermons so that I never think of Christ
  38. Doing a shoddy job in my contributions to corporate worship

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