Called to Worship

What does it mean to be “called to worship?” Following a week to be forgotten, a pastor stepped to the pulpit at the beginning of the Sunday worship service and proclaimed, “I’ve had a terrible week and I don’t feel like calling you to worship, so why don’t you call yourselves to worship.” After a stunned silence, someone shared a passage of Scripture, another prayed. Finally someone began singing a familiar song. Others joined in. Eventually, they were worshipping. Are you called to worship because someone with authority announces it; or because you enter a place of worship; or because it is the appointed time for worship? What constitutes a “call to worship”? Jesus told a well-side woman, “The hour is coming . . . when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:23). Bottom line: the Lord is calling to worship, those who sincerely desire to worship the Father with integrity. Times, places and methods are secondary.

Join me this week in interceding for the following global concerns:
• Pray for K’s Café, a new church start in Tokyo.
• Pray for the first baptisms of a new church plant, Ion Community Church, in Vancouver, Canada.
• Pray for the Wednesday “Concerts of Prayer” at the Capital City Baptist Church in Mexico City.
• Pray for those who are ministering to flood victims in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland.