Did any of that make sense?

I am sorry, that last message/blog was angry and heated. Of course at the time I was hot and mad, so it stands to reason. I have been listening to a tape series about the power of praise and worship. Dwight A Pryor. He comes from a Jewish background and is deciphering for us what the Jewish/Hebrew meaning of P&W in the Old and New Testaments means. The words praise, worship, honor, etc… are all interchangeable. There are no catagories like we westerners tend to put on them. Praise is not a fast beat song, worship is not slow and thought provoking music. Praise is worship. Worship is Praise. My partner and I are running a Monday night service while the Associate Pastor is in VBS and we were thinking of teaching on emerging worship. I thought, cool. We can use the new music we have been working on. We can really get people involved in ‘worship’ and raise their hands during the songs and we can read out of the Message Bible and use new fangled ways to worship to get people to see what this emerging worship is and just how cool they can be at it.
Then I read a portion of a book by Donald Miller. “Blue Like Jazz” (get it! It’s awesome.) I can’t quote, but I can sum up. What good is saying you’re a Christian if you’re not doing what Christ would have done? What good does it do us to worship and praise if we aren’t ‘WWJD’ing in our lives? When we stand and sing and talk about how great God has been to us and how blessed we are and how we just got a job and a big raise at work or Whatever. Giving lip service to God. That’s what I call it. I do it. I know you do it. He asks the question Paraphrased ‘what good are cool websites and neat music if your life isn’t reflecting the life of Jesus? Are you feeding the hungry and clothing the naked? Are people dying of thirst all around you while you swim in your pool of self righteousness? Wow. That makes no sense. Well it does, but you have to be in my mind to understand it.
My bottom line in this is that we who are wanting a new and better way are the Emerging Church. That emerging is the re-discovery of grace and love. It’s not about the music or the dim lights or the web site or the PowerPoint media plays or any of these things. (Although these are good tools to help us get to where God is.) Grace was removed from the message in Rome and in the Dark Ages. Maybe we should call these the Light Ages. The time when a small group of Jesus followers decide to re-instate grace back into the purpose of God. Grace and Love THE EMERGING WORSHIP…...............