Another post for the IMG website:
At Inner Metro Green, we believe in real, organic worship. We are not looking to make worship a big production. That is for the rock stars. Although we love going to concerts, worship in our minds is the exact opposite. There is no entertainment or shredding on the guitar. It’s someone taking us to the Highest Being and pleading for forgiveness. It’s thanking God for giving us another day alive to praise His name.
The worship leader at IMG is me, Jonathan Sigmon. I facilitate the time we take each Sunday morning to praise our Creator through song, prayer, and other forms of worship. The vision of worship is still being created, but the goal is to get as many people involved as possible. The goal is to not do the same thing every week and think outside of the box, while still recognizing that we are humans and occasionally enjoy structure.
As for the song selection, IMG is very picky about the words we sing. I will admit that I have many pet peeve’s of the songs that are sung in church and am not looking to simply repeat the same phrase over and over and over. Also, the song has to be a song that a whole group can follow. However, we will never insult our group’s intelligence by choosing simple songs with meaningless words (or words that none of us understand!). More importantly, our heart is to praise God. Of course there will be times where you hate the song being sung or may get bored during worship. We encourage you to take time and redirect your energies to prayer and reflection.
As for me, I am not a performer. I am barely an average guitar player and sing with an average voice. But that is ok. At IMG we are not looking for the most talented and best rehearsed if they are not trying to honor God with their lives. Of course, we are not looking to just throw anyone up there. You have to be gifted in order to play or sing. However, whether you are up front or not, we are all worshipping God together and it really does not matter who is up there.
Our purpose as human beings is to reflect God.
Monday, August 11, 2008
“Why We Worship God”
I wrote this for the Inner Metro Green website and thought it would be a good start to this blog. I hope you enjoy reading as I embark on this journey to figure out what it means to worship God with my life and through song.
Worship can seem like such a funny thing. When you look at it, at least for me, it seems so strange. People around you are closing their eyes, raising their hands in the air, maybe even shouting to an unseen being.
Although sometimes people praising God can be attempting to draw attention to themselves, the reason that so many are praising the Creator is because of what He has done for them. It’s not that us as believers do not experience and see the same crap in the world as everyone else. It’s that we know God has saved us from the dead and given us new life. Because of this, we cannot help but praise Him.
I’ll be the first to agree that there is some weird stuff that happens in churches when it comes to singing praises to God. There was a period in my life where I would go to church and think everyone raising their hands was just trying to show how holy they were. However, many of these things are biblical expressions. The reason we were created was to worship God. Period.
If I ever raise my hands, I am reaching for God like a young child reaches for his father in need. I’m showing my submission to the One who made me. If I close my eyes, I’m trying to envision the thrown of God and what that may look like. I’m thinking of the sacrifice Christ took on the cross.
Back in the day of Adam and Eve, God created man to be intimate with Him. Of course, we took the apple, and that intimacy has been deeply tarnished. However, God still wants us to share everything with him - from that annoying person at work to your thankfulness for simply having a job or a place to sleep. Maybe you can’t see anything going right in your life. Either way, God wants us to tell him and be our provider.
So Christians take time out of their week specifically for only praising God (and the time we’ve chosen is at 10:30 on a Sunday morning). Worship is definitely a lifestyle, praising Him in whatever place he has put you. For me, I like to worship through laughing and connecting with others. How do you worship God with your life?
Worship can seem like such a funny thing. When you look at it, at least for me, it seems so strange. People around you are closing their eyes, raising their hands in the air, maybe even shouting to an unseen being.
Although sometimes people praising God can be attempting to draw attention to themselves, the reason that so many are praising the Creator is because of what He has done for them. It’s not that us as believers do not experience and see the same crap in the world as everyone else. It’s that we know God has saved us from the dead and given us new life. Because of this, we cannot help but praise Him.
I’ll be the first to agree that there is some weird stuff that happens in churches when it comes to singing praises to God. There was a period in my life where I would go to church and think everyone raising their hands was just trying to show how holy they were. However, many of these things are biblical expressions. The reason we were created was to worship God. Period.
If I ever raise my hands, I am reaching for God like a young child reaches for his father in need. I’m showing my submission to the One who made me. If I close my eyes, I’m trying to envision the thrown of God and what that may look like. I’m thinking of the sacrifice Christ took on the cross.
Back in the day of Adam and Eve, God created man to be intimate with Him. Of course, we took the apple, and that intimacy has been deeply tarnished. However, God still wants us to share everything with him - from that annoying person at work to your thankfulness for simply having a job or a place to sleep. Maybe you can’t see anything going right in your life. Either way, God wants us to tell him and be our provider.
So Christians take time out of their week specifically for only praising God (and the time we’ve chosen is at 10:30 on a Sunday morning). Worship is definitely a lifestyle, praising Him in whatever place he has put you. For me, I like to worship through laughing and connecting with others. How do you worship God with your life?
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