Worshiping God in Truth and Light

July 15, 2026

Leadership Notes

     What a lovely summer season it’s been. Families travel. Vacationers vacation. Swimmers swim. Lazy pastors laze around, reading or working on jigsaw puzzles. Vacation Bible schoolers going to be Bible schooling next week. And kindhearted people who love Jesus are going to be here shepherding the little ones along. Summer is full of surprises amidst the predictability of things growing and blooming and the earth putting forth food for our health and enjoyment. God is good all the time…

     I’m not sure who’s aware of this, but, did you know there are all kinds of resources available to churches for putting together slick, polished, eye-catching worship services? They cover it all. Up to, and including, the sermon. Some churches don’t even refer to their worship as “Worship Services.” They call them, “Worship Experiences.” Come experience what they have to offer.

     In the past several years, the marketing trend for worship themes ran along the lines of movie-based messages and worship experiences. Evidently building worship around praising God grounded in Scripture isn’t attractive enough. It gets crazy elaborate. These products have something for everyone. From start to finish, you can buy the whole shebang. One of the themes I’ve noticed this summer is “Staycation.” I can hear the 1982 pop hit by “The Go-Go’s,” Vacation, playing as a prelude to worship!

     Our mandate for worship is quite clear, because it’s from God’s Word. Everything must be done decently and in order. Additionally, worship must be solely directed to God. It must include songs and prayers and a correct understanding of God’s Word. Finally, worship must direct us outside ourselves to fellowship with and helping of others. Those are specific yet broad enough boundaries for building meaningful, God-honoring worship. Packaged programs? We don’t need no stinkin’ packaged programs.

     Once, many years ago, someone said to me, “How are you going to top yourself next week?” Attendance was high. The flow of worship was hitting on all cylinders. It was a great morning. But the comment was unnerving.

     First of all, it assumed worship was a show. Somehow, there were things we had to do to appeal to the crowd. The old thought was, meeting people’s felt needs. Entertain. Hold people’s attention. Keep them wanting more. It’s always got to be bigger and better.

     You can see where that leads. It feeds the ego of those designing and leading worship. Beyond that, it can make one a bit fearful. What if I do something to mess this up? Are you with me on that? What if I hesitate to share a difficult truth because I don’t want to turn people off? As the Bible warns, what if in our worship we seek to scratch itching ears? What if, as Charles Spurgeon famously warns, we are more driven by people-pleasing and keeping the customers satisfied than worshiping God in truth and light?

     Praise God that’s not who we are as a church. That does not describe the devoted followers of Jesus Christ here at Covenant Church. Our hearts resonate with sincere, Christ-centered, God-honoring worship. As a sociologist of religion once framed it, “Just be the church that God’s calling us to be. And I think all the rest of the stuff will take care of itself.”

     We don’t have to offer a plethora of programming choices. We don’t have to cover every felt need. We don’t have to fill every entertaining/activity/engagement void. All we have to do is worship God, love each other, and love our community. Do that with some sense of decency, orderliness, and competence, and God will grow His church. Amen?

     One last thing, and then I’ll be done until next week’s VBS hiatus ends. Some people will say that children/young people are the future of the church. As if institutional maintenance is our priority. I would never want to foist that kind of pressure/expectation on young people. The future of the church is plain and simple:

DEVOTED FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST.

Regardless of age. Through who we are as Covenant Church, are people repenting of their sin, turning to Christ, making a difference in our little corner of God’s world, and standing secure in the knowledge that one day they will see Jesus face-to-face? That’s the only packaged deal we need to concern ourselves with.

     And now, your Moments of Spurgeon:

“Some go to church to take a walk; some go there to laugh and

talk. Some go there to meet a friend; some go there their time to

spend. Some go there to meet a lover; some go there a fault to

cover. Some go there for speculation; some go there for

observation. Some go there to doze and nod; the wise go there to

worship God.”

“Praise is the Rehearsal of Our eternal Song By Grace We learn to

Sing, and in Glory We Continue to Sing.”

With Much Love and Affection,

            Richard