What Do You Do With An Hour?

The "worship wars" that churches have fought over the past few years have largely missed the point. Periodically, we call a truce in the wars long enough to observe that the things we're fighting about--musical styles, proper dress, multi-media technology, and hands (clapping, raising, etc.)--are not the central issue. Then we go back to fighting over those very issues. Sigh!

The point is that we should have grateful hearts that are turned toward God, not just for an hour on Sunday, but 24/7. Although the hour on Sunday was never intended to be our complete worship for the week, what we do during that hour is important. During that time, we encourage each other to carry an attitude of praise toward God into all the other activities of the week. The message from each Sunday morning should be, "worship God through your work; praise God through your family life; give honor to him by sniffing out His ways in the ordinary events of life and then joining Him there; strive to 'be Jesus' to every person you meet this week." I think that's the point of oft-quoted "go to church" passage, Hebrews 10:24-25.

So here's the question: what do we do during that one hour together on Sunday? How do we structure that time so that we are encouraged to take our faith to the streets Monday through Saturday? How do we best remind each other of who we are and whose we are? How does that hour become a time to which we all eagerly look forward and then a launch-pad for Kingdom activity?