“To Serve This Present Age: Extravagant Worship... Extraordinary Service”
Romans 12:1-3

With companies closing, people losing their jobs and their homes, the fact that we are still engaged in two wars and continued violence on other fronts, we find ourselves on a planet in peril. While we have just elected the first African American President of our nation, promising change, we dare not think that change will come overnight.

Some might suggest since we as Christians are in the world, but not of it; we can somehow isolate ourselves from the onslaught of madness within it. But when I read my Bible and listen to the voice of God, I am clear that we are called to the Kingdom for such a time as this. Thus, we have to stay the course, being faithful to the reason that we exist and are in the world in the first place. We are here to serve this present world.

While it is true we are not of the world, the reality is, we are in the world and are affected by all the same stresses and struggles as the people around us. We too, can so easily get caught up in the madness. The way that we minister while subject to the same harsh realities of life is to give God Extravagant Worship.

Extravagant Worship is going the extra mile in worship. It is worshipping Him even in those moments when we are in pain, when we are going through. “Worship,” says Evelyn Underhill “is the total adoring response of humans to God self-revealed in time.” Worship is the way we love and glorify God. When we worship God, we focus on Him and make Him the One in whom we live and move and have our being. The one in whom we trust to handle all our affairs, heal our broken hearts, and strengthen us in difficult times.

It is only when we give God this kind of worship, that we will be empowered to give Extraordinary Service to those who so desperately need it, both in the world and in the family of believers. When we worship God in the midst of chaos and pain, we give the people around us hope by making clear that God is sovereign and is working behind the scenes to accomplish His ultimate will for our world and our lives.

We are to invite them into relationship with our God, so that they too can have the confidence that we have in our salvation. We are also to be agents of help and healing in their lives, whatever the need.

God continues to do incredible things through us as a church. I can’t wait to see what He does with us in 2009.

Loving Him and loving you more and more each day!

Cynthia L. Hale
Senior Pastor