I had lunch with my pastor today where we discussed (among other things) the fact that people seem to go to church more based on the personalities of leadership rather than a desire to hear from and/or worship God.

He made the statement that someone told him a lot more people would go to our Wednesday night meetings if *Henry taught (Henry is not his real name). Similarly, I have had people tell me they would leave our church if I stopped leading worshipt at our church (I am pretty sure that was tongue-in-cheek).

This is not good.

I want people to come together with other believers to hear the Word preached because they long for the Word, not because they want to hear someone teach it! I want people to come to church to worship God because they want to worship, not because they enjoy the way I lead them!

I want to be a worshiper who is intent on meditating on the words of the song and giving God glory with my mouth with a pure heart--whether there are drums or whether there is only a pipe organ! Whether we sing Chris Tomlin or whether we sing Charles Wesley!

I want to be someone who gives great attention to the Word no matter if it's my favorite preacher or the most monotone guy I've ever heard.

After all, isn't it really about worshiping God and being attentive to the Word? Isn't that really what we're supposed to be doing when we worship with other believers?

Jacob