You don’t need gimmicks. You don’t need to compromise your convictions. You don’t need to water down your message. If you minister to people the way Jesus did, they’ll want to be around your ministry like they did his.
But how do you develop a worship service that’ll minister to those crowds each weekend? It’s important that you figure out why you do what you do before you figure out what your worship service will include.
At Saddleback, 12 convictions determine how we minister to the crowds on the weekends. Here’s why we do what we do in our worship services.
1. Only believers can truly worship God.
The Bible says, "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24 HCSB). Worship must rest on a true understanding of who God is – and that can only happen when a person has a relationship with God. You can have a worship service full of people, but only believers can really worship.
2. You don’t need a building to worship God.
For 15 years we didn’t have a building of our own. But I guarantee we did a lot of worshipping during that time. The Bible says, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands" (Acts 17:24 NAS). God created everything in the world. That includes any place you might consider having a worship service. Worship isn’t a place; it’s a verb.
3. There is no correct style of worship.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12: "There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men." God gives us only three requirements for worship. It must be authentic and accurate (in spirit and truth, as Jesus tells us in John 4). Paul also tells us in 1 Corinthians 14 that it should be done in an orderly fashion. Beyond that, God gives us freedom.
