People who research religion and religious behavior have tagged two kinds of religious people - those for whom worship is INTRINSIC and those for whom worship is EXTRINSIC. It is easy to see what this means: intrinsic = inside, extrinsic = outside. Obviously, we want to be worshipers from the INSIDE OUT, though the outside isn't excluded in the equation. Jesus approached worship from BOTH angles, attacking the Pharisees extrinsic law-keeping motivation that lacked genuine connection with God and calling them into a "higher order" life of relating to God from their hearts. But He also emphasized feeding the poor, loving your neighbor, telling the truth, and doing good things outwardly as a sign of our inner love for God.
My great friend, Mark diChristina, and I were talking this week about living inside out, loving God with our whole "heart, mind, and strength". He had some great things to say about the difference between living outside-out, inside-in, inside-out, and outside-in. I think the church in America, in particular, has fallen into a lot of "inside-in" worship that privatizes our faith, making worship a "personal thing" that lacks any social justice or service to others. This thinking leads to stylisitic preferences and ultimately to the "worship wars" that destroys churches and relationships with God and other believers.
Be encouraged! God is calling you today to authentic inside-out living that brings His kingdom to the world!
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3 comments:
Amen to that! The business of church and the busyness of church people seem to have become excuses for not seeing the world around us through God's eyes. In his book "Crazybusy" Dr. Edward Hallowell, a New England psychiatrist, says a lot of us are suffering from environmentally induced attention deficit disorder, brought on by technology and activity overload. Unfortunately a lot of churches and church people have religious ADHD, where we are so busy "doing" church that we've lost sight of BEING the church! As Paul Baloche says "Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord!"
john,
great to connect with you online.
i think you are right on here; the Spirit is moving worship outside the walls. my working definition these days of worship is "offering our lives back to God for the sake of the world." that involves a lot more than singing (and believe me i love singing). may His kingdom come, may His will be done - on earth as it is in heaven.
Thanks, Terry - outside the walls is another way to think about "inside out living" - we take the kingdom from inside the four walls and move it out!
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