When Anna and I, along with our four children, accepted the little
congregation in Van Nuys there were 18 members. We were there on
a temporary assignment while I was still teaching at the Bible College.
Although our term of service there was uncertain, I was anxious
to try what the Holy Spirit had been making vibrant within me. I
was ready to pastor with this proposition governing my approach
to services and other gatherings: Worship is an opportunity for
man to invite God’s power and presence to move among those
worshipping Him.
Along with that truth I had begun to see yet another concept since
worship is for people, it could also be the key to evangelism. It
followed that if God "moves in" if He truly wants to be
present in power and bless His people at worship services then people
would be drawn to Christ. Would previously unyielding hearts sense
the reality of His Presence and open to Him?
The laboratory of pastoral experience has verified that they do
indeed!
We have found that worship is the pathway and the atmosphere for
people the saved and the unsaved alike to discover
. . . their royal calling in Christ,
. . . their high destiny in life,
. . . their fullest personal worth, and
. . . their deepest human fulfillment.
But here again, tradition must be confronted, questioned, and adjusted
if God’s maximum benefits are to be realized during worship.
I had been ignorant of worship as a means by which God’s presence
could be realized consistently. Consequently, I had grown to depend
on preaching alone as the instrument bringing people to repentance.
Suddenly I was finding a teamwork between the Spirit and Word the
Holy Spirit softening hearts as we worshiped and the Word enlightening
people's eyes in that new atmosphere of love. This also changed
the nature of my appeal. Invitations, which early in my ministry
had been wrestling matches of the will, were now simpler and approached
with a different mindset.
I became convinced that God’s program of redemption does not
require of any man a ritual denouncing humanness, though it does
require a renouncing of his sin. Biblical repentance does not require
submission to a predigested, dictated, dehumanizing recitation that
blasts the sinner for his sinfulness, but it does require a full-hearted
turning from one’s own way to Jesus Christ to acknowledge ourselves
as lost and Him as the only Savior, and to acknowledge ourselves
as dead in sin and Him as the Resurrected Lord. The spirit of worship
made sure our evangelistic approach was not a humanistic program
of self-ascent, while at the same time pre-empting a theological
program of self-debasement.
When worship is warm, it provides the ideal setting for evangelistic
results. Where "worship is for people," man's highest
possibilities are affirmed truly affirmed as a
people come before the throne of their Creator.
It is there we find Him who created us for joy.
It is there we find redemption from all that would destroy or diminish
our joy. Such an approach in worship becomes an honest and humble,
yet joyous and hopeful, acknowledgement of
1. God's great love for us, verified in His Son Jesus;
2. God's great forgiveness, insuring acceptance before Him;
3. God's great purpose in us, establishing worth and dignity;
and
4. God's great promises to us, giving confidence for tomorrow.
Small wonder that thousands of souls have opened their lives to
Jesus in this atmosphere!
And Then, Growth
As a small pastorate began to grow, the workability of the transformed
viewpoint I had gained with my students was becoming inescapably
established. Permanent, enduring verification accrued to establish
the threefold proposition
worship is for people,
worship welcomes God's Kingdom of power, and
worship is the key to evangelism.
As I led my people in worship, with a commitment to glorify God,
but with an equal pledge to believe He wanted to save, satisfy,
and dignify man, true personal fulfillment blossomed in an ever-growing
number of people. Moreover, the Holy Spirit began knitting us into
a marvelously loving fellowship, for where God's love is responded
to, a love for one another overflows. We would sing,
Come, O Lord, and overflow us with Your love;
Come, O Lord, and overflow us with Your love;
For we lift our hearts like vessels
To the ever-flowing stream.
Come, O Lord, and overflow us with Your love.
And He would do it!
As He did, I was amazed at the remarkable harvest of souls. People
were being saved, and the incredible thing to me having been raised
on the notion that evangelistic sermons are essential to evangelistic
results was that worship was the source of this mighty moving of
the Holy Spirit among us. People were receiving Jesus Christ not
because I "preached them under conviction," but because
they sensed the presence of God as we worshiped His Majesty. The
Word of Truth I taught became life in that atmosphere of praise,
and that life was begotten in the hearers as the warmth of God’s
presence invaded our worship.
I am totally persuaded that worship is the key to evangelism and
to the edification of the Church. Amid childlike, full-hearted worship,
God’s love distills like refreshing dew upon us. As worship
moves beyond a merely objective exercise demanded by theological
posturing, and as it becomes a simple, subjective quest for God,
He responds. He answers the hunger of earnest hearts and reveals
Himself in personal, transforming and fulfilling ways. The hungry
and thirsty are filled as we seek Him in our worship. In His loving
mercy He delights to come into our midst,
* to ignite His Word,
* to pour out His Spirit,
* to breathe His life and
* to touch with His hand of power.
Jack
Hayford Ministries
14800 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91405-2233