perspective

W e ' r e m o r e t h a n j u s t a C h u r c h . . . W e ' r e a F A M I L Y !

Pastor Carter addresses Questions on

PRAISE & WORSHIP

I am from a very conservative, traditional church background. We don't dance or shout like some other Pentecostal churches. I recently visited another Pentecostal church and was overwhelmed. ...There were dancers and an orchestra. The worship director played an electric guitar and was very much into what he was doing. Two large screens displayed all the song lyrics and a choir was on the other side of the stage opposite the instruments singing also. Almost everyone was raising their hands, singing, rejoicing, shouting, etc. I thought, "What have I got into"! I was sorta' scared, ashamed, and thinking let's go. Then the Lord began to speak to me and said, Consider my servant David. I began to weep. Of course I choked back the tears in a moment of pride, but I then saw that most if not all the people were honest and sincere. They were worshipping the Lord. It was not a show. It was so innocent... What is your view on these forms of worship?

The part that I think hits the nail on the head was when you said that the people were honest and sincere in their worship; that it was not a show, but praise bourne out of an innocent heart of worship and adoration for the Lord.

When God led me to the Church I am at now, I admit that I still had religious traditional views of worship and held God in a box as far as what was and was not acceptable in praise and worship. I, too, was uncomfortable at first, but then God dealt with my heart and began to show me the hearts of others. As I stood one morning and looked around the sanctuary at some who were weeping, some who were dancing, some who were jumping straight up and down as high as they could with broad smiles on their faces and their hands in the air, God began to show me some things.

I saw hearts that were once bound by every kind of bondage you could think of.... I saw hearts that were bound by alcohol (I mean I could literally see this in the spirit), I saw hearts that were bound by drug addiction, and hearts that were scarred from sexual abuse and homosexuality, and hearts that were strained and exhausted with sickness and disease, and hearts marred and torn by physical trauma, and hearts black with cancer, and on and on.

I looked at one gentleman who was jumping as high as he could with tears streaming off of his cheeks, and suddenly in the spirit, I saw him bound to a wheelchair. God told me He was letting me see what He had delivered each of them from. I broke. Literally, I broke and wept before the Lord. I weep even as I write this remembering that moment. God said, "If you only knew what I delivered them from, you would not judge their praise to me. I deserve everything they're giving me and more."

At that moment, I received a deliverance of my own and no longer placed a limit on God. How could I judge a man leaping for joy with tears streaming that God had raised up out of a wheelchair?! Did not the man Peter raised in the street go leaping and jumping!

I now believe if one rejoices, we should all rejoice with them, in the way that they choose to glorify the Lord. If they want to run, run with them... if they want to shout, shout with them... if they want to dance, dance with them! If they want to jump, jump with them!

My wife and I were in the sanctuary one time when a precious mentally challenged elderly lady came to us. She looked at my wife so preciously and took her by the hand. She never spoke. She never blinked. She just kept staring into my wife's eyes. A solemn, focused stare, as if she were trying to express herself to us. The Spirit of the Lord prompted us to agree with her in prayer for the desire of her heart. We did and tears began to flow from her eyes as she gazed into my wife's eyes, and she started jumping. She reached over and took my hand too and looked me in the eyes; they again swelled up with tears and she tried her best in her little frail way to jump in praise to the Lord.

What was I supposed to do, just stand there and look at her, letting her try to praise Him? No, we added our faith and praise to hers and praised the Lord with her and for her in ways that she was trying to do and couldn't. I took her hand, looked her in the eye, and just began to jump for joy with her. What a precious moment for her, for my wife, and for me.

You mentioned their sincerity - that it wasn't out of show. I believe for the most part, praise in most churches is just that - sincere! Yes, there are however some who do attempt to show off and make a scene of themselves, and we have to deal with that on an individual basis, not discrediting all forms of worship as the same. I've had to sit a few people down myself in this big 'ole church of ours. But it doesn't discount or discredit any jubilant form of praise, waving of the hands, clapping, running, dancing, etc.

The easiest and fastest place to find acceptable forms of worship is the Book of Psalms. It's all there..... yes, including dancing.

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FAMILY HARVEST CHURCH

PASTOR CHAD CARTER

P.O. Box 512

Salem, IN 47167

812-883-2523

www.ChadCarter.org

info@ChadCarter.org