Do you go to Church to

"get" or "give"?

The answer to that is, of

course, yes. It's both.

However, usually we humans

lean heavily, and sometimes too heavily, on the side of

"getting." We want to "get." We want

to "get something out of it."

And that's good, because no

matter what the worship and sermon and events of the

service are like, we will always "get

something" - we will always "get"

God's love, grace, blessing, forgiveness, peace, joy,

strength, courage, comfort... God is always in worship

services to give so that we can receive (Thank you, God!)

However, the "heart of

worship" also includes the component which is just

as necessary - that we give to God our praise That

we give to God our worship - that we declare from

our hearts to God that He is the one who receives our

honor, our glory. And our presence in worship give us the

best time and place to do just that.

The word

"worship" actually means "worth-ship"

- so that when we worship we proclaim the

"worth-ship/the worthiness" of God as supreme

Lord of all - especially of us. Of me. Of you.

Watch out for the danger of

singularly focusing on "getting" as you

"go to church." When your only perspective is

"getting," you can make up all kinds of excuses

not to go to worship. You can decide you don't need it on

a certain day. You can decide you don't feel like

"getting it." You can decide that other

priorities take precedence over "getting it."

You can let other people and their words or ideas or mere

presence keep you away. You can decide you're too busy,

or too unworthy, or too emotional, or too whatever.

Watch out for the danger of

all this. (Does any of it sound familiar?)

So, yes, go to worship to

"get" the grace and goodness of God and

"something out of it." That will never fail.

But what I'm suggesting for

us all - particularly this month - is that we

go to worship primarily to give (Not money! Although that

is always one good sign of giving our total worship!)

Go to your church this

Sunday or, if you don't have one, go to any church and

give your praise and worship to God. Go to be counted as

a "worshipper" of the one, holy, and almighty

God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

Be a worshipper.

"Give" it up.

(Kollmeyer is senior pastor

of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, where

opportunities to worship God are each Sunday with early

worship at 8:15, contemporary worship at 9:45, and

traditional pipe organ liturgical worship at 11 a.m.

Those without a church home are invited and encouraged to

attend.)