The Pearl Jam concert last night was incredible!!! I am honestly not the biggest fan, or at least I have not been since the album ‘Ten’ came out more than ten years ago. Even so, the band was solid. The guitar tones and solos were epic. The drummer’s fills were awesome and the vocals ranged from grungy to soaring.
However, in the midst of all of this, two things were again confirmed for me:
–People love to raise their hands and sing together in one voice.
–Most people seem to miss the point of raising their hands and singing together in one voice – to worship. And not just worship anything, but worship God.
All this brings me back to a question I’ve had for a while: Why will tens of thousands of people show up, and raise their hands, and sing at the top of their lungs for a group like Pearl Jam, but when we gather for church it’s a struggle to get a few hundred, or if we are fortunate to be part of a ‘mega’ church, maybe a thousand or two? And even then, often the church gathering feels so wooden and stiff and un-engaged.
It just seems sometimes like we church leaders have led the people down a path that gave them the idea that church worship is, or should be, only from the head, but it seems so clear that humanity was made to worship from the heart.
Matt Odegaard 