Five Ways To Prepare for Worship
For the month of March, Storehouse McAllen will be gathering to worship Jesus in our homes and while we are not gathering in our building, we still want to prepare our hearts and minds for Sunday mornings.
In an effort to help with these adjustments, here are five ways that you and your family can prepare for worship on Sunday morning.
Worship Begins on Saturday: Often, we are hurrying to get to our worship gathering on time and we’re thinking through getting our family out the door, considering traffic, and any other things that may flood our thinking. Currently, we’re all in a season where we are being called and led to slow down.
If we desire to be fully present in our Sunday morning worship, then it begins by preparing our hearts on Saturday night through prayer and devotion. This time for you and your family is short and intentional. We’re all missing being with one another for our worship gathering so this serves as a great opportunity to pray for others and their family. Additionally, it slows us down enough to align our hearts with Christ.Scripture Reading: On Sunday, we will have a recording of praise and worship songs along with the sermon message. We would encourage you to have your Bibles open, to stand for the reading of Scripture, and show reverence and honor God as we read and dive into God’s word together.
Prayer: In our Sunday liturgy, we intentionally seek God through prayer and this is in the form of reading scripture, reading prayers throughout history, and silence. This time is so that we would exercise confidence in approaching the throne of grace.
It will look a little different from our time on Sunday, but the intention is to draw near to God in Christ with humility. This also serves as a time of discipleship as your children will be present and watching.Intention Not Perfection: The church gathering to worship Jesus is an intentional time of worship not a calendar event. As a result, this time is set a part differently from the rest of our week. We would encourage you to make worship in this season a priority.
Talk to your kids beforehand about worshipping together at home, invite your friends or family to your house, and invite them to participate with as much as they feel comfortable with. While Sunday mornings is the gathering of saints this is also an opportunity to practice and proclaim the gospel of Christ to those who do not know Jesus.
Sunday shouldn’t run perfectly, it should simply be intentional.Give: God calls us to give regularly, cheerfully, and sacrificially. Generosity doesn’t begin with our wallets, but what we believe about the gospel of Jesus. As a result, when we give we worship Christ, trust in His provision, and reflect His work in us.
Online giving is easily available at storehousemcallen.com/give in addition to a few other options. If you have already given, thank you so much for your generosity!
These are a couple of things to consider as we prepare for Sunday and walk into our time of worship on Sunday. Life will happen and that’s okay. This isn’t perfection, but intention. May our desire be to magnify the work of God in Christ for us in spite of having to make social adjustments in this season and as the church is unable to gather. May we sing loudly, pray earnestly, and proclaim boldly together this weekend.