Thought of the Day 01.27.09

Having attended church for my entire life, I must admit there’s something that has always bothered me. It’s the announcements.

I mean we start by worshipping God in song for 40 minutes or so, sometimes followed by communion. Then we worship God with our money and the pastor delivers a sermon, worshipping God by breaking open His Word for the congregation. And in the middle of all this worship, we have someone talking about home groups and retreats and Super Bowl parties and gift bags for homeless people.

But then one day I realized that announcements are also a kind of worship….the worship of God through friendship, outreach, and service. If a church is properly doing Christianity (as opposed to merely discussing it), then the announcements are the time when we praise God for what He is doing among and through us as a body. So even though it might seem like an interruption, it’s really something much more grand: nothing short of the Incarnation in its current form.