Praise and worship at Rowville and some other thoughts on the Christian divide

One of the main things that draws me to Rowville church is the praise and worship during the service. It is heartfelt, meaningful, exuberant, joyful, and holy. Most importantly, I personally feel that I am transported into the presence of God or that God makes his presence manifest in the worship.

My soul is uplifted and the Holy Spirit within me rejoices.

In these moments - I feel like I am in Heaven - worshiping with the multitude of believers - countless like the sands of the sea. And it is beautiful.

Christianity - faith - encompasses both mind and spirit. Intellect and Emotion. God wants us to give our all to Him. And that's one reason why He loved King David so much. David loved God passionately with all his heart and soul - he was fearless in his devotion as exhibited in his fight with Goliath. Was not God amazed by David's audaciousness?

Of course, this does not mean that we abandon biblical standards or theological principles. I would depart from a church if the leadership was fatally flawed in their theological beliefs and their teaching was doctrinally unsound. I'd have pretty good reasons mind you.

On a funnier side, I personally won't be comfortable worshiping in a church with someone dancing enthusiastically like King David. But neither will I condemn it. I'll probably try very hard to avert my eyes if I saw such an exhibition and say a silent prayer for myself. :)

I think Christian churches should be balanced in both theological teaching and worship. Its seems many churches are very Janus-faced about it. Its like the right sided minded Christians go to one church - and the left-side minded Christians attend another. I guess its easier that way. But that doesn't make it correct.

As its written, Iron sharpens Iron so one man sharpens another. There's a lot of compromise that can be reached between the Evangelical conservative churches and the charismatic ones. Yes, on some issues, like the speaking of tongues - thats cause for disagreement. But I don't regard that as a major stumbling block. Surely, there is a way to work around it.

Unity has its benefits. On both sides, clutching to the extremes causes serious problems. A bit like people rushing to one side of the boat. Some evangalical churches are too dry, hate singing or any exhibit of emotions in service and don't believe that in the power of prayer to heal which to my mind detracts from the Word of God. Some charismatic churches - being a bit too left-brained - condemn rational thought and mistake human emotion for the the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They forget that God is a God of order. The study of the Bible is best done in deep thought and not in a superficial manner. God gave us a brain - like he gave us legs. Surely we have to use our brain to think through the scriptures clearly like we use our legs to get to Church safely.

Compromise, and especially real dialogue, healthy debate and rational argument not to mention a lot of grace and prayer and consideration for the other side's point of view - would help bring both sides of the Christian spectrum together. Afterall, we are brothers and sisters in Christ cleansed by the same blood of the Lamb.

But too often we are too preoccuiped with our own personal point of view and end up waiting for our turn to talk rather than listening and considering the other side's point of view.