Preparing the Heart for Worship

It’s Sunday morning. The worship space is set. The lights and heat are on and bulletins are printed and at the entrance doors. Candles have been lit and the paraments are in place. The choir has donned their robes and the pastor’s sermon has been prepared. All of the physical preparations are done. These are all important ways to get the worship space set. For those of us who serve as worship leaders, there is another all-important step: preparing our hearts. This step is often confused with the previous ones. Yes, bulletins, candles, nicely heated spaces, and robes are all important aspects of our times of worship. However, I would posit the most important and most oft-overlooked aspect of the preparations are the internal ones, the ones each of us must do individually: preparing our own hearts. A good place to start is to acknowledge God’s blessings and grace in our lives and exhibit a spirit of gratitude for God’s gifts. When we enter our sanctuaries for worship services, we can begin by remembering and visualizing Isaiah 6:1–5:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Approaching our worship with the same sense of awe and wonder we experience in Isaiah will help lead us to an understanding that we are entering a Holy Other and are seeking to commune with the Divine. This is a good first step in the right direction. When we prepare our hearts, we ask ourselves if we are proclaiming “Holy, holy, holy” with our words, actions, and our hearts. This is definitely an aspirational goal. There are more weeks than I care to admit that I walk into worship consumed with minutia: which children didn’t show up for the children’s choir anthem, which bells were accidentally left in the bell room on the other side of the building, why the organ is out of tune again, and why two tenors didn’t show up this morning. I find when I am intentional in prayer and contemplation beforehand, these other details seem to carry less weight and I’m able to remain more present in the moments of worship. Prayer and contemplation help us to release the cares of the world and find freedom with God’s love.

Worship can be a time of both individual and corporate growth. Beyond our focus on what we offer musically, this can be a time to strengthen our faith through study and time with fellow believers. This shared time of scripture reading, prayer and praise, contemplation, confession, proclamation, and response can lead us to a broader and deeper relationship with our Creator.

Worship leaders carry the banners that are at once both heavy and honorable: that of bringing our congregations to the footstool of the throne of God. It has been said that in worship, it’s almost as if we can imagine angels lining the sanctuary, leaning over the balcony, holding their breath, waiting to see what we will do. Psalm 96:8-10 implores us to

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”

Preparing your heart to worship in the splendor of holiness will be life-giving to your own sense of worship and for all of those whom you lead. May God bless you in your ascribing, offering, worshiping, and trembling!