Has anyone else been watching the latest worship protests? They’ve had to get very clever, since gatherings have been pretty much banned, and God forbid you sing. So people, such as Sean Feucht, have decided they were going to have outdoor worship protests. Since protests are technically legal, worship protests have been popping up all over the place.
I am very hopeful and excited to see this happening across the country! Lifting up the name of Jesus is certainly an awesome and good thing, no matter what (Phil 1:18). Especially right now. I think most people would agree! Praise God for these kinds of “protests”! The name of Jesus is being proclaimed and worshiped! That’s a very, very good thing. But I’ll be honest, I sometimes get a little nervous. Maybe it’s because I’ve been recently reminded of the many September 11 converts for Jesus, only to have things return to normal for these individuals shortly after. There was no lasting spiritual fruit in their lives. What our world needs are disciples of Christ, ready to change our world, our communities, and ourselves for God’s glory and our own good.
So what exactly is the difference between a convert and a disciple of Christ? In a word, repentance. True repentance involves taking ownership of our sin, giving it over to Christ, and then turning away from our sin and towards God (note – we will always struggle with sin this side of heaven, but when we repent, there is strength to turn away from our sin and we are no longer slaves to it; 1 Cor. 10:13). It’s different than sorrow, which is more about feeling sorry for the consequences of the sin rather than the sin itself. Once the consequences have been eased or lifted, we go back to that same sin again and again.
Lasting revival must be tied to repentance. Honestly, I have no idea if this is what is happening at these protests. I obviously am not God and don’t know what’s going on in each person’s heart and their response to the gospel. But the one thing that I know we can do for these protests to help ensure lasting fruit is to pray, and not assume it’s all awesome because of what it may look like from the outside. We should pray for our fellow Believers who are persevering to share the good news to a lost people. We must pray for the people going to the protests, that their hearts are stirred beyond just sorrow, but to true repentance. And we need to pray for churches to receive these new disciples (as well as converts!), so that they can continue to minister to each and every one, drawing them into the life Scripture calls us all to.
I’m certain that this man, Sean Feucht, has very good intentions and wants to make disciples of Christ. He’s shown courage and a love for God that honestly, not many other leaders in the church have shown. But again, my prayer is that these worship protests produce not just a short-lived spiritual high similar to what happened after September 11, but a repentant heart filled with the Spirit that is life long.
All of the emotions of these kinds of worship protests or worship festivals can leave many people with mountain top experiences for a day, from which they inevitably will have to come down. Our walk with Christ is not just living for the highs. The highs are awesome, don’t get me wrong. But our walk with Jesus is much deeper than that. And if all we have been exposed to is the high, we will be in for a very big and disappointing surprise. And we’ll walk away unchanged.
We must do our worship God’s way. I hope we are all reminded of the basic 10 commandments and realize, we can’t keep one of them. We are hopelessly lost and wretched sinners in need of a Savior. And praise the LORD, we have been offered One. At this revelation, we should all repent and rejoice.
It’s easy to sit here in the comfort of my home, commenting and critiquing what others are trying to do on the ground. That’s not the reason why I wrote this post. I wrote this to encourage all of us, as I also challenge myself, to pray fervently over these protests and over the people leading them. And I hope that as our churches open, we are able to extend those prayers into the hands and feet of Christ when new people come to worship there. I truly hope that these worship protests transform people into life-long disciples of Christ, not just short-term converts.
Father God, help us all (including me!) to have a repentant spirit and open arms ready to receive Your people into our churches and our lives. Guide us to have discernment and wisdom as we march on daily in this life. Give us courage to speak Your Truth, and not to fear anything or anybody but You. We are not enough and You never expected us to be. But You are. You are worthy to be praised. You are good.
Amen?
