Introduction
Before We Gather by Zach Hicks
| The Power of Preservice Prayer
Years ago, as a worship leader, I was introduced to the power of preservice prayer. But it wasn’t just a free-for-all. As we gathered with our worship teams and volunteers, we prayed specific prayers. They were focused. Our prayers felt centered and filled with the Spirit because they began with the Scriptures, then burst into supplication. And I noticed a spillover effect. Not every time, but many times, you could feel the difference in the room when it came time for everyone to gather for worship. There was more energy, more life, more of an intangible vibe. Certainly, God was always there when we worshiped together. But on certain Sundays, it felt like we were quickened by the Word and by prayer to experience the power and presence of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit in a more tangible way.
In the last few churches I served, I began the practice of pre-service devotions and focused prayer where there had not been something like this previously. I can tell you that nearly instantaneously, you could observe a change in the worship culture of our church. I could also tell that, incrementally, some strongholds we previously felt were impenetrable started to fall down: idols were confronted, sins were confessed, and hard hearts slowly cracked open. I guess that’s what happens when you make a habit of yielding your worship services, before they start, to the Word of God and to the Holy Spirit who breathed that Word.
Evidently, God is telling the truth when he says that if we ask it will be given (Matt. 7:7). Father, forgive us for making it harder than that.
| A Surprising Byproduct: A Theology of Worship
I also noticed something else happening. We were inadvertently, almost by osmosis, forming a theology of worship through these various passages and prayers, and we were doing it without a classroom and without a textbook (other than the Bible, of course, but it would be demeaning to call the living and active Word of God a textbook). No, these times didn’t teach us everything. And yes, I still believe in the need for careful biblical and theological reflection on the event of gathered worship. Still, what we learned there, through the Word and prayer, taught us the most important things. It taught us what God cares about:
- How to approach him on his terms.
- What the purposes of gathered worship are.
- How gathered worship is connected to our whole-life worship the other six days of the week.
- How our worship connects us to the continuous stream of worship in heaven, the worship of ancient Israel, and the historic church.
- How to cherish Jesus and his gospel.
- How to identify and participate in the powerful work of the Spirit in our worship times.
- How to love others who are different from us, both while we worship and after we worship.
- How the church’s worship propels us into mission and action
Again, we didn’t learn these things in a classroom with neutral-colored walls, fluorescent lights, and a smart screen. We learned them through gritty prayer in the quiet places in and around our worship space-listening to the Word, reflecting on that Word, and then praying that Word. Over the years, I kept track of the most potent and powerful prayer times. In a way, this book is that living record of God’s power, presence, and faithfulness. But it’s also a tool for worship pastors, worship leaders, worship teams, and volunteers in and around the service who want to prepare their hearts together for gathered worship. This devotional will also work if you’re one of these people preparing your heart alone; you should just know that these devotions speak with a communal feel. Even if you prepare by yourself – which, I must say, is wonderful and needed – my hope is that as the tractor beam of God’s grace pulls you in through his Word, it also draws your heart toward others as you are drawn toward God.
| Jesus, Only and Always
This devotional is shot through with the gospel. Jesus alone, and his finished work alone, is what gets us through worship and gets us through life. We never graduate from needing this message. We all need a daily blood transfusion-a draining of self and a filling with Jesus’ life. We need the gospel every day because we sin every day. So it is, then, that the gospel’s proclamation in all the elements of worship is what brings the fire down. It is that word of Christ that dwells in us richly (Col. 3:16). It is that Spirit of the Anointed One, whose anointing pours down from a torn-open heaven to a torn-apart earth, drenching us in crimson grace (Mark 1:9-11). It is that boldness of our Worship Leader, who, having ripped the temple curtain in two, ushers us all into the holy of holies (Heb. 4:16; 8:1-2). Because of this gospel, this devotional won’t throw us back on ourselves, or push us to do more or try harder, or feed us the lie that God is waiting to act, bless, or respond based on how devoted we are, “prayed up” we are, purely motivated we are, and sincerely surrendered we are. Rather, this devotional revels in the fact that Jesus died for all our bad worship and is the active agent in all our good worship. Its goal is to lead us into more dependence upon God, more reliance upon Jesus, and more anticipation of the Spirit’s work, not ours.
| How To Use This Book
Each devotion takes approximately fifteen to twenty minutes to read, consider, and pray through. The reading portion of the entries, including the Scripture passage, is about five to eight minutes long, and the rest of the time is dedicated to focused prayer. It may not be feasible in every context to do this, but I’ve found great value in praying in the same room where the worship service will take place.
The devotions are broken into three sections: Scripture, devotion, and prayer.
1. Scripture
Because the Word of God is living and active, and because God’s Word never goes out without the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, I encourage you to read the assigned passage out loud. Even if you’re doing the devotion alone, it’s good for your ears to physically hear the Word, and as Jesus showed us when he was tempted in the wilderness, it’s always good for the enemy to hear the Word too. Pick the version or translation of the Scriptures that is most familiar in your context, though I recommend translations that stick more closely to the original text (ESV, NIV, [N]RSV, [N]KJV, NASB) than the more paraphrased versions (NLT, The Message). Sometimes the paraphrased versions can veer too far away from the original language, and as a result, some of the references or insights in the devotions might not make sense.
2. Devotion
If you’re in a group, you should definitely read the devotion aloud for everyone. In the section “Customize This Book,” I offer some tips on making this book your own, including both the ordering of the devotions and the language in them. Each devotion has a trajectory, though. Unlike other devotions that often lead us toward inward and personal contemplation (not a bad thing), the purpose of these devotions is to drive us into an others-focused ministry of corporate worship. You’ll find that the devotions always move from reflection toward outward, kingdom-focused, and ministry-aimed prayer. That’s on purpose.
3. Prayer
This third section of each devotion is vital. Sometimes when we turn to prayer we go into personal mode. Whether we’re engaging this devotional as a group or as individual leaders, and though we don’t want to bypass the real and present problems, hurts, and needs of our own lives or of the people we’re praying with, we want our time in this context to be focused. We’re here to pray kingdom-sized prayers for worship and the church. We have a specific job to do. So it’s important that our prayers are “aimed,” and to accomplish that, every devotion ends with a few bullet points that direct our attention: “This is what to pray for.”
If you’re using this devotional in medium or large groups gathered before the service, my advice is to encourage folks, after reading the prompts in the prayer section, to break up into groups of no more than three or four for passed-around, out-loud prayer. The smaller the groups, the more likely that everyone will have a chance to pray. You want that room filled up with the murmurs of the Spirit. You want the prayer engine of your worship space cranked and turning so that the people who enter are stepping into a worship vehicle already moving at about thirty or forty miles per hour. In my context, I often offer a final closing prayer after a few minutes of group prayer.
I’ll add here, though, that there are a few staple things we should always be praying for before a worship service, and periodically it would be good to add these things to the prompts:
- Pray for the preaching of the Word that the preacher would be filled with the Spirit and that the people would have ears to hear as they worship through their listening and receiving.
- Pray for the times of baptism and the Lord’s Supper that, because God reserves these as unique gifts of his presence, he would invade our lives through these ordinary practices loaded with extraordinary power.
- Pray for the singing and praying to be more than going through the motions, that the practices of worship
wouldn’t degrade into mere ritual but instead be filled with heart, passion, and a deep integrity. - Pray for the people on the margins that children, or the disabled, or people who are new, or who might not easily feel like they fit in, or who don’t yet know Jesus might find themselves addressed by God’s gospel and loved by his church.
- Pray for the clarity of the gospel that the good news of Jesus would be the loudest and most enduring thing that everyone hears and takes away from the worship time.
In closing, I leave you with this prayer: