Glorifying God by Infinite Grace

Growing up, I understood that Christians didn't agree on everything but I always thought they worshipped the same way. During my eighth grade year, my father took a sabbatical - every sunday our family would go to a different church, one of a different denomination and demographic of our home church. After every service, my dad would ask us what we liked and didn't like about the service. My parents always made a point if the message of the worship service didn't include law and gospel. (From what I can remember, that was the only aspect of a service that my parents would criticize). As a pastor's kid, the best part of any sabbatical is the end of it. You begin to miss those familiar faces, the smell, knowing how the congregation goes up to receive communion, the stain glass windows, or the one distinct voice you can always pick out in the choir. It is a blessing to appreciate your church, it's congregation, and how it worships our Savior. However appreciation can quickly turn into "comfort zones." These comfort zones can handicap our ability to appreciate the ways others worship our Lord.
As we all know, many denominations, churches, and congregations worship differently. It's important that we, as Christians, believe that through these different worship styles and doctrines our God is glorified. If we can't support and appreciate these differences, then how are we supposed to encourage and support the body of Christ? We can't. There will always be differences in the Christian doctrine. That's one of the biggest reasons why I find faith so beautiful - there's always a sense of holy mystery. He's God - we're not. We aren't expected to figure everything out perfectly.

I've had two situations occur in the past month, when others couldn't look past the differences of Christian worship. 

The first happened with a dear friend of mine. She had recently been curious about Catholicism and their doctrine on purgatory. I told her as much as I knew which ended up not being a lot. She told me how a girl from her bible study grew up catholic, but didn't develop a personal relationship with Christ and since then has become involved with a Baptist organization on campus. My friend then went on to ask if Catholics are saved. This blew me away. As she went on, she explained to me that "Catholics aren't about building a personal relationship with Jesus, but more about rituals and 'stuff.' And if you don't have a relationship with Jesus then how can you be saved?" I couldn't come up with an answer that would touch on everything that was racing through my mind, so instead I gave her a short answer and now answering it via blog. I think we can mistake liturgy and rituals as walls that keep us at a distance from God. But as one, who appreciates and finds joy in liturgy and rituals, I believe that they can keep us closer to God. Through those rituals, I build my relationship with God - just like how someone might find God in an awesome praise song or a beautiful prayer from the minister. The Holy Spirit can move in infinite ways - even through traditions and liturgy. I believe you need to have a personal relationship with your Savior BUT I don't believe that there is one certain way to build that relationship.
The second situation that occurred was a blog post from a Lutheran pastor I had read a couple of days ago. He reviewed Concordia University as he had recently toured the university with his son. He criticized it's chapel service for being too contemporary. He wrote, "I was relieved to hear they have Tuesday and Thursday evening liturgy from LSB [Lutheran Service Book]. Monday and Wednesday chapel have worship from LSB." He later on talked about that if his son were to attend, he would want him to go to those particular services and not the contemporary services. He criticized the services for being too loud, the congregation wasn't singing along, and the band was placed in front of the altar. To say I was frustrated would be an understatement. Here is a pastor, who can't look past the music style and placement of the band to rejoice and worship our God. After awhile, I had to  wonder if this pastor truly understood the Gospel. The Gospel is all freeing to believers. It reaches everyone in different ways. There is no single way to preach and share the Gospel. The Gospel can be reached and shared through so many people in infinite ways. 
Lastly, the grace of our God is infinite. Worship comes in many different shapes and sizes, but it all has one purpose - to glorify our Redeemer. As long as we preach the Gospel, the grace of our God will turn our worship into redeeming beauty.

May we all understand that the Holy Spirit, the Gospel, and the grace of God are vast beyond our human measure to disfavor certain types of worship and doctrine. Praise Him!