By NEIL DUMAS

Minister of Music, First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Tex.

(Published in Baptist Progress, July 19, 2006)

I must admit I love football. Don’t worry, this isn’t a football article. As a boy I watched a lot of football both live and on television. The philosophy of football was absorbed by my brain. There were dreams of one day playing a star position. During Pee Wee football I was above average size and loved hitting the opponent. Junior High came along and all of a sudden I wasn’t so big as compared to the other guys. You know the rest of the story, I became an avid fan. There are few things I enjoy more than talking football.

There is one thing that just gets me steamed. Seeing someone jump offsides in a game really infuriates me. Especially in the professional ranks. I can’t imagine beating all the odds and actually making it to the pros and then doing something so unprofessional as moving before the ball is snapped. Are they numb from the neck up? Are they trying to get a jump ahead of what’s in front of them? Are they unaware of the penalty of jumping offsides? No, no, and no, they are simply not focused. Another way to state it is they are more focused on something else other than what they are supposed to be focused. How many times have you seen a team struggle to make it down the field coming within a few yards of scoring only to have someone jump over the line causing the team to be pushed back?

In worship every week there are many, (some say the majority) who are jumping over the line due to the fact they are focused on something else rather than our Lord. Let’s face it, we live in a very fast-paced world. At home you have access to over a hundred channels. If we don’t like something we instantly change stations. We have become used to instant everything. As a result, our focus and attention spans have diminished big time. I’m not against technology and according to my wife I sure enjoy changing stations so how can I become a focused and attentive worshiper?

It starts with understanding. We have become a culture of instant maniacs and the result is on Sundays we expect to walk in, sit down, maybe sing a little, listen a little, stand up, walk out, and instantly expect to gain more insight into what god is wanting us to involve ourselves in. It doesn’t work like that.

In life there is a spiritual realm and a physical realm. In our physical lives we are constantly taking in many things at one time. We receive many messages and all of them are vying for our attention and focus. Paul made reference to these worlds in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Also in Colossians 1:16 Paul writes, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.” Jesus made reference to the physical and spiritual worlds when He said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
Being focused in worship requires much more than just casually being in a worship service. Try thinking of it this way. Suppose you are a radio receiver. In the atmosphere around you there are many signals that you can tune. By turning the dial (changing your focus) you can tune into all these different signals. The one signal you want to tune into is God’s signal. In order to meet our goal we must put away the distractions. This takes lots of practice and power.

In many churches today the first song is used as a call to worship. Really it is not the song that is a call to worship. The words to the song become a sounding cry. Do not sing words without thinking them through. If you want to hear from God you must enter the spiritual realm and it is impossible to come in and out of worship at the flip of a switch. You cannot turn worship on and off like a light bulb. You cannot get ahead of yourself and jump over the line.

Relevant Scripture passages are a great way to draw people into being focused on worship. Have everyone say the Scripture out loud. You can use a responsive reading from the back of your hymnals. You might have someone give a testimony to draw focus on God. Pastors, can you imagine what your worship service might be like if there was non-stop worship from the time the service started until you delivered God’s message? What would a worship service be like to have the instrumentalists working with the worship leader so that there are no pauses in between songs. No time for distractions or minds to begin wandering.

I want to mention a few other possibilities to consider. Integrity Publishing has a few DVD’s available that could be used to draw attention and focus on worship. Lifeway Publishing has also developed a series of DVD’s entitled, Transitions that use songs to draw people into worship. In between your Sunday school and worship service you can insert a DVD or a CD to visually and audibly bring worship into focus.
In closing let me mention that our worship services must be attractive to the worshiper. I know that sounds anti-spiritual but allow this thought. If the world around us is offering visual expertise as well as audio expertise, I believe our worship should offer the same. No, we are not being like the world. If it were wrong we wouldn’t have TV’s or stereos in our homes.

Too often, we have used the excuse of not wanting to be like the world to justify not keeping up with our cultural needs. There are great tools that we can use to better illustrate sermons such as using PowerPoint or even showing a short drama clip or better yet, do it live. There are great ways to call people to worship including DVD’s or showing an interview segment with someone. You can interact with the congregation to drive home a point. You can use art such as banners, flags, special music segments.

John 1:14 says, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” Isn’t it great, God gave us a visual illustration of His Word!