Towards Global Worship: Beyond The Headlines

How much worship gets directed beyond local or even individual needs? Does worship declare the congregation's concern for the world that God so loved? This article offers suggestions on how to go beyond merely praying for the people in the newspaper headlines towards worship that is truly global in its outlook and practice. God chose a poor vehicle to open my eyes to Gods purpose and work in a world, larger than my countrys church or even my country. In vacation church school, a mission story was read. These stories were more entertainment than truth. Snakes and witch doctors haunted every corner, so did racism and cultural imperialism. But one result was that we prayed for people far from us-people whom we did not know and with whom we had no connection, except that God loved them as well as us, even if they were heathens. This summer, I worshiped at this church. Throughout the whole service, not one mention in the sermon or prayers was made of any event or person outside those di…