Worship God with Your Whole Heart at Home or Wherever You Are

By Robin G. Jordan

While Mike Leake makes some good points in his article, “There Is a Reason Your ‘Worship at Home’ Doesn’t Feel the Same,” he is assuming everyone will experience worshiping at home in the same way that he does. Some people will; others will not. The latter may be more adaptable than the former and have easily made the transition to online worship.

The latter may  also includes those whose only experience of worship may be digital. They are the people whom we are attracting to our live-stream services and who have no previous experience of the worshiping church.

The people that I have in mind, however, are people who like myself are equally able to worship at home and in a church sanctuary or worship center.

Over the years I have worshiped in a number of different settings, including my own home. I have worshiped alone as well as with different groups of people. I have led family worship around a kitchen table. I have worshiped with other house church members, singing along with CDs of popular contemporary worship songs and traditional hymns during the worship time of our weekly gatherings.

I have worshiped with small congregations that had only two or three strong voices. I have worshiped with larger congregations in which most of the congregation enthusiastically joined in the singing. I have sung hymns and worship songs to the accompaniment of organ, piano, guitar, or MP3 worship tracks. I have also sung hymns and worship songs accapella—without accompaniment of any kind.

The Acts of Apostles tells us how Paul and Silas sung hymns to God in the middle of the night, in a prison, their feet in stocks. The conditions under which they worshiped God were far from ideal. But they praised God and glorified his name. What was their secret? They entered wholeheartedly into worshiping God despite the circumstances in which they found themselves.

When we worship at home, we have a choice. We can focus on what we miss. We can repeatedly say to ourselves and whoever may be with us, “This does not feel like church to me.” We can dwell on how it differs from what we have become accustomed to. Or we can, like Paul and Silas, enter wholeheartedly into worshiping God.

For those who struggle with worshiping at home, I have three suggestions when it comes to singing God’s praises.

First, ask the Holy Spirit to help you in praising God and glorifying his name.

Second, forget how you might sound. God is not grading us on how well we sing.

Third, worship God with your body as well as your voice. Stand. Lift up your hands. Fall down on your knees. Prostrate yourself. Dance. Let the Holy Spirit move you.

I believe that if you follow these suggestions worshiping at home will be an entirely different experience.