Where Will You Worship?

Greetings Brothers and Sisters in the Lord. I pray you are in good health and growing in your relationship with the Lord. I am currently leading a sub-committee at my church. God has provided an opportunity for our church to move to a new site, and we're analyzing the ministry needs to determine whether moving is a good idea. I have been asked to determine whether our current sanctuary is sufficient for our ministry teams to lead the congregation in worship. My first thought was that this should be easy. After all, our 50+ year-old sanctuary does need a lot of work. The pews are tightly packed together, the alter area is small, the stage is cramped, they have trouble regulating the heating/cooling, the lighting is poor, and nobody could argue that the sound system needs to be replaced…all of these "deficiencies" could be easily remedied by a modern properly designed facility. Once I really started thinking about it, however, I thought to myself, "You know what Bill, there probably millions of Christians out there who would love to have a church as nice as this." This made me think about all the Christians who are having wonderful experiences with God while worshipping in tents, basements, store fronts, thatch huts, and shanty towns all around the world. I think Jesus alluded to this in a statement he made to the Samarian woman at the well:

John 4:20-24 (NASB)
"Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.'"

God doesn't care where you worship. He's not concerned with the buildings (or even the lack there of). He wants you to worship Him in "spirit and truth". That means He wants your heart and your mind to be in one with Him. Worship Him wherever you are today. I guarantee if you're heart's right, it will be the perfect place.

Blessings,
Bill