Worshipping as though we were in jail

I was recently at a small conference for movement leaders and practitioners held in a restricted access country.

During one of the morning worship periods, our worship leader started by sharing how God had recently been leading her to prepare for the possibility of imprisonment.

(Aside from her worship activities at conferences, she works in a lot of restricted access countries.)

So, this morning, we were going to have worship…

as if we were in jail.

As if all of us (a couple dozen or so) had been arrested and placed in prison.

How would we worship? For one thing, we would not have speakers or amplifiers or microphones.

So those were unplugged.

We would not have powerpoint, so the computer was shut off.

We would not have sheet music or lyrics printed out, so those were put away.

We probably would not have our Bibles, so those were closed.

How would you worship – if all you had were the songs and Scriptures you could personally remember? For about an hour, that’s what we did.

Various people would start up a song–maybe only remembering a snatch of it–and it was amazing how the rest of the group picked it up and carried it forward.

Others would pray aloud, just briefly, mostly (in this context) for their people group or for people they knew.

Others would start up a Scripture, and maybe finish it, or someone else would.

This was an amazingly powerful thing to do, and a good reminder of the need to hide God’s word in our heart.

What if we did this in our churches on occasion? Rather than having a program, trust the Spirit to lead? With larger numbers it might be difficult, yet I would still think the potential is there.