When God Comes to Church

With so much attention given to the presentation aspect of modern worship services, is it possible that many people attending church today forget to focus on the primary purpose of actually being in Gods presence? Steve Gaines, pastor of the 27,000 member Bellvue Baptist Church and successor to the late Adrian Rogers, along with Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire author Dean Merrill, fear this is the case and call for a return to the core point of corporate worship. The goal, they say, is for the only Wow! in a church should be God. With that in mind, Gaines and Merrill write thoroughly about what attracts God to our worship gatheringssincere prayer, repentance, unity, etc.and warn against the worldly hindrances to pure worship such as legalism, liberalism, and fanaticism.
-Publisher

With so much attention given to the presentation aspect of modern worship services, is it possible that many people attending church today forget to focus on the primary purpose of actually being in God's presence? Pastor Steve Gaines and coauthor Dean Merrill ("Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire") fear this is the case and call for a return to the core point of corporate worship in "When God Comes to Church,"^The goal here is to "send people out the door saying not 'What a sermon ' or 'What great music ' but rather 'What a Savior ' . . . the only 'Wow ' in a church should be God."^With that in mind, Gaines and Merrill write thoroughly about what attracts God to our worship gatherings--sincere prayer, repentance, unity, etc.--and warn against the worldly hindrances to pure worship such as legalism, liberalism, and fanaticism.
-Publisher