I had been living in this particular care home for 5 months, and never once did I step foot outside.

Sometimes my wife would try to encourage me to go on the elevator to at least get off the third floor, but I always refused. Why should I leave my floor? I was comfortable where I was!

Then one day my wife asked me if I would “help” her bring some things in from the car. I have always liked to help where I can, so I followed her onto the elevator and out the front door.

Wait! The sun was shining, there were no clouds, and it was warm! Suddenly I didn’t want to go back inside! As a matter of fact, I am looking forward to the next time she takes me outside! She promised to take me to a nearby coffee shop for a pastry!

This reminds me of an experience we had years ago when our kids were young. Both my wife and I appreciate a more contemporary worship style. Our boys played in a small musical group at the time, that often received requests to play in a variety of local churches. And so it was that we often found ourselves in more traditional church services, with many of them being more liturgical in nature.

The first time this happened, my wife and I groaned. We fully expected a service that wouldn’t feed us, and I, for one, wasn’t wrong: The service was dry, and it didn’t feed me. My wife on the other hand seemed to be enjoying the service, and she even commented after church about how blessed she had been …

Wait … How could such a dry service have … blessed … her?

My wife later reported that she had gone into the service with the same poor attitude that I had adopted. However, during the service, she said that God had spoken to her. He had asked her to open her heart to Him, and when she did, God’s presence was as alive for her as it was in our more contemporary church.

There are many styles of worship, but I would like to propose that each and every one is near and dear to God’s heart. Nowhere in the Bible is it written that God requires a certain style of worship. Rather, the Bible says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” (Hebrews 13:15-16 NIV). In other words, the Bible doesn’t specify whether our worship should be contemporary or liturgical. Rather, it says that worship that pleases God comes from those who profess His name, from those who do good and share with others! This has nothing to do with the style of worship! Rather, it has everything to do with the condition of our hearts. In that church where my kids played that Sunday morning, my worship was not pleasing to God, while my wife’s was! While I staunchly declared God couldn’t be found in such a service, she humbled herself and set out to find God in that self-same service. As a result, her worship was beautiful in God’s eyes while mine was not.

This past Thursday, my wife was at a small group gathering at my son’s church. Apparently not all of the church members appreciate the more contemporary worship style that the church has adapted, with some of them often only showing up after the music. It so happened that the subject of the following Sunday’s service would be entirely dedicated to encountering God and would focus heavily on worship. My wife was saddened to see that a number in the group showed distaste for the upcoming service. Nonetheless, everyone who attended that service was blessed. Though many were surprised by this, God had an encounter with everyone who opened his or her heart to Him!

The point is, sometimes we get it in our minds that worship has to be a certain style or we aren’t blessed. We need to remember first of all that worship isn’t about us, it’s about God. And secondly, we need to understand that no matter what the style of worship in the church is, God can reach out and meet us! All we have to do is open our hearts and our spirits to Him!

And perhaps if I had been a little more open-minded about going off my floor in the home where I live, maybe I would have been able to enjoy the outdoors and the fresh air far earlier as well!

Let’s be open to God, no matter what the style of worship. Let’s remember that no matter what the worship style, our worship will only please God when we open our hearts to Him! Yes, whether contemporary or liturgical, when we open our hearts to receiving God, our worship is pleasing to Him!

Inspired by Rob Chaffart
Founder, Answers2Prayer Ministries