With just under two months left of my internship, I thought it might be good to have a couple of devotional ‘series’ to go through, with things I’ve learnt about worship this year! The first is The Worship Arc – a framework for planning worship based on the Biblical journey of worship (particularly in the Old Testament). Over the next five weeks, we’ll explore Welcome, Thanksgiving, Sacrifice, Devotion and High Praise, and how we incorporate each stage of this worship journey in our sung worship.

So, welcome! You may wonder why we need to welcome the Lord when He is already present by His Holy Spirit, poured out on all people at Pentecost, which we celebrated only a few weeks ago! I wonder if this stage of worship is more about preparing our own hearts to worship – making it less about us, and the things we carry into our worship time, whether that’s on a Sunday, or throughout the week. So often, we can enter worship with our own agendas, our heads full of worries, or thinking about what to cook for lunch (or at least that’s certainly true for me!) When we sing ‘come, now is the time to worship’, or ‘we’ve come to join the song, sung long before our lives’, we declare over ourselves that it’s time to set those things aside for now, to bless, honour and glorify the God who loves us – it’s what we’ve been created for (Psalm 150:6). Welcome is about clearing out space in our hearts for God to re-fill us with a fresh revelation of who He is and all He can do. Whilst God is already present, welcome demonstrates that we’re ready and willing to invite Him into our hearts through His Spirit.

On a purely practical note, welcome invites others into worship - perhaps for the first time – and shows that God’s house is alive and ready to meet with Him. Our approach to worship can inspire and encourage others to worship – whether they’re new to church, coming back after a while, younger people learning what worship looks and feels like, or regular church-attenders who need a little extra encouragement! Welcome invites us to worship together, as a united church with one goal – to exalt the Lord (Psalm 34:3).

So how do we do this?

• Collaboration with the service leader – welcome is just as powerful spoken or prayed as it is through song!

• Bible – pray as you plan! Is there a Bible verse which calls us to worship? Could you bring this as you begin the set?

• Songs – there are some great welcome songs, or sometimes simply repetition of a truth-filled refrain can fix people’s eyes on the Lord, preparing their hearts to worship.

Perhaps play around a bit this week as you worship – what helps you come into a place of fixing your gaze on the Lord, ready to worship? How could you transfer this into congregational worship?