How multicultural praise gives us glimpses of heaven—and how to foster it in your church (even if you’re not a leader)

As humans, we don’t like change. That spills over into every area of our lives. Church is no exception. We like singing the same songs because we know them, and repetition feeds that familiarity we all crave. It’s how the brain works. But I’m one to try new things, learn new songs and explore new ways of expression. I feel that the average congregation today is a lot smarter than we give them credit for being. Even though it may seem risky to learn new songs or expand the worship or musical style in church, the pros far outweigh the cons.

I often think about what heaven is going to be like. Many verses give us clues, but here are three I like:

Since losing his wife to cancer last year, pastor, gospel artist and worship leader Marvin Sapp is rediscovering what praising God really means

When you’re a pastor who’s expected to deliver the “good news” every Sunday, what do you do when sorrow enters your life? For Marvin Sapp, a pastor, best-selling gospel artist and worship leader who’s been through a year of personal pain, hope has come through living what he preaches. 

“It’s one thing to get up and encourage others with your messages, and it’s another to live off what you’ve taught,” Sapp says. “As preachers, a lot of time we study to preach, but some of us study to live. When the rubber met the road in my life, I was glad I had stuff for what God knew we were going to endure.”

Why God isn’t looking for performance but for true worship in response to His love 

Pure and love are not two words that we often put together. Maybe it’s because most of the love we experience is anything but pure. As flawed people, we rarely love without somewhat tainted motives. We all have probably “loved” someone because we wanted something from them, and I’m sure we’ve all been “loved” because someone only wanted something out of or from us.

We often feel we have to earn someone’s love by training ourselves to give them what they want. Unfortunately, this kind of love isn’t “pure” at all, and it doesn’t come close to reflecting God’s true heart. But we’re so used to performing and trying to impress the people we want to love us that we treat God the same way. We go around and around in circles trying to make Him happy without ever stopping to consider that maybe His love is really, truly, pure—without any selfish or deceptive motive. Maybe God doesn’t want anything from us except us.

Church music has never sounded so good ... but a growing number of worship pastors want nothing more than true worship

The elaborate flags and banners that adorned many charismatic churches 15 years ago have since been replaced with lights and cameras. The focus on being relevant and producing quality music has increased significantly, and along the way, churches have struggled to balance entertainment and worship.

“We are all such technological junkies,” says Daniel Bashta, worship pastor of RiverStone Church in the Atlanta area and president of Go Motion Worldwide. “We love the bright lights, the big screens, the sexy Vegas shows. Somehow our churches now represent all of these things. How many HD projectors and LED walls must we have?”