The Lost Art Of Silence And Contemplative Worship

Come now! Let us bend down to worship him! Let us bend our knees in front of the Lord. He is the one who made us. Psalms 95:6 EASY

I grew up in the Methodist church where we had silent times for prayer and meditation - often on our knees on the wooden railing in front of the pew.

As part of the youth, in my teen years, we had links to the Anglican and Catholic churches and attended services from time to time as joint youth initiatives.

The latter two churches with all the liturgy had even more times of silence and contemplation.

I remember feeling out of sorts during all those times of silent contemplation, even in my own church.

When I became a Christ-follower at age 16, it was amidst the Jesus Revolution and excitement of my conversion. I left the Methodist church after a few months after disagreement with some doctrinal issues.

The Pentecostal church I went to was totally the opposite, with lots of times of "praising the Lord" with loudness and exuberance. Singing and making a lot of "noise". No silent and contemplative worship moments ever.

After a few years I began to miss those times of silence and contemplation in the church. I really missed them! And I still miss those moments...

Since then after being at many Pentecostal, Charismatic churches, I have yet to find what I had in the traditional churches that valued contemplation - a time of being on your knees before God, acknowledging His greatness in silence.

I think we are missing out in this form of worship that may already have become a lost art - lost disciplines - which have become very prominent in the New Ages movement.

Let's return then to some of these worshipful, meditative practices from the traditional and older churches,