My life is full of variety! And that variety is seen most sharply and clearly in our Sunday services of worship. Some Sundays worship is noisy and lively. The atmosphere is relaxed and warm and the key objective seems to be to make everyone feel at home. God is portrayed as a really good friend who is alongside us in our lives and always ready to lend a hand. He may be all-powerful and all-knowing but he feels far more like a really good friend. On other Sundays the worship is restrained and gentle. The atmosphere is dignified and formal and everything has clearly been prepared with enormous care and thought. God comes across as being very powerful and very holy. Perhaps a bit remote, but clearly an excellent person.

I’m not about to launch into a tirade about any particular form of worship. Every form of worship reminds us of important and different aspects of the nature of God. And every kind of worship has its place, so long as it draws us closer to God and enables us to be more useful in his service.

We may feel that discussing worship is a peculiarly British pastime. Last week I was in Jamaica and I discovered that that is most definitely not the case! The worship that we shared in was extremely formal by our standards. One of the churches even had the set order of service pinned to the lectern! The set order of service began and ended with processional hymns and in between there were chants and anthems which would astound the average British Baptist. But we heard about the dissatisfaction with worship amongst young people, and the gentle moves to bring about some changes. I am glad that, in this country, worship wars are generally a thing of the past. I can well remember those days when I would take a clean piece of paper on which I would write an order of service and within moments, as I anticipated the different demands of the congregation, the blank piece of paper felt like a battle about to take place. How sad! It seems to me that, generally speaking, our churches have come to recognize that worship needs to reflect the variety of generations and cultures within the church – and so a variety of styles is essential.

My main concern is that, in discussing worship, we don’t lose our focus on God. I don’t think that God is remotely bothered whether we sing hymns or songs, or whether we worship formally or informally. He simply wants us to worship him, for only as we worship him will we be truly ourselves. Only as we worship will be set free to be the people he created us to be.