Why worship shouldn’t always take place in the walls of the church

A friend sent me this video this week.

I hope that you will watch the entire thing. I am so ashamed to admit that when I started the video and saw a homeless man walk up, my first thought was it was a desperate cry for attention or money. But when his sweet Jamaican accent started singing, “Hallelujah is the highest praise!” all the cynicism in my heart melted.

I read the summary below the video on youtube, and apparently Carlos Whittaker (a pastor, worship leader, artist, and creative thinker that has caught my attention at his blog) was trying to shoot the EPK for his record. While recording, Danny, a homeless man, walked up, bowed down, and started singing his own praise. Instead of shooing him away so they could continue their video, Carlos kept on playing and singing along. Danny jams along, making up his own words and singing at the top of his lungs to God.

At the end of the video, Carlos hugs him and there is some dialogue that is hard to hear. This is what they say.

Carlos: “Keep trying to make it man.”

Danny: “Trying to make it? No man. I ain’t trying to make it. I’m making it. Jah puts His soldiers everywhere. Jah says, Yea though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. So He places some of us in that valley.”

I think one of the things that gets me so frustrated about worship is always doing it within the walls of the church. We’re comfortable there and there’s no dirty homeless person to make us feel icky. We’re surrounded by people that are in our social and economic class and are all clean and well groomed. It’s safe.

I am totally guilty of this. My heart absolutely goes out to homeless people, but honestly, they scare me. Part of this is because I’m a skinny, scrawny white girl and I’m scared for my life. But I still long to help them.

I’d love to take worship outside the walls of the church and meet some people that make me uncomfortable. Not make it a big stage and light show but have it be about pure worship. Meet some people like Danny that amaze me, inspire me, and scare me.

Do you have any ideas how we could take worship outside the church?