Pastor's Circle - Sam Shaw

Sam Shaw has been a pastor for years. Ten months ago he planted the Orchard Fellowship, a church in Memphis, TN. Shaw shared about his church's emphasis on worship.


I want to talk about passionate worship today. What is passionate worship?

What we mean by that is engaged, wholehearted, from the heart. Worship is something that engages not only the mind, but the emotion and the will.

Somebody said worship is like a play...God is the audience and we are responding to Him.

It is God-ward and it is heartfelt.

Aren't there many manners of worshiping?

I couldn't agree more.

If you feel like raising your hands, that's a biblical example of worship.  Silence is an example of a means of worship. 

Passionate worship - engages my body, my heart, my mind in worship.

What else does the Orchard do to promote worship?

We teach on worship.

We do communion once a month.

I try to speak to the heart and the mind. I try to leave a takeaway for people to actually do something.

Serving the Lord is worship.

What kind of musical approach do you do?

Our worship will typically be contemporary.

I want worship to be accessible to as many people as possible.

Far more than having people sing to us, we try to get involved singing with us about the Lord.

Do you have to realize at some point that you can't please everybody?

Absolutely. It takes all kinds of churches to meet all kinds of people.

What I'm saying is, we will include a hymn...but rather than simply just being hard-driving rock-and-roll...we vary the pace, we vary the kind of instrumentation that is used. Anything we can do to engage the people there.

What's your view on different styles for different services?

What we have are two services...but they're all alike.

The reality is, often it's not an exact replica.

I say, if God leads you, stop, give a testimony.

I think there needs to be some freedom. That requires some trust between the worship pastor and senior pastor.

How do you help people carry an attitude of worship throughout the week?

I have to do it myself. I have to model it.

If you're eating in a restaurant, we ask the waitress, "We're Christians, is there anything I can pray with you about?"

Several weeks ago, a waitress just broke down crying, and said I can't believe this. No one's ever asked to pray with me before. That's worship.

There are always barriers between us and how God wants us to live. What are some of those barriers?

I think just busyness.

We're distracted, just flat-out busyness, mindlessness.

I think lack of vision, lack of a sense that God could use me. Sometimes sheer sadness.

Those are the barriers that come to my mind right now. On Sunday morning, if there's anything I have to do, it's praying.

Practicing the presence of God is a discipline that I read about many, many years ago.