Why do we do it, Galilee? Why do we gather together as a body of believers each Sunday to worship? Why do we call ourselves ordinary people who are endowed with an extraordinary purpose?

Isn’t it because we hope to encounter God? Isn’t it He who we are looking for in the heart of worship? He is found there and the transformation He makes in our hearts is kindled there.

The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, was in worship on a day in 1738. He was listening to a meditation on Romans by Martin Luther. Later, as he walked through the streets of London he felt his heart “strangely warmed.” 

Wesley recorded in his diary, “While he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

We share something like this experience when we enter the heart of worship. 

A plaque in Aldersgate Street, London, marks the place where Methodism’s founder felt a compelling force of grace

Over the next four weeks, our time together in reflection and prayer will focus on living into this heart of worship. We will examine the questions of how to know ourselves as the ordinary people who God loves, and how to serve together as the extraordinary church that God uses for His ends.

Our Scriptural cues will come from the Letter to the Ephesians, which tells us who we are in Christ and what is expected of us as a church. The question we will ultimately ask is, where are we (and Galilee) on this journey?