In Jesus’ story of the rich man and Lazarus, ta “The pastor’s primary assignment is to call men and women to worship. When we say ‘Let us worship God,’ as most of us do at least once a week, we stop everyone in their tracks, and shut them up for an hour or so.
To my knowledge, no one has ever commented on the incalculable good that pastors do simply by getting hundreds of thousands of sinners off the streets for an hour a week and keeping them quiet. Gossip diminishes to a mere trickle, the crime rate plummets, there are fewer traffic accidents, air and water pollution decreases.
The single most obviously significant feature of worship is that we aren’t doing anything. We aren’t in charge. We aren’t making anything happen…. The most important thing that is going on right now is what God is doing.”
~ Eugene H. Peterson