A.W. Tozer was the pastor of Southside Alliance Church in Chicago for 30 years. During that time, he wrote a dozen books. One was titled The Pursuit of God. And in it, he spoke about the Bible, saying “It is not mere words that nourish the soul, but GOD . . . and UNLESS and UNTIL hearers find God in personal experience, they are not better off for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring people to the knowledge of God.” The same thing can be said about the elements of worship: they are not ends in themselves, but a means to bring people into relationship with God. And that is true if we worship by ourselves in a park, with a few others on a beach, or in a church sanctuary with lots of other people.

When our son Stephen was young he was playing in the basement of our home one day. As he played, he made car noises, fire engine noises, and airplane noises. But then he went silent. Since the silence of a child is always suspicious, I went to investigate. But as I went downstairs, I heard him declare: “And the average retail price is . . .” and I instantly knew he had been silent because he decided to play his favorite television game show: The Price is Right. And to play his favorite television game show, he had to arrange his toys in displays like they did on the stage of The Price is Right. But THIS time each of his toys was priced with post-it notes he had pilfered from my office! So I was right to believe that his sudden silence was suspicious.

When our son Jonathan was in high school, he invited a friend to come to our house to watch a movie. His friend declined. Jonathan was confused, so he asked why he didn’t want to come to our house. “Because your dad wouldn’t want me there,” his friend replied. Jonathan was even more puzzled by that answer, so he asked “why would you say that? My dad has never met you.” “Because your dad is a pastor” the friend replied. That confused him even more, so he asked what my job had to do with it. “Because I’m gay,” his friend said, “and Christians hate gays.” Jonathan knew his friend was gay, but it made no difference to him. So the conversation upset him. And since he was still upset when he got home, he told me about the conversation. And it broke my heart. For here was a teenager who had not been raised in the church. He knew nothing of Christian theology. He knew no one in our church. But one thing he did know was that “Christians hate gays.”

On July 1st, I was at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut to see my son Stephen graduate from officer training. It was supposed to take 3 hours to get there, but it took 7 since all of New York seemed to be going to New England for the holiday. As we sat with Stephen at dinner after that grueling trip, I told him “You’re lucky I love you, son.” While I was joking, there was truth to what I said. That is because we knew before we went that the ceremony would only take 30 minutes. And spending even 3 hours (not less 7) to watch a 30 minute ceremony isn’t something I would normally do. Especially since we could’ve watched it online. But I endured the drive because Stephen is important to me. Which is also why I bought him his first car. It is why I rented trucks to move his belongings – several times. And it is why I did many other things for him through the years with my time, talents, and money.