No ministry of the church has
greater potential for shaping the lives of its constituency than the corporate
worship experience. When people consistently gather together to affirm God’s
role in their lives and to allow the Spirit to speak in fresh ways through the
word, a remarkable transformation can occur. In a worship setting, followers of
Christ should be edified and mobilized for more effective mission in the world.
Seekers should find a genuine connection which draws them closer to the One who
is Life and Truth.
Unfortunately,
such life-changing experiences are not typical in worship, especially in the
North American church. “If we are honest, we will admit that our services can
easily slip into meaningless rote, driven more by habit than spiritual passion,
and that many people attend every week and leave unchanged.”[1] Why
does this happen? Could it be that transformation is not occurring because the limited
nature of our experiences in worship do not fully express Christ’s great
command to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your strength, and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27)?[2] When
people are either unprepared for worship, disengaged from worship, or
restricted in worship—then the experience becomes less than what God intended.
The purpose for
this project is to provide a biblical and theological foundation for the
practice of worship in the Churches of God, General Conference and to encourage ministry leaders who seek to improve the quality of the worship
experience they design and implement. This writer values what can be learned
about worship from Christ’s followers in other cultures. Interviews conducted
with ministry leaders in cross-cultural settings will be cited to demonstrate
not only how worship varies but what we can learn from one another.[3]
Some differences in worship practice reflect the culture in which those churches
reside. A portion of this writing will emphasize the importance of respecting and
adapting worship to the dominant culture of the worshippers. At the same time,
caution must be exercised so that worship does not become captive to the
culture.
Worship is often
associated with our feelings. People may evaluate or describe the influence of
a worship service by the presence or absence of certain emotions. But biblical
worship results in more than just good feelings. “It leaves us with changed
hearts and calls us to changed lives. Very simply, to experience God’s presence
is to be transformed from the inside out.”[4]
More important
questions than “how did I feel about it?” are:
·
Did it glorify God?
·
Did we experience God as we gathered together in
worship?
·
Did it build up individual Christians as well as
the corporate community to be Christlike?
·
Did it align us with God’s mission of what He is
doing in the world?[5]
Fulfilling that kind of criteria
depends (in part) upon the extent to which scripture has informed one’s
expectations about worship.
A Theological Basis for Worship
The Old Testament
reveals the God of Israel who was different from all the other gods known to
mankind. For example, He was (1) the One and Only God worthy of worship; (2)
personal and active revealing Himself in history; (3) presently available through
symbols or objects such as the ark of the covenant and places like the holy of
holies, the tabernacle and the temple; and (4) in spirit form rather than a
specific image.[6]
Most significant of
all in the Old Testament was the persistent nature of God in taking the
initiative to reveal Himself. The variety of names by which He is known (such
as Jehovah, Elohim, etc.) indicates just some of the ways He surpasses all
other gods. For this reason, the term “glory” (kabod = weight, honor) is often associated with God. He alone is worthy of our praise and
worship.[7]
Three worship
words are commonly associated with the New Testament church. Latreia refers to the formal practice of
worship, especially sacrifice. The word describes worship that envelopes life.
It is used of the prophetess Anna who “worshipped night and day, fasting and
praying” (Luke 2:37). The
Roman Christians were urged to offer their bodies “…as a living sacrifice, holy
and pleasing to God—this is a true worship” (12:1). Latreia as an image of worship which holds nothing back from God is
a radical concept.[8]
Leitourgia is an active word, suggesting
service or work. It was used of practical service offered by one person to
another, such as when Epaphroditus ministered to Paul’s needs (Philippians 2:25); and the collection received
for the saints in Jerusalem
(Romans 15:27; 2
Corinthians 9:12). Leitourgia was the word used in regard
to Zechariah’s service to God as a priest (Luke 1:23). It was likewise used to simply describe
congregational worship at Antioch,
“while they were worshiping…”(Acts 13:2). Worship as leitourgia describes how God acts in new ways and works through
Christians to serve others in very practical ways.[9]
The third word is proskuneo focuses on experience. It is
rooted in the actions of “kissing, bowing or falling down to worship a deity”
and expresses the emotion and action of using one’s whole body to worship.[10] Proskuneo frequently occurs in Matthew’s
gospel to describe those falling down to worship Jesus, such as the magi with
the infant (2:11), and a
leper (8:2). In his conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4, this is
the kind of “worship” discussed. In Acts 10:25, Cornelius falls down and
worships Peter when he arrives in Caesarea.
Revelation describes constant and repeated proskuneo
where worshipers are on their knees (Revelation 4:10; 5:14;
7:11; 11:16; 19:4).
These biblical
expressions and descriptions suggest that worship is not only multifaceted but
also difficult to understand. In describing the essence and nature of worship,
Franklin Segler has summarized biblical worship in the following manner. It is
(1) both revelation and mystery. While God has made Himself known in
various ways, one can never fully comprehend Him; (2) a celebration of
God’s powerful and redemptive acts in history, especially through Jesus Christ;
(3) life. If everything belongs to God, then worship is not something
reserved for specific acts on the Lord’s Day but to be expressed every day in
all we do; (4) a dialogue in the sense that it includes both His
revelation and our response; (5) an offering of oneself. The worshiper’s primary objective should not
be to receive blessings but to give oneself more completely to a worthy God;
and (6) eschatological fulfillment in the sense that worship always
anticipates that final gathering around God’s throne.[11]
It becomes
apparent that worship is not something that happens to us. It is never the
result of passivity. One must approach worship intentionally with a keen desire
for God, as expressed by the Psalmist:
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my
God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (42:1-2a). Stated more forcefully, people “…ought to
come starved for God…(He) is mightily
honored when a people know that they will die of hunger and thirst unless they
have God.”[12]
While worship may
include many things, at the heart of every definition of worship is the idea of
our response to God’s revelation of who He is and what He has done.[13]
In fact, “…the God who has acted in history continues to act within the
worshipping community in a saving and healing way as the community remembers,
proclaims, enacts and celebrates with thanksgiving.”[14]
This makes worship the most important expression of our Christian faith. It is
ultimately more important than even evangelism or missions.
Jesus was quite
clear in John 4:23: God is seeking
worshipers, not more evangelists. “The true goal of evangelism is to produce
more and better worshipers….The biblical goal of evangelism is to produce
worshipers, not just to save the lost from the fires of hell or to enlist more
recruits.”[15]
John Piper agrees
that worship rather than missions is the goal of the church. “Missions exists
because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate…because God is ultimate….When this
age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces
before the throne of God, missions will be no more. But worship abides
forever.”[16] In this
perspective, the goal of evangelism and missions is to increase the number and
diversity of worshipers throughout the world so that God may receive the
maximum glory and honor that is due Him.
[to be continued....]
[1] Bob
Rognlien, Experiential
Worship—Encountering God with Heart, Soul, Mind and Strength (Colorado Springs, CO:
NavPress, 2005), 25.
[2]
Rognlien, 46.
[3]
Interviews were limited within the Churches of God, General Conference and
conducted with a Haitian pastor, Bengali ministry leaders in both Bangladesh
and India, an American missionary and his Brazilian wife serving in Brazil, and
a Navajo lay leader in New Mexico.
[4]
Morgenthaler, Worship Evangelism: Inviting Unbelievers into the Presence of God
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995,
1999), 52.
[5] Kreider,
“Worship and Mission” seminar. New
Haven, CT: Overseas Ministries Study
Center, 26 March 2007.
[6] Phil Harrold, “Biblical Foundations of Christian
Worship,” Plenary Session #1, CM 586:
Christian Worship. Winebrenner Theological Seminary, January 24, 2006.
[7] Harrold,
24 January 2006.
[8] Kreider, 26 March 2007.
[9] Kreider,
26 March 2007.
[10]
Kreider, 26 March 2007.
[11]
Franklin M. Segler, Understanding,
Preparing for, and Practicing Christian Worship, 2nd ed. (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishing, 1996), 7.
[12] John Piper,
Let the Nations be Glad! The Supremacy of
God in Missions, 2nd ed.
(Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Academic, 2003), 227.
[13] Paul
Basden, gen. ed., Exploring the Worship
Spectrum—6 Views, (Grand Rapids,
MI: Zondervan, 2004), 13. Also, see Morgenthaler,
47, 88;
[14] Robert
E. Webber, Worship Old & New
(rev.)(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,
1994), 262.
[15]
Morgenthaler, 39.
[16] Piper,
17.
