philosophy of worship
DESCRIPTION
An examination of holistic worship from biblical, historical and empirical perspectives. How have our worship practices evolved to where they are today, and is this how God really desires us to worship?TRANSCRIPT
Philosophy of Worship
An Examination of Holistic Worship through Biblical and Historical Perspectives
Ben Wulpi
Theology of Worship
December 11, 2007
1
Worship is a volatile issue in the Church today. As new generations replace the
old, the culture paradigm shifts, and the Church struggles to stay relevant, many
questions arise about our worship practices and styles. Churches have been split because
of conflicts over worship styles. Arguments often arise between traditionalists and post-
moderns, between sacramentalists and charismatics, over the proper forms of worship.
This disunity in the Body of Christ is not necessarily derived from differences in musical
preferences or liturgical forms, but rather from ignorance and misunderstanding of the
real meaning and function of worship.
In this philosophy of worship, I will attempt a discussion of the real meaning,
function, and form of worship using biblical and historical evidence, as well as support
from my own experiences. Certainly no single philosophy of worship can hold the claim
as the absolute reality of how we are to worship, but my mission in this paper is to arrive
as close as possible to the true approach to worship as God intended it. Of course, much
of this is my personal view, which tends to change quite frequently, as I believe it should.
We should constantly be forming and reforming our opinions and beliefs as we grow and
mature in our faith and in our understanding of worship.
Worship Defined
I doubt very highly that we could find any single all-encompassing definition that
would bring perfect clarity and understanding to all Christians, so we will here examine
some different definitions to try to arrive at the meaning from different angles. The Bible
has much insight to give us on what real worship is. One of the most notable verses about
worship is Romans 12:1, which says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s
2
mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your
spiritual act of worship” (NIV). This definition from Romans is holistic in nature—telling
us that worship requires our entire bodies, given up as living sacrifices. It also equates
this physical act of worship with a spiritual act. This implies that worship is to be
physical, which would lend support to the use of bodily gestures in worship, using the
physical to represent a spiritual reality.
Let’s examine some key words here. “Living sacrifice” gives the connotation of
being active and continuous, based on the word living. Sacrifice, by definition is “the
surrender of something desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher
or more pressing claim.” We are to be continuously and actively surrendering ourselves
to God, the superior being. The phrase “in view of God’s mercy” reveals that our worship
is to be a response to God’s action in our lives. For his amazing mercy in saving us from
sin, sanctifying us and giving us eternal life, he is to be given all that we have in worship.
In Harold Best’s book Unceasing Worship, his definition is similar to that of
Romans, but from a different angle. It states that “worship is the continuous outpouring
of all that I am, and all that I can ever become in the light of a chosen or choosing god.”
Best postulates that all human beings were created as continuous outpourers, made in the
image of God, who is the ultimate outpourer. We can choose to direct our outpouring to
the things of this world, whatever “god” we choose, or we can direct it to Yahweh, the
one true God, in a reciprocal relationship of outpourer to outpourer. Outpouring implies
lavishness and generosity, which would agree with the idea from Romans of a living
sacrifice, requiring all that we are.
3
The Bible uses three different words that translate as “worship.” Proskynein
literally means “to kiss toward,” and implies humility and a bowed heart toward someone
or something of superior importance. Latreuein means “to serve,” and gives the
connotation of worship being active, serving the object of worship. As Christians, we are
called by Christ to feed the hungry and help the oppressed, serving God by serving
others. Jesus words in Matthew 25 make this clear: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to
one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” By serving others, we are serving
Christ, and this is a form of worship. Lastly, the word sebomai means “to fear or respect.”
This has implications that our worship of God should be reverent, respecting his power
and in awe of his majesty.
All of these definitions leave little doubt of the insufficiency of the modern idea
of worship as simply Sunday morning services. Neither can it be restricted to simply
singing Christian songs and getting a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Worship is about God—
not about us. It is not about the feeling that we get when we are singing, but that we are
praising our God. Worship should involve our entire lives, a holistic offering to God in
response to his character and deeds.
A Life of Worship - David
There are many situations and teachings in the Scriptures that tell us how to
worship. One of the best models for a life of worship was David. It is told that God chose
David to be king over his people because David was a man after God’s own heart (1
Samuel 13:14). At the end of his life, David’s desire was still for God’s heart, and he
4
tried to pass this along to his son Solomon, to whom he told to always be faithful and
obedient to God.
David always had a desire to see God glorified. From his confrontation with
Goliath to defend the name of the Lord (1 Sam. 17:45-47) to his humbled praise in Psalm
69, we see that David was always striving to promote the glory of God in everything he
did.
David had a heart that was honest before God. In 2 Samuel 12, David is
confronted by the prophet Nathan after committing the sins of adultery and murder. He
immediately confesses before God and others and is repentant for his sins. In Psalm 51,
written by David after his egregious sin, David confesses that God desires honesty from
the moment we are born. From David we see that God desires honesty, vulnerability, and
humility in our worship.
David always desired to bring his best before God. From the elaborate
preparations he made for the temple to be built (even when it was revealed to him that he
could not build it), to the intricate details of his music ministry given in 1 Chronicles 25,
using only the most skilled of musicians, David puts a lot of effort into praising God. We
are to bring our best, our first fruits, to God in our worship, whether it be in our music
ministry, sacred space, or monetary offerings.
Probably one of the most notable things about David in his relationship with God
was his humble heart and passion to praise God. In 2 Samuel 6, David and a processional
are bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. David let his joy be known
unashamedly, when he “danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a linen
ephod” (2 Sam. 6:14). A linen ephod was a priestly garment, and it was usually
5
something that a king would not be seen wearing, something not fit for such a great man
as David. He is rebuked by his wife, Michal, when she saw him leaping and dancing
before the Lord. She says to him, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today,
shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!”
(6:20) David responded to her, saying that he was dancing before the Lord. He tells her,
“Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my
own eyes!” David doesn’t care how he looks to other people. As long as he is praising
God with all his might, how honorable he looks is the last thing on his mind. After all,
“man judges by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7).
David provides us with an incredible model of an entire life devoted to worship. Not
much else mattered to him when compared to worshipping his God.
Symbolism
Many post-modern Christians may feel uncomfortable with using symbolism in
worship, arguing that it is often empty, bordering on idol-worship, and “too Catholic.”
But symbolism in worship is defined as a physical representation of a spiritual reality.
The truth is, all of our worship is symbolic, whether we like it or not. For example,
language and thought are symbolic processes that we use to express ourselves, and a
gesture like raising hands in worship is symbolic as well. And just like everything good,
symbolism can be twisted into something bad. If the symbolism in our worship is not
understood or used how it is intended, it can be idolatry. It makes one think, then, if we
are singing or speaking words of praise that are empty of real meaning to us, does that
become idolatry? A symbol will not serve its purpose if its users don’t share the same
6
framework of understanding. We must take the time to understand the symbolism we use
in our worship and put meaning to it, or else the symbol is meaningless and we lead
ourselves into idolatry.
This is where much prudence is necessary in our worship. We must be careful that
the symbols and tools we use in worship are being used properly and help us move closer
to God, rather than farther away from him. Even if our intentions are sincere,
misunderstandings of symbolism and worship can lead us into idolatry. In Exodus, the
infamous example of the worship of the golden calf illustrates this quite well. The people
were restlessly awaiting Moses’ return from the mountain, and they needed a more
tangible representation of God. They fashioned a golden calf and worshipped it as the
god who brought them out of Egypt. But this wasn’t a rejection of Yahweh. The people
associated this golden calf with Yahweh, and the text says that the very next day Aaron
proclaimed a feast to Yahweh, and the people got up to offer sacrifices to the Lord. This
idolatry was not intentional, but rather just misdirected worship. This can serve as a
warning to us that we must not make false idols out of our symbols.
Having said that, much of the symbolism used in organized or spontaneous
worship can be very useful for helping us worship. Symbolic gestures can be a great way
to express praise to God. These physical actions can direct us beyond ourselves to a
deeper spiritual reality. Some biblical actions in worship are lifting hands, clapping,
bowing, kneeling, dancing, and others. These show us that we can use all of our body to
express ourselves in worship. Many symbols such as crosses, candles, paintings, and even
architecture can help us stay focused on Christ and worshipping him.
7
Old Testament Worship
The Old Testament is full of symbolic rituals and objects that assisted the
Israelites in worship. The Israelites had many festivals where they came together for
organized worship. One of these was the Day of Atonement, where they symbolized their
forgiveness of sins by releasing a goat into the wild that would bear all of the sins of
Israel (this is where we get the term scapegoat). The altar in the temple was a symbol of
the presence of God with his people. The temple was set up on a hill, a point where
heaven and earth meet. In the temple, the Ark of the Covenant symbolized God and his
covenant promise with Israel, and it was guarded by curtains in a section known as the
Holy of Holies, where only the high priest could enter once a year. This was a sign of
reverence and fear of the Lord, who is holy and set apart. The temple and the tabernacle
were filled with symbolic objects, every one of them representing something different
that assisted the Israelites in worship. The Israelites in the Old Testament made great use
of symbolism in their worship, and it gives us a much greater understanding of OT
worship when we understand the meaning behind all these symbols.
The Israelites in the Old Testament knew themselves to be in a covenant
relationship with God. Their religion and spirituality was defined and governed by this
covenant. God was their King, and they existed to serve and worship him. It was a very
similar relationship to king-vassal relationships of that culture. The king was lord over
the vassal and gave him property and land to rule over. The vassal gave a portion of his
wages to the king (like a tithe) and acknowledged him as his lord. God is the Lord of the
Israelites in the Old Testament, and he is our Lord today.
8
The Psalms
The Psalms are very important to use in worship, and can teach us a lot about how
we should worship. In every age, the Church has made extensive use of the Psalms in its
worship. The Psalms were quoted numerous times in the New Testament, and were used
heavily in Jewish worship. They offer a great view of the religious life of the people of
God, with a special emphasis on their covenantal relationship with God.
The Psalms are usually written by one person, and in worship the reading was led
by one person, but they are meant to generally express the faith of the worshipping
community. They are a dialogue; God often speaks in them to his people. They include a
wide variety of feelings—from laments to petitions to energetic praise, the Psalms offer
honest and heartfelt worship to the Lord. Often reading from the Psalms can be a great
form of worship that we should continue to practice.
New Testament Worship
Early Christian worship as expressed in the New Testament originated in a Jewish
setting. Thus many Hebrew influences carried over into Christian worship. Jesus
supported and participated in Hebrew worship, most notably with the Passover
commemoration before Jesus’ arrest. Jewish Christians worshipped in homes and in the
Temple, reinterpreting Jewish ceremonies as having been fulfilled by Christ.
Jesus claimed that he superseded the Old Testament institutions of worship
(Matthew 12:6), and that he had the authority to interpret the customs of Jewish worship.
Jesus claimed that the temple was no longer the main facilitator of worship, but that “true
worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). Jesus changed a lot of
9
what the Jews knew about worship. In Jesus, one has come that is greater than the temple
and all religious rituals, who has the authority to interpret the law
It was understood by early Jewish Christians that the Christ event—Jesus’ birth,
ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension—was the fulfillment of the Exodus event in
the Old Testament. As God saved them and delivering them out of slavery in Egypt, so
here God, through Christ, saves and delivers them once and for all from their sins. And in
Christ is also the complete fulfillment of the law. “I have not come to abolish them [the
Law and the Prophets], but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17). For early Christians, there wasn’t
much separation from Judaism to Christianity. Christianity is simply completed Judaism.
So it is not surprising that many practices were carried over from Judaism to early
Christianity.
Singing was seen almost as a necessity by the early Church in the NT. There is no
mention of instruments used, but they are not banned either. Many scholars think that
instruments were not used in the early Church because of pagan associations.
Nonetheless, singing is definitely mentioned as a form of worship. Colossians 3:16 says:
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Ephesians 5:18-19 also gives an equivalent command. The singing in the early church
clearly had two functions: impressive and expressive. The verse in Colossians tells us to
teach and admonish one another through songs, impressing on each other the wisdom and
teachings of Christ. It also tells us to have thankfulness in our hearts to God, expressing
our gratitude and praise to him.
10
Paul had a lot to say about worship in his letters. He always made it very clear
that the source of all our worship was to be rooted in the Christ event. Paul emphasized
the need for order in corporate worship (1 Cor. 14:40), and as the NT progresses, we see
a maturation in the organization of the church and its worship.
From what we can gather about NT worship, their worship gatherings were
centered on the Word and the Lord’s Table. These two were crucial to worship and were
practiced at every gathering. The Word for the early Christians would have been simply
what we now know as the Old Testament. God’s Word is seen as essential to worship.
The Table was observed as a general meal, where all participants brought their
own food. This was done in remembrance of Christ, a proclamation of Christ’s death, and
in anticipation of his return. The Table is a recapitulation of the Christ event,
exemplifying the Greek term anamnesis, which means “active remembering.” It
represents receiving the sanctifying grace of God through remembering Christ’s
suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. Traditional thinking is that the Eucharist
(another name for the Lord’s Table) is a reliable means of grace, but not grace itself.
Grace resides in Christ’s actions, and as we remember those actions through the Table,
we experience Christ and his grace again.
Unfortunately, the NT does not provide us with a complete picture of worship.
But it gives us the foundation we are to build off of: Christ. He is absolutely essential to
all of our worship. His actions are the reason for our salvation, and our response should
indicate our gratitude for that. Our worship should be deeply rooted in Christ, and from
there I believe that we allowed flexibility in our worship practices. As Jesus pointed out,
11
as long as we are worshipping in Spirit and Truth, things like location and practices take
second priority.
Revelation Worship
The book of Revelation (specifically chapters 4-5) paints a picture for us what
worship is like in Heaven. This is really an incredible view of how we are going to
worship God for all eternity and a model for how worship should be on Earth. In
Revelation 4-5, worship is focused on the Lamb who was slain and the One who sits
upon the throne. The worship is centered on the acts of the Lamb, and our redemption
through him. The worship is constant, never ceasing, continuing on day and night. “They
never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to
come!’” (4:8). It involves great emotion, singing, humility, and endless rejoicing. In this
heavenly drama, the worship is unanimous. Not a single heart is left unbowed, and there
is no rebellion. Everyone is united in the purpose of worship.
What a beautiful example we have been given here in Revelation. There is so
much that we can take from this. Shouldn’t worship in our churches be modeled after
worship as it is in heaven? Does our worship look like this? Are we united in our
worship, or do we become divided over issues of musical style and traditions? Is our
worship humbled and Christ-focused, or does it become a performance that’s all about
how it makes us feel? These are things that we should take into account when thinking
about our worship. It must be Christ-focused above all. That focus should powerfully
overshadow any divisions, self-centeredness, or musical preference.
12
Church History
I believe one major flaw in the Church today is the common disregard for and
ignorance of Church history. The history of how the Church has evolved can teach us a
lot about the meaning behind our worship and traditions, as well as give us insight into
how we should worship today. The mistake is often made in thinking that once the canon
of the Bible was finalized, God’s revelation to mankind was done. I believe that the Bible
is the authoritative, infallible Word of God, but I also believe that God reveals his truth to
us in many other ways. Not only should we look at the biblical history of worship, but
also Church history. So here we will look briefly at the history of the church and how we
arrived at the modern state of church beliefs and practices.
The Early Church (pre-4 th Century)
This was a period of incredible growth for the Church, where it went from a small
band of disciples to thousands of new followers each day, until it became a movement
that the ruling powers could not ignore. Throughout most of this time period Christians
went through much persecution. Churches mostly met in homes, and were grouped in and
around major cities. Much of the clues we get from this time period are from the writings
of the apostles and the Didache (a Greek term meaning “teaching”), which was like an
early church manual.
Stylistically, the churches varied in different areas. There were many ways that
the early church practiced worship. Music played a large role in their worship. As we’ve
already stated, music played an impressive role, with the ability to teach believers, but it
could also be used to spread heresies.
13
The writings of Justin Martyr, an early church leader in the mid-2nd century, give
us lots of clues as to the order that worship would take. The people would gather together
and hear “the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets.” Then “the
president,” or what we would call a pastor or priest, would deliver a discourse based on
the readings. Then prayers were offered and the Table was presented. It is clear that the
primary features of Sunday worship were the preaching of the gospel and the celebration
of the Eucharist. It was around the middle of the 3rd century, with the writings of Clement
and Origen, that liturgies began to develop for the Word and the Table. Baptismal rites
and rituals were also developed during this time period.
4 th Century through the Medieval Period
Christianity was officially legalized in 314 with the success of the Battle of
Milvian Bridge. With its legalization, Christian worship slowly begins to reflect the local
culture, especially in Eastern Christian churches, which were heavily influenced by
Hellenistic culture. Hellenism brought an appreciation for aesthetics and influenced the
focus on beauty and architecture that marked many churches.
Two important councils that influenced Christian theology deserve mention here.
The Council of Nicaea in 325 solidified the doctrine of the trinity, and the Council of
Chalcedon in 451 made clear the dual nature of Christ—both fully human and fully
divine.
Christianity continues to spread until the year 800, with the crowning of
Charlemagne as Holy Roman emperor and the formalization of Christendom. Christianity
was now the official state religion. Christendom dominated throughout the medieval
period. It was throughout this time that a shift in the meaning of worship began as
14
Christianity became more institutionalized. The established church, in an effort to be
more theologically pure, moved the liturgy away from the people and made the church
more institutionalized. Worship was emphasized more as a mystery, which common
people could not understand. Liturgy was done completely in Latin, which the majority
of the common people didn’t speak. Salvation was dispensed through the church and
through its priests. This led to worship being further removed from the people, moving
back to an OT paradigm of priest-centered worship.
This institutionalized, impersonal style of church was redeemed partially by the
monastic movement. While the established church focused on worship as a mystery, the
monastics stressed the devotional aspect of worship. These monks devoted their lives to
prayer. They helped the church keep centered on prayer, Scripture, and service.
The Reformation
By the 1500’s the institutional Church had become corrupt with the practices of
simony and selling indulgences. Salvation had become something that was based on
works and how much you gave to the church. In worship services, the Word had lost
much of its importance and the Eucharist had become somewhat of a re-sacrificing of
Christ with the doctrine of transubstantiation, where it was believed that the bread and
wine were transformed into the actual body and blood of Christ. Something was needed
to bring the Church back to its roots.
Martin Luther was the main catalyst for the Reformation, which is agreed upon to
have officially started with the Diet of Worms in 1521. Along with Luther, other leaders
such as Calvin and Zwingli played key roles in the Reformation. Though these leaders
differed in how far they departed from the established Church, they agreed on several
15
main principles. They believed that the Mass had become a sacrifice rather than a
thanksgiving and turned into a legalistic way of buying salvation. They wanted
restoration of the preached Word, and they believed that worship should be accessible to
all people in the vernacular, common languages. These reformers brought biblical
principles back to the Church.
Pietism, Evangelicalism, and Revivalism
Pietism began in the mid 1600s as a reaction to the cold-hearted intellectualism
that was spawned by the Enlightenment and had seeped into the Church. They
emphasized the experience of new birth as being essential to salvation, and they had a
major focus on house churches and Bible studies, as well as service to the community.
Pietism greatly influenced the Moravians, who emerged in the early 1700s. The
Moravians were a group of German Lutherans who greatly emphasized missionary
outreach, prayer, and worship through hymns. These Moravians went on to directly
influence John Wesley, who is known as the primary father of evangelicalism.
John Wesley, greatly influenced by his own experiences, stressed the experience
of conversion and new birth. Wesley’s great contribution was bringing the Gospel to the
common man. He was one of the first to practice street preaching and evangelizing. He
founded a group called “Methodists,” so named because of their methodical approach to
worship and Christian living. The Methodists started as small groups of accountability,
focused on personal sanctification and holiness. John’s brother Charles, who worked with
John in ministry most of his life, wrote over 6,000 hymns, which were a new combination
of theology and experience. John Wesley created a new blend of classical Protestantism
16
with the personal element of Pietism. Throughout this time period, daily worship shifted
from church building to homes, becoming more personal.
Along with the Wesleys, other great leaders such as George Whitfield and
Jonathon Edwards catalyzed what is now known as the First Great Awakening. This was
the start of Revivalism. Evangelistic worship was really the distinguishing characteristic
of Revivalism. An essential part of their worship was the experience of the conversion
process. These conversions were often very emotional, often consisting of moaning and
wailing, crying, and seizures. The Second Great Awakening occurred around the 1830’s,
led by people like D.L. Moody and Charles Finney, a very emotional and intense speaker
who used many new methods to evangelize. This movement gave birth to the American
camp meetings that are such a famous sign of revival. Revivalism had an enormous
impact on American evangelical spirituality, including the structure and content of its
corporate worship.
Especially with revivalism, music became more widely used as a tool in worship.
It became used as a crowd former and a warm-up for the message. Music became simply
sanctified entertainment, and its capacity for manipulating people’s emotions was well
known among preachers and revivalist leaders. Evangelicalism and revivalism presented
some challenges to worship. With all its focus on individualism, corporate unity as a
Church was nearly forgotten. Worship tended towards narcissism, becoming all about us
and the experience rather than on God. Many of these things still affect us today, and are
rooted directly in these movements.
17
The Twentieth Century
The 20th century has experienced some of the most dynamic growth of spirituality
in Church history. It was marked by the rise of the Holiness-Pentecostal movement,
which was a post-Enlightenment approach to worship that grew out of revivalism. After
World War II and during Vietnam and the Cold War, America was in a state of
disillusionment. This allowed for great growth in the charismatic movements of the 60’s,
which evolved into the Jesus movement of the 70’s.
During this time, music as a tool for worship underwent great change. Just as the
reformers changed worship to accommodate the language of the people, so now music in
worship was adapting to the “language,” or style, of the people. Worship music became
more stylistically similar to popular rock and pop music in the secular world. The praise
and worship movement had begun.
During the 80’s, a time of economic prosperity and affluence, church growth
became a business model. Churches like Willow Creek in Chicago experienced enormous
growth and change. This continues today with the existence of mega-churches. The 90’s
experienced the rise of post-modernism in society, which had a great impact on the
church. The post-modern church began to grow, and this is still a movement in motion
today.
Another movement that has gained in popularity in recent years has been the
emerging church model. The emerging church seeks a convergence of the traditional with
the post-modern and the liturgical with the charismatic. It is an innovative blend of many
different worship traditions, with a large focus on traditions passed down through history.
I am personally a proponent of the emerging worship model, because the blend of
18
different traditions and the high regard for the development of Church history creates a
great balance of worship that transcends culture and trends.
There are many things that we can learn from the development of worship
throughout Church history. It is very valuable to see how worship has evolved to the
point where it’s at now, and it is good for us to see how the Church has strayed too far in
one direction or another so that we can gain wisdom to realize what true worship needs to
be. For example, we saw worship shift to be more priest-centered during the medieval
period, but then shifting to more people-centered and individualistic after the
Reformation with the rise of evangelicalism and revivalism. There’s the extreme of
focusing too much on the institutional church at the expense of the individual, and there’s
the extreme of focusing too much on the individual at the expense of the united Body of
Christ. We must work to find a balance between these two.
Modern Evangelical Worship
The state of modern evangelical worship has been heavily influenced by the
evangelicalism of the 1800’s and also by the rise of individualism in our society. The
common attitude of the people is one of self-seeking individualism, even within the
Church. Worship has often become something that’s comfortable and formed to fit the
needs of the people. This tends to result in watered-down worship and “Sunday
Christians.” The idea of whole-life worship, as expressed in Romans 12:1, is foreign
compared to the worship most Americans experience today. I believe that much of our
worship today is selfish. It becomes all about the feeling it gives us and what God can do
for us, rather than what we can do for God.
19
The rise of the praise and worship movement had a profound impact on worship.
Music became a way to really engage with God. Worship music has become a rapidly
growing genre inside and outside the Church. This domination of music has evolved to
the point where worship is equated with music. It seems that sometimes we almost
worship the music more than we do God.
One downfall of the modern church is the lack of historical and symbolic
knowledge we’ve talked about already. People don’t know what the traditions and
symbols used in worship mean, so their meaning is reduced to merely empty rituals.
Keys for Renewal
Based on the state of evangelical worship today and the biblical and historical
meanings of worship expressed earlier, we will examine some key points for worship
renewal within the Church. These are mostly my opinion, but I believe they are well-
formed based on what we have discussed so far in this paper.
First, and perhaps most importantly, an understanding of whole-life worship must
be redeemed. Worship is not just about singing or about coming to church service on
Sunday morning. It is about our response to God based on his character and works, which
are rooted in the Christ-event and the salvation of the entire world. It is about those three
Greek words translated “worship” that tell us to serve and love with humility and great
reverence. It is about being a “living sacrifice” to God, continually offering ourselves to
him.
The individualism and self-centeredness of society that has penetrated the Church
must be recognized and curbed. Worship is not about us. It is about God and his son,
20
Jesus Christ. It is about worshipping before his throne, continually singing “Holy, holy,
holy,” our praise never ceasing and reaching to the very corners of the universe, as the
illustration in Revelation shows us. This idea may be a stab to our pride, but it is the kind
of worship that God has called us to.
The centrality of the Word and the Lord’s Table must be recovered in our
worship. God’s Word is his guide to us, how he speaks to us and teaches us. We worship
him by preaching, studying, and loving his Word. The Lord’s Table is our anamnesis, our
active remembering of the Christ event and celebration of our salvation through Christ’s
death, resurrection, and ascension. The meaning and purpose behind the Table must be
recovered, so that people can fully participate in this active remembrance.
The purpose of music in worship needs to be restored. This attitude about worship
music is a byproduct of the individualism in our society, which results in so many of our
worship songs dominated by the words “I,” “me,” or “my.” Worship must not be equated
with music. I believe that this infatuation with music in worship is often a sign of us
putting the music above God, which is idolatry. Music is a great way to worship and
engage with God, but a proper understanding of its purpose in worship needs to be
recovered.
I believe the value of worship evangelism that arose during the period of
revivalism is something that needs to be recovered. Our worship can be a form of
evangelism in order to draw people to Christ. I believe the simplest way to do this is
through love and service. I discussed earlier how the Greek word latreuein, translated as
“worship,” literally means “to serve.” We can worship God by serving those who are in
need. In this we also show those people the love of God, which is a powerful witness of
21
the Gospel. Jesus, in his ministry on Earth, spent most of his time with the deadbeats of
society: the tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, and all other sorts of “sinners.” He focused
much of his energies in serving and healing those people, often going out of his way to
love them. We, as Christians (read: Christ-like), should follow the same example. A
ministry of love and service can not only be a powerful form of evangelism, but also a
powerful form of worship.
Conclusion
Psalm 96:9 says, “Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before
him, all the earth!” The God we worship is the Master of the entire universe, the Bright
and Morning Star, and the most beautiful being we could imagine. His glory is
incomprehensible, and his power is unfathomable. Though we were lost in our sin, by his
awesome grace he has saved us and calls us his children. All of creation hinges on the
fact of Christ’s amazing redemption.
When we look at all this, it’s still hard to grasp how worthy of worship our God
is. When our faith is centered on these truths, and our lives are lived in gratitude for
Christ’s action in our lives, our worship is pure. Our aim is Christ, and we must never
cease in our worship of him. All of these nuances of how we worship fade away when we
simply focus on Christ as the object of our worship. But at the same time, we must make
sure that our worship is pure and good in its forms and practices. May God teach us how
he really wants us to worship him, and may we learn and grow in our understanding of
worship.
22