Do we fall into the trap of worshiping our feelings about God, or even what He does for us more than worshiping Him for who He is?
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Worship
We started preaching a new series this week at Good News on the foundational elements of a healthy church. Over the course of the next month I plan on building a firm foundation (a VERY sturdy and very large table - thanks for the idea Adam!) It was a fun and effective visual to build the table on stage during the beginning of the sermon.
The first message was on worship. Worship seems to be one of those words that Christians throw around often but may not think about what it means. It seems as though a "good" worship service is not as much about recognizing God's greatness as it is about creating an experience of "feeling" good or singing songs that sound good. Many of our Sunday morning "worship" services are filled with human-focused songs (just look at the shift in language used in modern songs vs. old hymns) played by talented musicians with high tech equipment. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy contemporary sounding music and our feelings do play a part - but I wonder what our modern worship sounds like to God?
Do we fall into the trap of worshiping our feelings about God, or even what He does for us more than worshiping Him for who He is?
Do we fall into the trap of worshiping our feelings about God, or even what He does for us more than worshiping Him for who He is?
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Just a quick answer- worship involves all of us: heart, mind, intellect, emotions, body. We must be holistic in our approach to the Lord. Too much focus on any one aspect is not good (such as emotions). Just because we are not feeling God one Sunday does not mean we cannot worship Him. Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
Once we decide what worship is supposed to be (no easy task in itself), those of us involved in leading worship must focus on the two-sided coin of "good worship." One side is to be intentional, to focus the attention of the congregation on the goal of worship.
The other side of that coin is to minimize distractions. I would contend that even biblical, honest emotional worship can fall short of being "good worship" if it is filled with distractions. I don't mean the baby crying during your sermon. I mean the usher who doesn't know where to go, the music leader who chats between songs, the preacher who hides announcements inside his pastoral prayer, and the drama team who fumbles through setting up the stage. All of those involved in leading worship have the obligation to actively avoid distracting others from the goal of worship.
Worship flows out of thanksgiving - it is thanksgiving. Praise, adoration - they all distill back to thanksgiving. We can't really know God except through what He did for us. We can know "of God/about God" (general revelation) but we can't know Him apart from His gift of salvation.
So, we have to worship Him for what He does for us (giving us salvation through Christ). Salvation is the gift and Christ is the means to that gift. We can't know "who He is" apart from "what He does for us".
I recently did a study on "worship" in the scriptures, both in the OT and NT. Most of the times worship is mentioned in the NT comes from the Greek word "proskuneo". And it's clear that biblical worship is much different than what we call worship today. This "lifestyle" worship that people teach today is very different from proskuneo. Sometimes I wonder if our attempt to redefine worship is just an excuse to call everything we do "worship" while really not ever worshiping at all. In the bible, worship almost always involved bowing or prostrating oneself. Worship in the OT was much of the same. Now, however, we love us some "bowing in our hearts". Another way to get out of true worship?
I wrote a blog entry on this called "Satan's Greatest Victory"
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