What is Worship — redux
November 18th, 2007I asked this question a couple of weeks ago . . . the response was not overwhelming.
But, as we head into our last week of our hastily constructed study of worship, liturgy and the church year (and, not coincidently, the last week of the church year — at least by the reckoning of the Lectionary), I’ll pose the question again: What is worship? This is your chance, reluctant bloggers: one word answers count.
I hope to post four times this week. The subjects will be:
- High Church
- Emerging Church
- Liturgy of the Word
- Liturgy of the Table
Those four don’t even begin to cover the subject, so please feel free to publish your own posts on the subject (or any subject for that matter). Unlike the past three classes, let’s plan on more discussion of these areas. There are abundant resource materials out there for you to check out — start with the United Methodist Hymnal. What isn’t covered there is in the United Methodist Book of Discipline (2004), or the United Methodist Book of Worship. There are a huge number of online resources that you can access without even leaving the Methodist “Home”. Take some time and explore the resources available in the Worship section. There are articles about every conceivable issue concerning worship, the sacraments, daily orders, the history of the liturgy . . . you name it.
You can also read any number of books that address the issues we’ve been discussing — from a Methodist viewpoint as well as the viewpoints of other denominations. Just a few that I’d recommend are: Patterned by Grace, by Daniel Benedict; United Methodist Doctrine, by Scott J. Jones; Introduction to Christian Worship, by James F. White; Inside the Organic Church, by Bob Whitesel; or anything by Laurence Hull Stookey . . . and that’s just scratching the surface of what’s available from a Methodist point of view. You can order any of these books online or visit Reed’s Gumtree Bookstore and I’m sure they’d be glad to order them for you. Note: Jim McCormick, one of our former pastors will be at the Bookstore from 12 to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, signing books he’s authored — just another source of good information for our study on Christian worship.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines worship as “the reverent love and allegiance accorded a deity, idol, or sacred object.” The Greek words for worship combine the ideas of “falling down before,” “paying homage to,” and “serving.” From these definitions it is obvious that worship involves recognition of worth in God, and the offering of our honor, praise, and adoration to the One who is altogether worthy.
This definition leads us to consider the purpose of worship. This is important because it strikes at the very purpose of the church. The health of our personal and congregational worship reflects our personal and congregational relationship to God.
To worship genuinely is to know God. To know God genuinely is to be in a king/subject relation ship with Him. In worship we acknowledge God’s kingship in our lives and His right to rule over us. Worship is for God’s benefit. He has the center stage. During worship we yield ourselves to God’s rule and dominion. 1 Chronicles 29:10-13 gives us a biblical description and correct focus of worship:
Many Christians misunderstand the purpose of congregational worship. Many times our congregational worship has become an experience in which man is the focus. Worship has deteriorated into an “I didn’t get anything out of that sermon” experience. Man has become the object of his own worship. He is there to be entertained and spiritually massaged. It hardly occurs to some that worship is primarily a matter of God receiving something from us our praise, adoration, and confession of dependence on Him as our Sovereign.
We must remember that worship is for us but not about us.
Gary
I’ve been thinking about Tom’s question and Gary’s comments — especially the one about “worship being for us but not about us.”
What I have is a question, an honest question that I need help with: How do we remain in a “worshipful” spirit in a church that we generally enjoy being members of when something in the weekly worship service bothers us … say the type of music, style of preaching, whatever?
For instance, a month or so ago during one of our services things were going along pretty well with the liturgy, music, etc., and then one of our non-regular preachers preached a sermon that pretty much destroyed the whole Sunday morning experience for me. How do I deal with that while remembering “worship is not about us”? That was a one-time thing, so is the answer to just take it to the house and pray about it, and come back next week hoping for the best?
But what about us Methodists whose system dictates a periodic change of preachers? What if we love our particular Methodist church and we get what we consider to be a dud in the pulpit — not necessarily one with whom we disagree, but one who just isn’t a good preacher and who’s preaching really does detract from the worship experience? Are we to just bear it or do we pack it in and head to another Methodist church and again hope for the best? Or do we become Seventh Day Horizontalists?
I need some help here. Well, yeah, I need some help in other areas, too, but for now we’ll stick to the worship thing.
– Danny
Well, it depends on why you’re attending a particular worship service. Is it to hear the preacher or to listen to God?
Seriously, I’ve attended churches that call their own preachers and churches where the hiearchical stucture is even more imposing than in the Methodist Church. I’ve enjoyed truly wonderful preaching and endured some of the worst. But my reasons for attending — probably like Danny’s — involve a whole host of reasons that have to do with fellowship, where I am on my “faith journey”, doctrinal details, and a whole lot of other factors.
The focus, as I’ve slowly learned, must be on God. If some aspect of the service gets in the way — I try to pray through it.
I can’t think of a time that I left a denomination or a church because there was something I didn’t like about any particular thing. Instead, I’ve moved because of something in another Worship service that helped me to connect with and worship God.
One of the devotionals that I came across in this four week study was “This Day: A Wesleyan Way of Prayer”. One of the things that is included are a whole raft of suggestions for “Personal Prayer Surrounding the Congregational Service.” This is consistent with the scriptural admonition to “pray without ceasing”.
If, as Danny says, there’s an occasional “dud” in the pulpit, then pray: pray for insight to “see” the speaker’s point of view; pray for an understanding of what that person’s life journey has been and how it might affect their words; pray that you’ll hear the message beneath those human words.
Pray that God will improve the preaching!
Tom, I think your answer to Danny’s question to “pray without ceasing ” is exactly right. I have mentioned my Grandaddy Bourland before in a comment, but another belief that I heard him share about was to support your church even though you may have some issues…..
So, that means to pray for your church, your ministers, the body of believers. So, back to Tom’s “pray without ceasing”…….
Dale