Worship-what does it mean? According to Dictionary.com, there are multiple definitions, but something that popped out at me is that worship can be used as either a noun or a verb.
The noun definition:
reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.
The verb definition:
to render religious reverence and homage to.
Too often, I feel that we get stuck in our walk with God and turn worship into a noun, a thing, instead of a verb, an action. Worship is important, but HOW we worship is something that is entirely up to the individual. Now, there are boundaries we should probably stay within-worshiping God while working on the weekends is a bit of a stretch and is unBiblical (4th Commandment). However, God is relational at his core and that is something that I see missed so often. A lot of places that I have visited understand church to be a set of actions, in a particular order, that requires nothing more of us than to do what we're told, listen to a single person talk for 30-40 minutes, then we get to go home. And this happens week after week after week after week and so on.
It doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to see that after a while, this becomes routine and loses its meaning and becomes stagnant and static, unchanging because "this is how it's always been done." But what if it's not the way it was MEANT to be done, eh?
There are many who criticize the more pentacostal or contemporary or "upbeat" worship styles, saying that it's not focused on God, but instead on the performers or "feeling good." Well, I'm reminded of Matthew 7:1-5, "Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. For others will treat you as you treat them. Whatever measure you use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, 'Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye (emphasis added)." And besides, are these people saying that when we worship God we're NOT supposed to feel good? That's not a religion I want to subscribe to!
Who are we to say whether a particular style of worship is "worthy," or effective? I would imagine that God loves all forms of praise and honor and worship when the hearts are sincere. And who is to say that a particular style is better than another? They both honor and worship God, don't they? We shouldn't look at a contemporary or traditional worship style and view it as the ultimate form of worship and that all other worship styles are waypoints on the journey towards one style. That's just wrong.
I think I found the answer to why there are superiority complexes about worship styles. Now, I need to clarify something. I feel that the contemporary style is the more effective and meaningful of the two, so I am biased towards it. However, it's not without reasons: the simple truth is that I've seen more people grow closer to God in some incredible and amazing ways while attending a contemporary church than I have in all the years combined of going to a traditional church. Take that how you will, but it's definitely taught me something.
In Scripture, there is a progression of relationship with God. We start as sheep, following the Shepherd, right? Ok, well, sheep are not often thought of as brilliant or even moderately smart creatures, so I would think this would be when we are newly in Christ, just starting out, blindly following through faith because we have no other experience to go off of.
Next is the Potter and the clay. Ok, this has beautiful symmetry in that we allow ourselves to be shaped into the form that God needs us to be in. However, not a lot of interaction here. We move on from there to servants and the Master. Hey, at least we're in the house now, right? We're still under his command, but he's trusting us to do what he tells us to do, instead of relying on us to submit to his will and go with whatever; it's our choice. We'll pause here, because a lot of people in the traditional style seem to get stuck here. Oh, yes, they'll claim to move on to the other stages, but it's in this place of servant that we get the idea of reverence and humility (that's going to be another blog post) that a lot of people don't move past.
And THIS is what affects their attitude towards God. "Don't run in the sanctuary; it's the house of God and it's not proper." Matt. 19:13 ,"Some children were brought to Jesus to he could lay his hands on them and pray for them. The disciples told them not to bother him. But Jesus said, 'Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.' And he put his hands on their heads and blessed them before he left."
"We must look our best when we go to church." When did Jesus EVER dress up before going into the synagogue? And don't give me any comments about people only had one outfit in those days-I would think that God would want us to be comfortable rather than feeling confined in a suit just because we're trying to keep up appearances. Besides, isn't God around us when we're in our bathrobes during the week???
Ok, moving on. The next step is that we are sons and daughters of God. Sweet! We're in the family now, which means we have rights to the estate! More importantly, we have real and meaningful interaction with our Heavenly Father. But there's one more level of intimacy that a lot of Christians struggle with...you know what I'm talking about-lovers. Song of Songs is a VERY intimate collection of dialogues between a young man and young woman who are lovers. Goodness-how did THAT get into the Bible? This is a level of intimacy that is open and available to us, but it requires the kind of transparency that was always meant to exist between God and man, between a man and wife. Interesting concept, isn't it? Kind of unnerving for us men to think of God as our lover, but we must also remember that God is genderless and our male and female combined is what makes up the image of God, which means that marriage is the closest thing we have to being able to see what God truly is.
So you see now that while God wants to be praised and worshiped, he also desires to have intimacy with us because he's relational at heart. Why did he create the angels? Why did he create humans? Because he's relational; remember, God has always been in perfect community and relationship with himself-the Trinity. But he also desired to share that, knowing that sin would enter reality through Lucifer, knowing that we would betray his heart, he still did it. And so I think it would be better for us to stop looking at all the things we can find wrong with each other, and start looking for those similarities that bring us together as the family of God. Division is a tool of the enemy, remember, and if you let it in, who knows where it might lead and what damage it might do? So swallow your pride and your religiosity, and just love people for who they are and where they are at.
Anyway, that's enough for this week-what are YOUR thoughts on worship?
3 comments:
Worship comes in many forms. Most churches have a “Worship Pastor” and most of us figure that is the person who does music. Music is only one possible form of worship. David danced naked in the street and “offended” some onlookers, yet God saw it as worship. Personally I don’t recommend such a form of worship these days. However, worship is way more than music. I worship when I put my tithe in the box, when I hear God word proclaimed in preaching, and in the silent Amen while being lead in prayer. I serve as sound tech in our church and that is my act of worship, like the Levites of the Old Testament whose job it was to take care of the temple, set it up and tear it down, keep it clean, etc. Other worship as they welcome people at the doors or make sure the parking lot is watched for security. And God bless the worship performed each week with the children usually in basements and far off room of the building. We all worship when we give our best to God.
What I meant is that the 4th Commandment specifically tells us to take a break from the week's stress and work, just as God did after Creation.
It's hard for me to imagine someone working on the weekends in their office and worshiping God. I'm reminded up the passage that states "Man cannot serve two masters." Certainly, a person can worship God anywhere, but I think that being able to strike a balance in life between work and rest is not only important, but is a Bible-based teaching.
It gets a little muddy with pastors, medical professionals, and people who work for the church on the weekends...for instance, I run tech at two different churches on Saturdays and so I take my break on Sundays and Mondays-those are my weekends.
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