Worship has been a topic of debate for a long time: "What is it? How do we do it? How do we do it better? What kind of corporate worship is permissible in church?" For some churches, worship is singing out of a hymnal without any instruments, while others have a full worship band complete with back-up singers and a lead guitarist.
I think there have been some grave misunderstandings about worship and its real meaning. Growing up I always saw Sunday morning as the “worship time” for my week, and I think on a very subconscious level I began telling myself that true worship can only happen in a church with music on Sunday morning. I lived with this belief for a while and constantly sought worship through music and nothing else.
Because I am a musician and a huge fan of worship music, I will admit that songs are often an easy place for me to go to focus on Christ, but often times I will listen to a song or sing one in church, and I will be completely unresponsive. I won’t be passionate about the words of a certain song so I will automatically think “Well, I must not be worshiping today! I must not be intimate enough with Jesus…” As I have thought about worship more and more, I have realized that when this mindset is present, we aren’t worshiping. Not because we don’t respond to a song, but because our focus is off of Christ.
Romans 12:1 helps paint a great picture of true worship.
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
Paul knew how to simplify worship. It was a response to God’s mercy, and ultimately led to believers offering their bodies to the Lord. While other gods and religions around the world call for people’s bodies to be offered as blood sacrifices to appease a god, the God of Heaven and Earth calls us to offer ourselves because He stands appeased by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Worship is not a one time a week ordeal where we come to church to be intimate with God. It is a daily, moment by moment response to His mercy in Christ. It is done because we have been made intimate with God through Jesus Christ, not to gain intimacy.
Singing songs about our great God is wonderful. Coming together as a body of believers throughout the week to reflect on Jesus is what church is supposed to look like. But true worship is not ultimately in the songs we sing, or the actions that we carry out. It is in the response to God’s mercy. If we respond to the grace of God by offering our bodies (voices included) to Him daily, this is worship. But if we are doing it for some other reason, it ceases to be worship entirely.
Much debate has occurred over what worship forms are appropriate in the church. We often ask “Should we use guitars? Hymns? Banjos? Which songs should we sing?” And many a worship leader has thought “What on earth is wrong with this congregation? Why don’t they show their excitement by raising there hands and jumping around?” But while we ask these questions, the Father is asking us to lay aside these human ideas of worship, and reflect on the magnificent work of Jesus. When true worship is in focus, it becomes less and less about HOW we worship in church, and more about WHO we are worshiping. Worship was never meant to be confined to specifics like musical or instrumental choice. God has always intended our worship to be a life spent responding to how great Jesus is, and how the Love of God has magnificently revealed itself to mankind throughout human history. Anything else is false worship.
And let’s face it, the more the grace of God is tasted, the less the music even matters.
