Worried About Worship

Part of my problem is that I passionately believe words mean something. I also agree with those who say that how we use words will either promote or dilute a proper perception of reality. What we call something, and how we describe it will often shape the reality of that thing in the minds of people. If we start calling cats "dogs," and are consistent in it, soon our kids will start believing that cats are really dogs. Worse, they'll pass the misconception on to their kids, and so on.

My problem here isn't with cats or dogs. It's with the extremely important concept of worship. Let me be clear: Worship is intentional engagement with Almighty God for the purpose of understanding and extolling his greatness. It is relational as well as cerebral. It is an activity that centers on a connection between my maker and me. Worship can - indeed must - take place anywhere, anytime, everywhere, all the time. Someone has correctly likened it to breathing in that it is a constant exercise whereby we inhale something that is true about God and exhale the proper response back to God. And this brings us to the second point.

Worship is responsive. Worship is our response to God, to his truth as revealed to us in his word and his works. Again, someone has likened worship to the "rent we pay to God in appreciation of his greatness and goodness to us." Worship is an activity primarily interested in engaging with God in response to who he is and what he has done. It is intentional, responsive, relational, cerebral, and required.

And we're losing it. We're losing it in the very place we ought most to find it. In our church services. And here's why:

First, we have caged it, and domesticated it by consigning it to the hour and fifteen that we are gathered in the room known as the Worship Center. It has become an event rather than than a 24/7 experience.

Secondly, and most damaging, we have defined "worship" as music. It is common to hear music leaders refer to their portion of the service as "worship." "Okay, we'll have about 25 minutes of worship and then David will preach." And this enormously destructive idea that worship equals music and music equals worship has become the common nomenclature of the church. People everywhere talk about how good the "worship" was today. They don't mean that the spirit of engagement with God was pervasive, or that their own individual response to the holiness, justice, love, and truth of God was especially poignant and moving. What they mean is that the music set was well planned, the instruments were well played, and the flow of the songs made the whole thing quite enjoyable and entertaining.

And this is slowly syphoning true worship out of the church. We are willingly calling cats dogs and are even now losing our ability to recognize the reality of cats and dogs. Let me explain using a little parable.

A man bought a hammer and took it to a meeting of his neighbors. He held it up proudly and said "friends, look at my new house." They looked at him, confused. "Friend, that's not a house. That's a hammer."  "Oh no," he replied. "This is a house, I'm sure of it." Things started getting a bit crazy as the neighbors began to laugh, until one of them stood up and went to the man and put his arm around him and gently said, "Friend, that is a hammer. It is a tool that you can use to build a house, but it isn't a house, anymore than a saw, or nails, or glue, or any of the other tools you might use are houses. Never confuse the tools with the product."

And that's the point. Listen carefully. Music, like prayer, preaching, meditation, poetry, conversation, fasting, art, and a whole host of other things are tools that can, if used well, help us engage with God. But none of them is worship. You cannot say that music is worship. You can say that music provides a means whereby we may engage with God, but it is not the engagement it self. To equate music with worship is to over glorify music and erode a biblical sense of response by the human mind to the revealed attributes of God. Worship is that response. Worship is not the tool that may evoke the response. The hammer isn't the house, and music isn't worship.

Finally, the effect of equating music with worship also downplays other worship "tools." It teaches us, and passes on to our kids, that praying, preaching, art, literature, and myriad other tools are not really part of the worship conversation, since music is worship. Can anyone else see how this confusion has vaulted music into a position of dominance in the church today, while prayer and preaching are asked to play a subordinate role? Jesus declared that his mission was one of preaching. In Mark 1:38, after a time of intense healing ministry, he declared "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also for that is why I came out." Paul declares that God chose the "folly of what we preach" to save those who believe.

I know what you're thinking. You think that my being a preacher has jaundiced my vision, and that I'm just jealous of the place music has in the church. Actually, I am jealous for worship. I am jealous for people to engage with God, in proper response to who and what he really is. Music can be a tool that tells us about God, and offers us a vehicle for worship. But music is not worship. Neither is it a better tool than prayer, and certainly it is not more necessary to stirring the heart to true worship than preaching.

What should we do? First, call music music. Love it, appreciate it, strive to understand its beauty and usefulness as a way to engage with God, but do not equate the tool with the house. Second, recognize that there are many tools that help us worship, and consider how each of them can be used profitably to find engagement with God in all our hours and activities. Lastly, understand that corporate worship - the coming together of individual Christ-followers to engage with God - is really the icing on the cake. It is a joining together to do what we've been doing individually since the last time we met. Make your home a worship center, your car, your very mind and heart. And if you and I do this, maybe we can start a movement that will bring Christ-followers and the church back to a proper understanding of what worship is all about.

Hope this helps,

David