worship

"Worship is what church is all about." That's what the preacher said during church today. "Worship is what church is all about."

That's a wonderful aspiration. Just about every church would agree that worship is its core mission, but at least in my church it doesn't feel like that is the case. Worship is an active, dynamic encounter with God that can leave us euphoric, remorseful, contemplative or moved in some other way, but it should not leave us fundamentally unchanged. How often does any part of the church service affect us like that? It's a rarity, in my experience.

We generally equate worship with the musical component of church, and while some will quibble with that, since our entire lives are meant to be worship, I think that's a good place to start. It's when we sing in church that we begin to worship with our voices, our minds and even our bodies.

If that's the definition we're using, then in my experience at least, the focus at church is not on worship or on ritual but on teaching. In contrast to worship, which engages the spirit with God; teaching is a passive experience. We hear about God and what our response to him should be, but we don't actually engage with God in that way.

To the extent that anything is broken, I've no idea how to fix it. Should we make services longer? Church services in the United States are short. We schedule an hour of our mornings for God, no more, and resent if services run over. Maybe allotting more time from our Sundays would allow us to relax into God's presence more and to respond accordingly.

The misson that Jesus gave the church was to disciple the nations, and worship can support this, since music prompts meditation and reflection. Many's the time I've found myself or my children singing a song I learned at a past church, and many's the time those songs have started me thinking along new and unfamiliar lines of thought about God.

I've often complained that the songs we use at our church are shallow lyrically, and too focused on our experiences, what we've gained from God or what he's done for us, particularly through the Crucifixtion. Should we allow more time for musical component of the service? That would give worship leaders a greater opportunity to have a progression of themes and to incorporate more songs. Maybe they also could draw from other branches of worship music with new arrangements to make them feel fresh, contemporary and accessible in a new way.

I often feel like worship has become something like a component of a cheap Disney movie. When the talking has gone on long enough, it's time to throw in a song. The worship team may sing the song well, and it may even be popular with the congregation, but if it's the difference between "Be Prepared" and "Kiss the Girl," there's really no comparison. One of those is OK, but the other is excellent, and when it comes to worship, we only want the best.

Services in church these days are very much about the teaching. At least at the churches I've attended, the sermon runs for about half the service, and if anyone is talking about the service afterward, it's the sermon that they're discussing.

Even sermons would benefit from a stronger focus on worship. After all, worship contains a dynamic element absent from straight teaching, and songs used in worship will remain in our memory and on our lips long after the Sunday sermon has been forgotten.



Copyright © 2006 by David Learn. Used with permission.


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