What is Worship? … no … really?

Worship is a very sticky word.  It adheres itself to a lot of other words and adds sometimes appropriate nuances to the ideas we are trying to convey.  It becomes a part of our church culture and inside lingo. 

I’m sure some of these sticky “worship” phrases are familiar to you and conjure up an internal idea of what worship is. We have…

• Worship services
• Worship leaders
• Worship pastors
• Worship songs and song writers
• Worship seminars
• Worship blogs (like this one)
• Worship teams
• Worship ministry
• Worship magazines and books
• Worship practices
• Worship events (like seminars or special nights)
• Worship rosters
• Special times of worship

… you get the idea.  And theres’ nothing wrong with this as it helps us to understand and define various aspects of our personal and corporate life in worship.   It sets apart the ideas and roles that activate our minds and articulate our thoughts. I mean, whilst we may come from various worship practices and cultures, we all know what we mean by a “worship service”.

What is more, as followers of Jesus, we are reluctant to stick “worship” to other ideas or words… and for good reason.  “Worship” should be used with appropriate words. I don’t personally have problems with the terms above and I’ve probably used all of them at some time or other.  Words define. Words create pictures and scenarios. Words  communicate. Words help us understand the same thing.

What does concern me is that we don’t devalue the idea of what should really be the focus, the content, the all encompassing focus of worship and that is the God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

You see, at its basic level, worship is about value. And whilst we may not say that we worship our families, our jobs, or our sports teams, we sometimes give them more value than the true aspect of our worship. Only God deserves our highest value, our deepest understanding of love and adoration, and our loudest of praise.

“I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.”

Isaiah 42:8

I’ve always been struck by God speaking through the prophet Isaiah when he says this… “I am the Lord;  that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.” Isaiah 42:8. This is a huge deal, and I don’t want to lose the awesomeness of that statement and risk giving any worship to anything other than my God.

Now, I know that most of you reading this would probably agree, so why am I saying this? No other reason but to remind myself and all of us that no matter what area of ministry we are involved in, how much work we put into worship songs, or AV, or attending “Worship Seminars” as good as all of that is and more, the one thing that has to remain central to our lives, is the one person we are to give all worship an honour to. It helps to keep my own life and thoughts in perspective … and let’s admit, we are quite capable of drifting…. or am I the only one!?

I have a love hate relationship with the words of Jesus as He spoke these words to His church… You have “left” (lost or abandoned) your first love” Revelation 2:4. It’s just too easy as a church to get focused on a whole lot of good things, and have Jesus at the centre of our lives.

So if you are Song Writer and you’re reading this, be encouraged, but also challenged to keep Jesus in the centre of your thoughts and desires when you’re writing. Even when you’re writing about an experience you’ve had, make it Jesus centred. Worship Him as you create.

If you do ministry in anything to do with worship, keep Jesus central to all you do. If you’re preparing a worship service – centre it on Him. If you are leading – make him great, because… He will not give His glory to another.