I was recently interviewed on TCT Today about my new book Worship Primer for Pastors and Planners: What you Wish You Learned in School with host Tom Nolan. You can watch it here (it’s only 11.5 minutes). I was amazed at what they can do with a green screen studio!
Category: Reimagine Worship
In worship God transforms my life
The third axiom in my worship philosophy is that we can reimagine worship as worship in which God transforms our whole life instead of just teaching us to live a moral life.
In worship we must present the whole story of God. Even more, as Robert Webber writes, “worship does God’s story.”[1] It is important to remember that we are all part of God’s story, and always have been even before we get saved. His story tells of his love and the perfection of his creation, with every person made in his perfect image. It tells of how we all turned away from God and went our own way, coming under God’s condemnation, but how God sent his only Son—God in flesh—to restore us to himself through his death and resurrection. Finally it tells of the future return of this Son to set everything right for eternity. As we repeat this story of creation-fall-incarnation-re-creation each week, we reveal who God is. This story is what drives us to turn to him, love him more, and in his power turn our lives around to live for his glory (Gal. 2:20).
“Of course” you say. “Don’t we do that already?” Let’s look at a brief history of homiletics (sermons) in worship. During worship in the Medieval era the sermon, delivered by priests who were poorly trained in theology, became shorter and more focused on moralizing. The goal was to get people to obey the church and live right. As Martin Luther observed about the Scriptures read during the mass, they “seem to have been chosen by a singularly unlearned and superstitious advocate of works.”[2] He advocated for more readings focused on faith in Christ.
Fast forward a few hundred years to the camp meetings and revival meetings of the early American frontier. In these services the music, the readings, the prayers, and especially the sermon were all designed with one purpose—to get people saved. These services were so successful in gaining huge audiences that soon churches around the world adopted the same format of centering the music, readings, and prayers around the “theme” of the preacher’s sermon. The preacher determined what message he/she wanted the people to hear. Since preachers could not deliver the same fiery evangelistic message every week, they would craft messages about morality. The main theme became “What do we need to do to be ‘good Christians?’” In my opinion this is where many preachers land today. Rather than using the text to tell God’s story, and letting the Holy Spirit speak to each unique listener, often we describe what God wants us to do, how to behave, we describe what a “good Christian” does.
Sound familiar? It should. It’s how worship planners in most evangelical churches today plan their services. How many times have I gone to the preacher and asked, “What’s your message about this week?” and tailored the entire service around his selected topic? One of the wisest pastors with whom I served was Dr. David Goodman at Winnetka Bible Church outside Chicago. He would often respond to my query with, “Just make sure to point the people back to God. After all, good preaching should lead people to glorify him.”
Let me be clear: there is a place for describing how we are to behave according to the Scriptures. Even the early church focused on believing, belonging, and behaving. Many of Paul’s writings tell us how to live a sanctified life. The question is, why must we behave? How many times have we heard Christians say, “The Bible says we should/shouldn’t do that” Should we behave because a book tells us to? Or because a preacher admonishes us to behave? Or are we driven to change our behavior in response to the amazing, loving, kind, merciful, gracious, sacrificing, victorious, soon-to-return Savior we encounter in a worship gathering? As Jim Hart writes,
Churches sometimes neglect the radicality of Christianity, reducing it to therapeutic discourse or moralizing emphases or even a troubling narcissism or self-consciousness in worship that miss the essence of the gospel. A thin or mild gospel results in shallow worship, paltry spiritual formation, and ineffective mission. We need to recover the biblical understanding and the ancient church’s perspective on God’s story.[3]
When we reimagine worship as an encounter with the Living God mediated through his Son and empowered by the Spirit, as we enter into his life-changing story of creation-incarnation-re-creation, our lives are transformed by this same God as we come into his presence, hear his word, respond in our hearts, and reenter the world as new creatures bearing his image to a lost world.
[1] Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Worship (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 29.
[2] Martin Luther, Formula Missae in LW, LII, 20-25, quoted in James F. White, Documents of Christian Worship: Descriptive and Interpretive Sources (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox, 1992), 104.
[3] James R. Hart, “The Story of God in Worship,” Anamnesis August 2016.
Worship Is for God, Not Me
Worship is for God instead of for me.
Most Christians, when asked who worship is for, will quickly say of course worship is for God. However if we dig a little deeper, a different answer may arise. Worship oftentimes becomes about the worshiper, not the One being worshiped. This second entry in my “Reimagine Worship” series will help bring the real object of worship into focus.
Why do you attend worship?
Through the years I have asked people why they attend a worship service at their church. Some responses have been:
- “It’s just what I do on Sunday morning.”
- “I like sitting with my friends from youth group.”
- “My mom/dad/wife made me come.”
- “I need my weekly pick-me-up.”
- “I look forward to meeting with God with my church family.”
The answers fall into 2 categories- worship is for me, something I need or I do for myself or someone close to me, or worship is for God. That last answer is the best one (although #1 is good too, Sunday worship is a good habit to develop). Gathering to worship God with our church family should indeed be the high point of our week. This answer touches on the communal nature of corporate worship—that it’s not just about “me and God,” but it’s about “us and God” (which we’ll explore in a couple weeks). But too often we attend worship because we want to get something. I need more joy. I want more peace. I like to talk to my friends. I often walk through the doors still focusing on myself. If I seek a particular experience maybe I’ll get it and maybe I won’t. But if I seek to encounter the Living God in worship I will almost certainly experience what he wants me to experience, and that is where true transformation occurs.
Our culture encourages individuality
Face it, we live in a consumeristic, narcissistic, self-centered culture. Almost everything we do centers around “my” wants, needs, and preferences. Whether scrolling through our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Snap Chat feeds, we are always evaluating whether we will look at a particular story or pass it by. I have to admit when I’m watching American Idol I begin to sound like Simon Cowell, and can be very critical of each singer. So often we bring these preferences into the worship service. How often have worship planners heard the following:
- “I didn’t really like that new song. Don’t do that one again”
- “How come we do so many new songs? I can’t keep up with them all.”
- “How come we do the same songs over and over? I’m bored with them.”
- “Why does that person lead so much? Their voice irritates me.”
- “Why do we sing so many hymns? They’re hard to sing”
- “Why don’t we sing more hymns? They have great theology.”
These statements reveal the self-centered nature of the one speaking. They come to worship wanting their desires and preferences met.
Many modern worship songs center on the individual’s experience with God. While a song may mention what God or Jesus has done or who he is, when we look closer at the lyrics, the song may really be about how I feel about what God has done for me. As an exercise, examine the lyrics of the songs you sang on Sunday and identify the main subject of the song. How many I’s, me’s, and my’s are in the song? While there is certainly a place in a service for a song that centers on my experience of God, most of what a church needs is to center their communal attention on who God is—his attributes and character.
In all the reading I did for my doctoral degree at the Institute for Worship Studies, one quote by Marva Dawn has stayed with me: “The content of our worship music and preaching must proclaim primarily the splendor of God, rather than our feelings about him.”[1] Feelings can vary from person to person, but God’s character does not change. That does not negate one’s feelings, but they are simply not as important as the God we worship whose glory arouses those feelings in the first place. After all, your experience of God (or a songwriter’s experience) may be very different than mine.
So what do we do?
For worship planners and leaders it is crucial that we use the 75 minutes we have on Sunday to combat the self-centered culture our people live in all week. The first few minutes are absolutely critical as we help people transition from an individual “out there” to part of the community “in here.” The focus of our calls to worship, our songs, prayers, and sermons must point to who God is, not how we feel about him. While there is a place for personal response and reflection, keep the focus on the Savior. For those sitting in the seats, prepare your hearts to meet with the living God. Be aware of his presence in the room, of the holy space you are entering, of how he is moving not just in you but among everyone gathered. If the songs center on the first person singular, keep your focus on the character of God the song points out. It takes effort. You can’t just sit back and expect worship to happen automatically. Trust the Holy Spirit to move you and your church.
Remember . . . worship is for God, not for you.
[1] Marva Dawn, “Worship to Form a Missional Community,” Direction 28, no.2 (Fall 1999): 139-52, accessed July 19, 2021. https://directionjournal.org/28/2/worship-to-form-missional-community.html.