I’ve been reading Exiles (Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture) by Michael Frost and I liked his take on Paul’s definition of worship. Paul writes:
“Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is true worship” (Romans 12:1)
Frost says:
“In the church we are so blinded by the contemporary use of the term “worship” that we take it to literally mean nothing more than the corporate singing of praise to God. When someone says that our reasons for being is to worship, we can be fooled into thinking that our highest calling is corporate sining. I;m not against corporate singing, of course, but according to Paul, my spiritual act of worship involves sacrificing my body, my volition, my actions. He then goes on to counsel the Romans about what this would look like in practice. He lists the following ats of true Christian worship:
- To not conform to the norms of society (v2)
- To humbly express sipritual gifts in practical ways (v3-8)
- To love others (v9-10)
- To be spiritually zealous, hopeful, patient, and prayerful (v11-12)
- To be hospitable and generous (v13)
- To live in harmony, with munificence and charity toward unbelievers (v14-21)
So this is worship! We have to stop isolating mission from worship, and acknowledge that when I act charitably toward someone, I give glory to God. When I share with someone about my friendship with Jesus, I am worshipping God. Mission, then, is an expression of Christian worship. In fact, I’m prepared to say that it is the central and most powerful expression of worship. In Romans, Paul’s argument about worship continues throughout chapters 13-15. He persists in emphasizing the rule of love as an expression of worship. We are to love those in authority by submitting to them lawfully (Rom 13:1-7). We are to be gracious to new beleivers (Rom 14:1-12) and work to maintain unity in the church (Rom 14:13-23).”
9 Comments
I have a big pet peeve about people using the word “worship” just to refer to the singing at church. I loved how a previous church home would break down the service into “worship in song”, “worship in giving”, “worship in the word”, etc. That isn’t to imply that worship is limited to a church service, but that every part is just a different way of worshipping God, not just singing.
Good to see you still plugging Exiles. It is a very challenging read. I am going through it with my church leadership and our discussions of the topics have led to some really interesting conclusions. The biggy is that we do so much that we don’t have time to be christians. We seem to be talking ourselves out of quite a lot of “just having meetings every Sunday”.
The other interesting point is that we are not concerned with post-modernism as this is just a new philosophical slant that makes sense of a lot of modern life. It is really a blind to distract us from the fact that we live in a post INDUSTRIAL age. Our society has consistently put forward industrial solutions to societal problems. Uneducated people? A sausage machine education system that suits all the people that can learn from being told what to think. A church that isn’t engaging with God? A meeting that leads them to God along an established road. This works for a small majority but a large minority are excluded. I regularily hear the phrase “were they in the same meeting as me?” especially at conferences. As if God can only hold one conversation at a time. Unfortunately our platform led worship and preaching only allows God to speak one word at a time…
It’s time to move on. Thanks for pointing me at Michael Frosts book, it has moved me to the end of a one way street that leads to a new expression of church. One that has only one thing in common with our established model, the big celebration meeting.
Cheers, Mark
I have been struggling with God for sometime in the area(s) of worship, as some-one who has been active in music ministry for many years now I have come to realize that worship is so much bigger than singing/music. I even took 2 years where I walked away from music ministry because I felt something was wrong – but couldn’t put my finger on it.
I feel that God has provided me with a definition of worship that really works: ANYTHING that is done for the Glory of God is an act of worship.
I think you got it right when you say worship is not about singing. That is absolutely true and I know majority of the believers were deceived into thinking that it is. however, when you say true worship has something to do with sacrifice and good works, you are completeley mistaken. These good works are just the result of true worship and not true worship in itself. Why do I say this? Once you start going this line of thinking, you will come a point where you will say in your heart “God owes me because of this , this and this”. You may be deceived into thinking that “God HAS to heal me because I did this for him”
How many believers today were frustrated because they haven’t received any healing from the Lord and yet very much involved in different good works? Frustrated because they kept thinking deep inside their hearts “How come I don’t get healed when in fact I am serving the Lord?”. Do you hear the deception here. Healing has now become a deserving from undeserving.
Dear Andy C
You are very much correct when you say there is something more than just music ministry in the church. I was in the same situation many years back but now I have found the true meaning of worship and I would like to share it with you if you don’t mind at all. First it has nothing to do with music in the church at all. Second, it has nothing to do with missions or good works as well. But it has everything to do with the truth. Truth should be your primary focus everytime you worship and Jesus is truth. I’ll give you an example; when you are on stage and “worshipping” and yet in the back of your mind, you are thinking that you have a certain disease because God is punishing you; then you are not worshipping at all. You have to know the truth and the truth shall set you free. You have to be able to distinguish the difference between FACTS and TRUTH.
FACTS: you have a disease or illness
TRUTH: By His stripes you are healed
FACTS: you are not completely convinced that your sins are forgiven and that you are still being punished for sins in the past TRUTH: ALL our sins are completely forgiven because of Jesus’ death on the cross
Once you identify the difference, then DECIDE which to believe; facts or truth. The moment you are able to do this; the area of worship will now become secondary but meaningful because Jesus is now the focus of everything.
I hope this helps
Ferdie
Guys – I’m responding to comments up to twenty months old now and I don’t know whether you’re likely to see this, but here’s hoping!
Andy – I’m in a similar boat; been involved in music ministry of one kind and another since I was ten (33 years ago now…); feeling in recent years that something is lacking in our collective use of music. To speak for myself, it is very tempting to channel this feeling into self-righteous criticism of Christian music in general. Actually it’s more than tempting – I’ve often done it, and that is NOT a boast. But discarding the bathwater and keeping the baby, I believe God does want to take us places we’ve not often been up to now, including in our use of music. And Donna – yes, I’m right with you on the way the words “music” and “worship” are used interchangeably. Finally, Mark – brilliantly observant, and thanks for crystallising something I’d never quite managed to put into words: post-industrial. Economically efficient, mass produced, identically reproducible, one-size-fits-all, off-the-shelf solutions that need no vision, creative process, sacrifice or – if you’ll forgive the metaphor – birth-pains to make.
Do any of you wonder, like me, whether “the SOUND of lips that praise his name” and “the FRUIT of lips that praise his name” are not the same thing? It’s easy enough to create a soothing and relaxed atmosphere using proven formulas and well-known songs that people can slip easily into. And I accept there’s a place for spiritual and emotional R & R. But I just don’t see how this ON ITS OWN is going to produce robust believers who, through knowing their God, are strong and do exploits.
I’m wary of unfair generalisations. The reason I say “this on its own” is that I often find strong opposition to the idea of challenging people to step out and do anything in a christian gathering. It’s all too common to be lectured about the way people “need” comfort and familiarity, and how Christians cannot be expected to grow or mature beyond a very helpless and dependent state (they’ll stop coming to church if it costs them anything, you see). And I often encounter Christians, including leaders, who are convinced that “to have a time of worship” means nothing other than to spend some time enjoying certain well-defined types of music that will gently bring us into a state of emotional pleasure which will be called “the presence of God”. I love emotional states, but I beg to differ with the idea that they are to be equated with the presence of God.
Am I making any sense here?
Hi Nick
Once someone has commented on a blog post they will be emailed for each new comment so the other contributors will have seen your interesting comments and questions. Hopefully they will click back to the original article and respond.
As you have probably picked up, we often include links to old but relevant posts in new blog posts so there is a small trickle of new comments on old posts across the site. I really like it that these older posts are kept alive like this – there is some great stuff there.
Thanks, Marie; and thanks to you all, btw, for an excellent and thought-provoking site.
Got a bit carried away, as a new visitor, in the last couple of days, but I’ll try and write shorter posts from now on!
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