Rethinking "Worship"

A couple days ago I posted a response to a conversation started by my Twitter friend Tami about "Why I Can't Listen to Christian Music." Something I wanted to address (and made very brief mention of, or eluded to in the post) was this notion that worship is founded in music. Don't get me wrong, I love singing songs of praise and love to my King, but worship is so much more than singing once or twice a week in corporate worship. Worship is my living response to God and His grace and mercy (and patience!), not the songs I sing. Now that I've said this some people are going to instantly jump on me (or become defensive, at a minimum) for insinuating that some people think music is the only way to "worship," but I beg for your patience before raising arms against me. :-)

I was reading an article by Dan Kimball called "Communicating Well in a Fast-Paced World" that discusses the misuses or misunderstandings of certain words used by the Church/believers and the theological (the way people know and understand God) ramifications of those words. The first one mentioned is "worship" and I think his words are worthy of repeating:

"...if you were to grab a 20-year-old who is part of your church and ask him or her “What is worship?” there is a very high probability he would say “music” or “singing.” After all, we call the musician who leads the singing the “worship pastor” or “worship leader.” After the sermon is over, the worship leader usually says something like, “Let’s now worship,” essentially equating worship with the singing. So naturally, when we ask a 20-year-old to define worship, the first thing that comes to their mind is singing. As they are in a conversation with someone and say, “I love to worship at my church,” it usually means they love the music. We know as leaders that singing is but one very limited understanding of what worship is. But week after week we let it go, reinforcing the common perception through our language. In the hectic and fast-paced nature of life and ministry, we may not be stopping to wonder if the people we lead are understanding theologically what “worship” really is. This does have theological implications to our day-to-day living. If the people we lead subtly begin equating worship with singing together, then we aren’t understanding the concept of holistic sacrificial worship as Romans 12:1–2 teaches. So worship takes place mainly at a meeting when we all sing, not as a lifestyle. An extreme dichotomy can occur in one’s spiritual formation and how they live their life and view themselves as a worshipper."

Could not have said it better (hence the reason I didn't!). Interested in seeing his views on some other key words ("church," "pastor," "sanctuary" or "meeting place")? Check out the rest of his article here (highly recommended!).

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