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Worship

What do you think of when you hear the word worship? Some think of religious services. Some think of angels. Some think of singing "praise" songs. Some are bored when they see the word. Some don't know what to think. I have a suggestion, a direction for our thoughts if you will, about who to think about when it comes to worship. Namely, the Triune God.

I love how the church has embraced "modern" music. Some churches are so cool that they do "postmodern" music. Whatever floats your boat. I like the idea of the church using culture (music in this rant) to worship God and speak to the world. I love it when skilled worship leaders take hymns that are hundreds of years old and put them to relevant music. We must contextualize the gospel. We must "become all things to all men" so that we can minister most effectively. We cannot duck our proverbial heads into the proverbial sand and pretend that it is the "leave it to beaver" world of the 1950's. God has not changed and never will. The cultures in which we are situated have changed and they always will.

Here is the problem as I see it for the contemporary church: It tends to worship worship. Many people struggle in services when they don't "feel" like they worshiped, whatever that means. "Well, they say, 'I just didn't jive with music today.'" Or, "I don't like his style." This type of attitude has produced a large group of people who are nothing but church-hopping consumers who aren't interested in worship that doesn't make them feel good. So, they go from church to church looking for "good" worship. I have met some of these people who thought The Journey was going to be their Sunday night "worship" experience (to add to the four other services they were attending during the week). When I began to challenge these folks and talk about plugging into a body and getting real with people instead of just attending services and staying shallow they quickly disappeared. I told them to not let the door hit them where the good Lord split them. I didn't really say this but I wanted to.

I realize that there is a spiritual exchange that happens in the presence of God. When we truly worship, we encounter God and we are changed. When we give him glory, he gives us and blesses us with his presence. The presence of God leads us to repentance. The presence of God refreshes us. The presence of God heals us. I am not against getting in God's presence. I am against people who limit worship to an experience of singing in a building. I am against worshiping worship.

Worship is about God: "From him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever" -Romans 11:36.

From him: Everything is from God. He is the creator.

Through him: Nothing happens that surprises God. He is sovereign. He is in control of the smallest details of our lives.

To him: All worship terminates in him. He is the goal of worship, not us. We won't be worried about feeling God's presence in heaven. Yet, we will still worship.

Worship is about us as well. It is about us offering all that we are as a living sacrifice (the verse that follows Romans 11:36) all the time. We see and give glory to God by surrendering our lives to the one who gave us life, the one who is working in all of our circumstances, the one who one day will be the focus of all of creation. Don't worship worship. Worship the three-in-one God.