Greetings and grace,
Though a writer, I have never read nor written a document such as this, therefore, I apologize if I have skipped, overlooked, or otherwise neglected any convention of sorts. What follows is my attempt to present a basic “philosophy of worship,” a “direction of conviction,” if you will.
Philosophy of Worship
Worship is, first and foremost, a compulsory position of the spirit and mind – I like the term “heartset” – and therefore exists irrelevant of the circumstances surrounding the heart. Man was made to worship and will never fail to worship; he cannot help it. The question then becomes, what will he worship? There are only two true options: God, and not-God.
Any worship of any thing other than the revealed God of Holy Scripture is, by definition, the sin of idolatry. Be it a graven image, a carved idol, a giant hunk of rock in the desert, or a flying man in red and gold armor on a tv screen, any worship (adoration and/or reverence) not given to God is disproportionate and sinful, and therefore condemnable before the holy Law of God.
All correct worship given to God is proper and deserved. In fact, it is impossible for worship to God to be disproportionate, for He deserves far beyond what even the fullness of our worship can ascribe.
Worship to God is correct when it follows the model of worship laid out (as both directed and inferred) in the Bible. This correct worship takes different forms, but in the context of congregational gatherings is usually comprised of prayer, the two sacraments of the New Covenant, reading/hearing and responding to the Word of God, material offerings, and spoken/sung praises to God. (There are other aspects as well, but here I am only addressing the “praises”.)
There are congregations that say the instructions for worship in the Bible are strict and non-negotiable, and therefore must be followed to the T (i.e. regulative worship). The other side of the pew says that that which is normal in a culture and is not prohibited by the Word of God is acceptable for worship (normative worship). Yet, both camps often fail to accomplish what they set out to accomplish.
The Regulators often make a fuss of modern worship practices, while then propping up their grand piano and singing hymns written by men less than 300 years ago. This is modern worship, by historical standards. (Granted, there are those few churches that only sing the Psalms, and those a capella. Yet, even then, should they not be singing in ancient Hebrew to truly fit their definition of worship?)
Meanwhile, the Normies are busy doing things their own way, seeking to glorify God through whatever way seems best to them, as long as it doesn’t compromise Scripture. (That may sound like an oversimplification, but it is the end result of the logic.) The danger here is that too much license can be taken, and what is meant to be God-centered worship often can become stage-centered religious shows.
Personally, I lean towards the normative approach. I cite Psalm 150 as my reasoning. God commands us through the psalmist to praise Him with an assortment of instruments—all instruments available to that people, in that place, at that time. His point isn’t that these are the only instruments acceptable in worship, but rather that we are to utilize everything at hand to praise God. If that means with the lute and the timbrel, because those are what’s available, then use them; if you have access to pianos, and guitars, and drums, and synth-pads, then use those. But that doesn’t mean go crazy!
Exodus 36 describes some of the manner in which the Tabernacle was to be built. It refers repeatedly to “those that have skill,” as well as those “whose hearts are stirred up” to the task. Likewise, Psalm 33:3 says to “play skillfully” to God. This presents us with some prerequisites for the quality of our arts in worship. It isn’t to be a raucous free-for-all of instruments, voices, and flailing limbs. It is to have order—for God is a God of order. It is to be done skillfully—for God’s Word has said. And it is to be done with a right heart—because, again, thus sayeth the Lord. It is also to be objectively and subjectively beautiful—this is inferred in every single Psalm, by the nature of the whole of Creation, and by the very person of God Himself.
The beauty of worship, however, is not primarily to be found in the chords played, the lines sung, nor the hands raised. The beauty of worship is found first in the object being worshipped, the Lord God Almighty. Then it is found in the prostrate posture of a broken, contrite, and mended heart. These are the objective beauties of worship. Only with these in place can the subjective elements of worship (the music, the words, the raised hands) find any beauty at all. All of these things ought to be in place on the platform during worship.
This brings us to my own personal convictions about what worship ought to look like in a congregational setting.
Direction of Conviction
I remember attending a very large church with some friends. There was perhaps 3,000 people in attendance. The worship band came out on stage, and a guy (the leader apparently) started to utter an epically breathy prayer into the microphone. However, this prayer wouldn’t be complete without a really cool keyboard synth being played in a steady crescendo behind it, and fog machines beginning to throw smoke out onto the stage. (I know, because I had my eyes open…) By the time the end of the prayer was reached, I was straining to hear the amen over the swelling keyboard and was also straining to see the band leader’s PT Flyers poking out from the bottom of his skinny jeans, what with all the dry ice effects. Then the 6-song worship-set began. I can only assume that the congregation’s moving mouths meant that they were, in fact, singing along to the music, but I couldn’t hear my own voice, let alone theirs.
The songs were very Christian-radio-friendly; major pop-rock vibes. They contained some out-of-context scripture references; lots of imagery of fire, and water, and wind; and made constant vague references to God’s “awesomeness,” “greatness,” “amazingness,” and other such words that a lazy songwriter would use to describe the infinite Lord of the universe. (I know whereof I speak, because those are the exact words I find myself using whenever I am lazily writing a song about God.) The drums pounded in my ears, the guitar solo was face-melting, and the bass beat so hard on my chest I thought I was having palpitations. All in all, it was a fantastic show! And indeed, for about half a song I almost forgot my purpose for being there and just started shouting along, vacuously, without any mind for the words, nor the Lord, nor even my own soul. I was lost to the moment. The emotion, and the sensory-overload, and the wave of mass-action (I think that’s also called “mob mentality”) overcame me, and for a full verse and chorus I became a mindless drone of the performers in front of me.
I had been a worship leader and a songwriter for over five years at this point, and I was mortified by what I was experiencing. It wasn’t church—it was a concert. It wasn’t submission—it was show. It wasn’t worship—it was ritual. The speaker/pastor then got up and talked about marriage, and compared it to a luxury sports vehicle, never once opening the Bible. He drew some good diagrams on his big pad and turned some really cool sounding phrases (like how to have a “Corvette kind of love”), but never once spoke the Word of God.
I asked some people afterwards if the pastor ever taught from the Bible. I was met by awkward looks. Finally, some helpful person volunteered, “I think he quoted Hosea like a few weeks ago or something.” The group nearly cheered for the person remembering, as they all began to recall the last time they heard the Word of God from the pulpit. But while I smiled away with them, my heart was crushed. Here was a group, claiming to be God’s people—quite possibly with a legitimate claim on the blood of Christ—completely starved for the Word of God. So far beyond hungry were they that they must have been in a state of spiritual delirium (or perhaps that was just an after effect of the smog they’d been inhaling from the stage for the last hour and a half).
What these people called a worship service had all the hallmarks of a really well-produced rock concert and almost none of the hallmarks of a God-oriented, Christ-centered, biblically-based service of worship. It felt far less like being in fellowship with the children of God and far more like being surrounded, on all sides, by “Jesus freaks”. I was careful to attend several more services throughout the next couple of years, just to be certain of what I had experienced. Today, after much prayer and study, I am even more afraid for the leadership of that church than I once was for the congregants. The leaders would appear to have a great vision of what it means to be a concert venue, and little notion of what it means to have a high view of God.
I cannot think of a single passage in all of Scripture that commands, nor even commends, the use of smoke and lasers to work people into a frenzy (though the desolation of the Midianites at the hands of Gideon’s 300 does stick out in my mind.) But, sadly, I have seen this trend in many churches (some of which are truly seeking to honor God in their worship but have simply found themselves out of sorts and in over their heads). Many, in their attempts to modernize their worship, have somehow proved Karl Marx right—their worship services have become little more than a weekly dose of religiously-inspired dopamine.
This ought not be so.
However, the way to avoid such failure is not to swing hard in the other direction, casting off every last vestige of worldly instrumentation. Last I checked, instruments were worldly by their very nature. Rather, we have a responsibility to properly utilize our God given faculties and resources for the glory of God and the edification of the saints.
One of the clearest ways to do this is to educate our congregations on what it is to worship properly. Many have been brought up in traditions of worship that are cold and stoic, many that are spirited and free, and still more that are simply there for the music. Yet, in most cases there is often a lack of understanding of what worship is. Thus, teaching congregations what real worship looks like is, to me, a priority in our day and age. I think one effective way of doing that is to look to the old traditions (without idolizing them) and seeing the beauty and value of the style and spirit, and then to emulate them. Another way is to dive into the Psalms, and to sing songs taken straight from the pages of Scripture; and not happy joyful songs only, but also dark and deep songs, expressing the fullness of the Christian walk, both when in the joyful footsteps of the Lord and in the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
Real godly worship is done in spirit and in truth. It doesn’t require smoke machines, and mirrors, and Vegas-level showmanship. It takes sincere faith (spirit) and biblical understanding (truth). Everything after that is just icing on the cake.
But there’s such a thing as too much icing. Therefore, I tend to shy away from those things that smack of shallow theology and emotional manipulation. Sincere worship will always utilize the emotions. The same is true of rightly played music. However, it can be very tempting to use music as an emotional “stimulant” in our worship services. That, I believe, is sinful. Music is simply a presentation of our worship. All aesthetics are simply a representation of our subjective preferences. To put it simply, the act of worship is a gift and music is simply the wrapper. If our heart is truly worshiping, then it shouldn’t matter what is happening around us. However, that does not give a worship leader carte blanch to do whatever he wants.
As a worship leader, it is my job to stand before the congregation and lead them in an appropriate response to what we have just heard from the Word of God. That is a solemn responsibility, nearly on par with the teaching of the Word. Therefore, each and every person on the platform must be of the same heart and mind, that this is about God first, then His people. At no point is this moment about the musicians and leaders. The second it shifts in our minds, we heap condemnation on ourselves by trying to stand before the congregation and steal the glory of God.
It takes skilled, dedicated individuals to undertake such a holy task. It takes those who are broken and worthless, humbled; those who would sometimes rather not; those who would hide their faces from the Living God for fear of His holiness. It takes servants and slaves, not performers and stars.
Even as I write these things, I feel wholly unqualified (spiritually and otherwise) to hold such a position in the church of Christ. Perhaps that makes me the right person for the job, or perhaps my fears and misgivings are well-founded; I do not know. But I know what worship is… And I know I often fail to do it as I ought.
This is the general state of my conviction regarding worship and its undertaking.
May the Lord guide my steps in all things.
Amen.
Beyond the Garden 