"Worship Wars"

I’ve been working on writing a worship philosophy for Grace Baptist Church for a couple of months now.  I think it would be good for the congregation to know where I’m coming from with worship.  In preparing to write this philosophy out, I’ve been reading a lot of books and blogs on the subject of worship.  What concerns me so much about the worship discussion is that so often we miss the boat completely.  The first major misconception is that worship is the music that happens on Sunday morning.  Wow, do we as a people miss the point when we think this.  I’m not saying that the music on Sunday morning isn’t worship, it is (otherwise, my job wasn’t very aptly titled).  What we as a church miss is that music on Sunday morning is just a small chunk of worship.  Expanding out, the whole service on Sunday morning should be an act of worship, from the announcements, to the fellowship, to the Word preached faithfully, to the offering, to the music.  Beyond that, all of the Lord’s day should be an act of worship.  We should be worshipping with our very lives!  David Peterson, in Engaging With God, defines worship as “… an engagement with [the living and true God] on the terms that He proposes and in the way that He alone makes possible.” Notice that nowhere does David mention an engagement on Sunday morning.  Harold Best explores this idea of living a life of worship in his book,Unceasing Worship.  In it, he gives a great definition of worship as, “… the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing god.”  What I like about this definition is that it draws to light the idea that we possibly can worship other things in our lives.  What chosen gods have you replaced with the One living and true God.  Jesus tells us in Mark 12:30 to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” We will never reach this standard on this side of heaven, but the Lord is constantly transforming us to this goal.  How we can look forward to standing before the throne of heaven, singing “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” Until that day, let us commit to not just praise God on Sunday and ignore Him the rest of the week.