What is worship? What is real worship?
One of my greatest concerns is the movement calling anything to do with music "worship," taking the offering and then having a 'time of worship', or participating in 'worship' and then listening to a message. I dreadfully fear we are missing the point sometimes. It may seem like a matter of semantics but I try to watch for this in my own life and ministry by referring to the group I work with as a "Praise Team" as opposed to a Worship Team.
Why bother? What's the big deal?
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Well, I think we are missing out when we relegate worship to the sad few minutes of singing we do as a corporate body of believers. If this is all worship is, then the worship we are offering is unworthy of so great a God. Think about it, if this is how we define worship, we are giving God a sparse few minutes out of our week. Worship must be more. |
So what is worship?
As we considered this question, here is my suggested definition of worship:
Worship is ascribing worth to something or someone
and is expressed through thoughts, emotion, and willful acts and language
affecting every resource at one's disposal.
One of the things I realized in this exercise was that I need to choose to worship God all the time! God has wired us and all of creation to worship (Psa. 19) all the time. Not a moment goes by when I am not worshiping something or someone. I need to make sure the focus of my worship remains where it belongs - on our Almighty, Creator-Redeemer God day-by-day and even moment-by-moment.
What are your thoughts about worship?
How would you define worship? Do you have anything to add to the definition above?
Please leave a comment and stay tuned for the next installment as I consider Real Worship exploring the practical, far-reaching implications of worship.
Jonathan Ward Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved
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