Part I: Definition of worship
Corporate Christian worship is the most important act that brings a Church family together. As I wrote before, personally it is the second most important thing, second only to doctrine, in choosing a Church. No subject is more apt to generate discussion on what is right or wrong. A quick google for the words “Christian Worship” returns over 95 million hits ,while “Christian doctrine” returns roughly 5 million, or about 20 times less. On ChristianBook.com, the ratio is almost 2 to 1 in favor of worship vs doctrine. It is obviously a topic that generates the necessary attention, debate and apparently the necessary income stream for Christian authors.
But what does “Worship” really mean. I’m sure that if you ask 10 different people, one would get as many different answers. For some it is the weekly gathering, for some it is the act in itself. And which act may that be then ? Is it singing, praying, glorifying ? Is it done together ? Can it be done alone ? All great questions that unfortunately have no simple answers. It is all of the above. And then again none. So before we can get in a discussion about what makes worship great, we should at least agree on a definition of what we mean with worship.
I remember a Karl Barth quote, unfortunately I can’t find the reference anymore, but I believe he said something like
“Church worship is the Opus Dei, the work of God, carried out for its own sake”.
That at least gives us a solid starting point. It is an Opus meaning it is work, it is an act. And it is of God. It is carried out for its own sake. It is not something we do to expect something in return. It is an act all and by itself to worship God. No strings attached, no expectations in return.
A quick word search in my bible software showed me that the most common Hebrew word translated as worship is “Chavah” or “Chavach“. Literally the word means to “bow down” or “to prostrate”. Likewise the Greek word “Proskuneo“, means “to kiss” or to “bow down to”. And though I am happy to take corrections from more erudite Hebrew or Greek students, for me it became obvious from my quick word study that it always refers to an act of humility, of prostrating oneself before God. It is putting God first, us second.
Now why would we prostrate ourselves and bow down ? As Martin Luther said
To have a God is to worship Him.
People of all times and all places have worshipped a god or multiple gods. No religion on earth has a deity that they do not, in some shape, form or fashion, worship. And hence it is no different with our Christian faith. We come together on a weekly basis to worship our one true God.
So for the next several days I will explore what I feel should be included in our Christian worship gatherings and how our Church family we belong to squares up with that. Ill use the definition that
Worship is the weekly gathering of our Church family to bow down and glorify Him, expecting nothing in return because he is our one true God.
For those that can’t wait, you can visit our Church blog for a “Cliff notes” version of this series. For those interested to read the longer articles here, over the next couple of days I will explore three aspects of worship:
1. Multi-generational:
Why is it important our corporate worship gatherings include people from all ages from the entire body.
2. Liturgical:
What’s the importance of having a worship structure ? And above all, is worship the same as music ?
3.Scriptural
What does the Scripture teach us about worship.
Stay tuned for more detail on all three as we’ll explore them one-by-one over the next couple of days