Christianity 101: WORSHIP

Have you ever wondered what the deal about "worship" is?  I have heard many things from Christians over the years, and have been continually surprised at how we seem to have so many different definitions for it.  Basically, I guess I have never heard it defined wrong.  Or that is to say, what I have heard is always a part of worship, but not the whole of it.  Before I go on, take a moment and think for yourself what worship is.  How would you define or explain it to someone who asked you what it was.
(If this were a worksheet, I'd have you fill in your answer here: _______ maybe you'd be willing to put your original definition in the comments?)

Worship is simply working out your relationship with God in everyday life.  Most commonly we use it to refer to the Sunday morning church service, or more specifically in evangelical churches we use it to refer to the singing part of the worship service.  In scripture however, worship refers to any act used to specifically connect with God, usually the offering of sacrifices, petitions, and praises to God.

¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual^[a] act of worship. (Romans 12:1)

 We are urged by Paul in this passage to offer our whole lives up to God in an act of worship, in other words can we say that we are being called to work out our relationship with God in every area of our lives?  How awesome and scary a thought that is!

Think about your personal definition of what worship was.  I hope I am right in believing that it described a way or some of the ways that we already think of worshiping God.  Because we are correct when we call the singing part of the service worship.  In fact, one of the great things about singing is that songs offer us a chance to practice ways of talking about and speaking to God, as well as giving us memorable ideas to hold on to in the various areas of our lives.  We are also correct in calling the whole service an act of worship (everything that we do in church hopefully connects us with God, if not we either need to adjust how we approach it or have a serious heart to heart with our pastors).

Yet, its not enough to connect with God only at church.  It is so important that we extend our worship beyond the four walls of the church!  The following was said by one of the most influential persons of the last century who wasn't Christian, and I wonder if you can see how it applies to the simple definition of worship that I gave above:

"If all Christians acted like Christ, the whole world would be Christian."  -Mahatma Gandhi

 Lets have that definition of worship again: Worship is simply working out your relationship with God in everyday life.  What then are some "non-standard" things we can call worship?  Where, with whom, and how I bank?  What kind of coffee I buy?  How I treat my friends (or enemies)?  How I drive?  What else can you think of?  I have found that as I think about what I do as a way of worshiping God, then I start to look at what I am doing in a different way.  For example, if I found out that my bank was investing my money in porn, drugs, or environmentally damaging companies then I might decide that that was not a good way to worship God and in order to use my bank to "worship" God I would have to change it.  Or, I might even decide that how I raise my kids was a great way to worship God.

In view of all that, if you have time, lets turn to a worship song and think of the lyrics being sung in light of our simple definition of worship.

Christianity 101: PRIMER

This marks the first in a series of blogs aimed to discuss the things we do as followers of Christ.  My goal is to take things down to brass tacks and succinctly describe different aspects of our faith and perhaps how then do we live those out in our lives.

Our problem as Christians is that I think we make things too complicated and then lose sight of their purpose.  For instance, why do we sing songs in church and call that part "worship"?  Why do we meet on Sunday mornings?  What is a tithe?  What is communion?  Baptism?  What are spiritual disciplines (sounds like going to the principal's office) and why should we "fear the Lord" (I thought God wanted us to love him...)?

What I am not saying is that a complex and well nuanced faith is not to be desired.  On the contrary, our faith should be very nuanced, complex, and integrated into our lives.  Our lives are complex and messy and we need a faith able to handle that.  I also am not suggesting a one-size fits all understanding of the parts of our faith.  If I give an explanation of something that doesn't exactly include something that you have experienced and feel is appropriate, then it may well be.

Someone once told me that all we need to know to share our faith is, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so."  I love that, for the reason that we tend to think that we need years of study before we can tell someone about our faith.  The truth is that all we need to know is that (and how) Jesus loves us, and we have an authority (the Bible) to go to in order to help prove that.  Now, would a class in the topic help? Yes!  Would role playing help? Yes!  Would developing a complex and nuanced understanding of how to talk to people about Jesus help? Probably.  But the fundamental part of this is that all I need to know is that Jesus loves me--all the rest is beneficial.

Bottom line: this series of posts will hopefully help me to be able to describe the purpose of the things we do and believe as Christians simply and concretely.  Hopefully it will help you to, if you are a newbie that needs to understand what's been going on or as reminder to you seasoned veterans.

One more thing, if you have questions or ideas for something you'd like explained please feel free to email me or post comments.  Also, if you want to push back and start a discussion please feel free to do so as well!