What is Worship?

This post is in response to Larry Belew's open forum at http://larrylines.blogspot.com/ and to help him with the book he is writing titled, "The Four Faces of Worship."

My heart feels like it is about to be ripped from my own chest because of the pain I feel over the subject of worship. It seems the Church today has defined worship so narrowly, we lost our imagination and creativity.

We often think worship is what we do when we show up to church. We sing some songs. We pray. We listen to a sermon. We get a nice benediction, shake hands, and go home.

But I have a dream... that worship is so much more than this. I have a vision for worship as much more than simply what we do but more about who we are and who we are becomming.

Because I do not want to just DO church. I want to BE the Church. I believe we are called to BE the Kingdom of God here and now to a suffering world.

Do I think music, prayer, sermons, shaking hands, and benedictions are a part of worship? Absolutely. Worship is about our Lord calling us to worship, bringing our needs before our Lord, and receiving and hearing the Word. Worship is a time where we are fed, where we are ministered to, where we bring our brokenness before a God who cares.

But I also think worship is about responding to and sharing the Word. Once we hear the Word of God and once we feel the love of God, we must share it. We must respond. God's very breath of love for us demands a response of love... or indifference.

I worship outside of the church building all the time. When I write out a card to a sick person, I am worshiping. When I touch someone who is deemed an "outcast," I am worshipping. When I sit over coffee and share in community, I am worshipping. When I am being who I am called to be, a follower of Jesus Christ- laying down my life in service and love for others, I am worshipping.

We cut ourselves short when we assume worship is merely about being fed by a sermon. We cut ourselves off when we assume worship is only about music. Because worship is also about extending our arms to feed others. Worship is about taking what we learned and sharing it. Worship is about recieving the Word and then giving the Word back out again.

Being fed is good but it is not the end. It is only the beginning.

We went to the zoo today and I watched my little 2 year old feeding the swans, ducks, fish, geese, and anything else around. I gave him little nuggets of food and he would chuck it into the water and watch with glee as the others ate it. The picture on the top of this blog post is of the little ducks my little boy fed today.

As I watched him, I could not help but think about the Church. I could see the people in the church through the actions of my little boy.

He was so excited to receive the nugget. It was a fun nugget. But if my little boy would have choosen to simply hold it in his hand, he would be robbed of a whole lot of joy. That little brown nugget is not much fun to hold onto by yourself. That little brown nugget would cause him to feel dry and lifeless after awhile if that is all he had. It is nice to receive the nugget but it is even better to throw it out to others and to watch them not go hungry anymore. It was way more exciting to watch these little ducks pictured here happy and full than it was to hold onto a brown chunk of food.

So what is worship? Worship is recieving nuggets and tossing them out to others.

And the reason my heart is breaking- is because I fear the Church will continue to go towards death if it refuses to let go of the nuggets. If we go to church to nurse, to eat, to feed only (and being satisfied with this understanding of worship), I am afraid we are going to suffer. And if we decide to respond to God's love (that we so graciously encounter during worship time, in a building) with indifference for the community, then I fear we cease to BE the Church of Jesus Christ.

For when we hang onto the nugget without giving it out, we feel dry. When we ask for sermons, music, and more "worship" time without preaching the Word in love to others, we continue to be hungry for more and more and more.


We do not even realize... it is the demands for more spiritual food in the church building's worship time causing us to be more hungry, causing us to need more.


I believe if responded to the time we do spend in worship (where the Lord calls us, we bring our needs before the Lord, and we receive and hear the Word of the Lord) BY GIVING OUT the nugget of love through personal interaction and love, we would get the spiritual lift we so desperately desire.


And so I am sad, because of the deep irnony. I am sad because what we want is also what we reject. We want to be fed but refuse to feed.


If we do not want to be so hungry, we must let go of the nugget.




Even scripture says something about this. Hebrews 5 says (NCV), "By now you should be teachers, but you need someone to teach you again the first lessons of God's message. You still need the teaching that is like milk. You are not ready for solid food. Anyone who lives on milk is still a baby and knows nothing about right teaching. But solid food is for those who are grown up."





The Church should be teachers, passing off the nuggets of milk to others. Instead we cry because we want more milk. We want to be fed. We want better sermons. We want more sermons. We want a better pastor.





As for this pastor, I want to be a teacher IN the building and OUTSIDE the building, affecting the world. I want to love my people in the building and spill out to the neighborhood. I want the community to look at the church building and say, "wow, look at how they love me."





But how will those in the commmunity outside our building ever, ever know we love them- if we stay inside our buildings hearing the first lessons of God's message again and again? If we cry for more milk instead of sharing the milk?





And so, because I believe defining worship as something we do IN a church building can be limiting, I am going to propose something radical for Larry Belew and his open forum. I think worship is all everyone says it is (that happens in a building) AND also getting out of the building to love people. Love the outcasts. Love the undesirables. Love the hungry. Love the poor. Love people.





Worship involves being loved and sharing love. Worship involves receiving the Word of God in sermons, prayer, music and whatever else and responding to the Word in acts of love that actually encounter people. Not just throwing money at people in an offering plate at church but to encounter the poor, sick, elderly, and the outcasts is an essential and necessary part of worship.