What is worship?
OK, I bet some of you think you know what what this is going to be about... but I'm willing to bet you're wrong. This topic has been bubbling around in my brain for a long time now. I'd say you could count the time in months. I don't think I've stumbled onto the full answer to my question, "What is worship?" But the questions I have became a little clearer to me this weekend.
I'm a member of the Design Team at my church. For the few of you that don't go to my church, the Design Team plans and implements the weekly service. So, every week we're designing a worship experience. Back in the spring, the church Leadership Team (yes, we've very team based) told the Design Team that they would like to have the summer series address the Beauty of God. They said the wanted the topic be light and positive and up lifting.
I found myself really struggling with this concept. Light, airy, positive, fun, worship. What was is that? It just seemed so contradictory, an oxymoron. How could worship be like that? It felt very foreign to me. Worship felt like it should be prayerful and profound.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that worship, or religion in general, has to be a heavy weight or a burden. It's not something that should make us feel bad. In many ways, I think I have a very joyful faith. My faith is certainly joyful compared to some of the hell and brimstone and eternal flames people I've met in my life. I think God wants us to be happy. I think he wants us feel the beauty he's created and to experience the bounty of life and love and his kingdom on Earth.
But somehow, it just felt really wrong to create a worship experience that was light, airy, and fun, worship. Positive I could handle. I could envision a profound and adequately reverent experience that was positive. I would never expect worship to be anything less. But light, airy, fun? The move I've thought about this dichotomy, the more I've struggled with it. On the surface, it seems that worship should be all those things and more. And yet, it just felt so wrong to go there.
In the midst of this internal debate and stuggle to understand myself and my discomforts; I found myself at a Worship Rally. Elizabeth is going to a summer camp / day care that is associated with a somewhat conservative Christian church. This past week the church held Vacation Bible School. All children in the summer camp automatically go to VBS. Friday night was the closing ceremony, dinner, party, moon-bounce, kids going crazy with sugar highs and a late night thing. I didn't realize the closing ceremony would be a Worship Rally... but what the heck. I just went along for the ride.
During the rally each of the grade levels got up and sang some of the songs they learned during the week. In between the kids performances they had a rock band that played some modern worship song. The lyrics were projected so we could all sing along. A lot of these songs were really joyful sounding. The beat was fast and strong. There was clapping and stomping and hand signals and laughing.
So I asked myself, why is this kind of joy OK, but a light airy worship service is not OK. As I pondered this, the words being projected on the screen caught my attention. Boy, were those lyrics depressing. They were all about Jesus dying on the cross and how worthless and depraved I am... but for the grace of God. I realized that even though the beat was happy, if you really paid attention, you were getting beat up. And it occurred to me... maybe that heavy, I'm a sinner, mentality was seeping in on a subconscious level.
So, is light and airy without the undercurrent of hell and damnation an acceptable way to worship? Is it even possible -- by that I mean, does the very act of prayer and praising God for his gifts and confession of our sins become heavy? Is it even possible to have light worship? I hope so, 'cause that's how we're spending our summer vacation at my church.
I'm a member of the Design Team at my church. For the few of you that don't go to my church, the Design Team plans and implements the weekly service. So, every week we're designing a worship experience. Back in the spring, the church Leadership Team (yes, we've very team based) told the Design Team that they would like to have the summer series address the Beauty of God. They said the wanted the topic be light and positive and up lifting.
I found myself really struggling with this concept. Light, airy, positive, fun, worship. What was is that? It just seemed so contradictory, an oxymoron. How could worship be like that? It felt very foreign to me. Worship felt like it should be prayerful and profound.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that worship, or religion in general, has to be a heavy weight or a burden. It's not something that should make us feel bad. In many ways, I think I have a very joyful faith. My faith is certainly joyful compared to some of the hell and brimstone and eternal flames people I've met in my life. I think God wants us to be happy. I think he wants us feel the beauty he's created and to experience the bounty of life and love and his kingdom on Earth.
But somehow, it just felt really wrong to create a worship experience that was light, airy, and fun, worship. Positive I could handle. I could envision a profound and adequately reverent experience that was positive. I would never expect worship to be anything less. But light, airy, fun? The move I've thought about this dichotomy, the more I've struggled with it. On the surface, it seems that worship should be all those things and more. And yet, it just felt so wrong to go there.
In the midst of this internal debate and stuggle to understand myself and my discomforts; I found myself at a Worship Rally. Elizabeth is going to a summer camp / day care that is associated with a somewhat conservative Christian church. This past week the church held Vacation Bible School. All children in the summer camp automatically go to VBS. Friday night was the closing ceremony, dinner, party, moon-bounce, kids going crazy with sugar highs and a late night thing. I didn't realize the closing ceremony would be a Worship Rally... but what the heck. I just went along for the ride.
During the rally each of the grade levels got up and sang some of the songs they learned during the week. In between the kids performances they had a rock band that played some modern worship song. The lyrics were projected so we could all sing along. A lot of these songs were really joyful sounding. The beat was fast and strong. There was clapping and stomping and hand signals and laughing.
So I asked myself, why is this kind of joy OK, but a light airy worship service is not OK. As I pondered this, the words being projected on the screen caught my attention. Boy, were those lyrics depressing. They were all about Jesus dying on the cross and how worthless and depraved I am... but for the grace of God. I realized that even though the beat was happy, if you really paid attention, you were getting beat up. And it occurred to me... maybe that heavy, I'm a sinner, mentality was seeping in on a subconscious level.
So, is light and airy without the undercurrent of hell and damnation an acceptable way to worship? Is it even possible -- by that I mean, does the very act of prayer and praising God for his gifts and confession of our sins become heavy? Is it even possible to have light worship? I hope so, 'cause that's how we're spending our summer vacation at my church.
posted by Liz at 1:22 AM
4 Comments:
Awesome.
Praise AND Worship.
Two totally separate aspects of worshiping God.
:D
Praise is lighter ...
it brings balance.
Hey ... I'm on the design team for our church too. We don't call it the design team ... but I can't remember what we're called right now, I'm home sick from church. My brain is fried.
Wow, Ross, I like that too! Good ol' Wikipedia. Homo adorans, neat. (Of course, if I called some of the folks in my own denomination that right now, they might get the wrong idea and hit me with a thurible, but that's another story....)
Liz, this is a great question. We all come to the table (and the Table) with preconceptions about worship. It's a really good idea to talk about them, I think. I have to admit, although I've really loved this series (the ones I've made it to), it has occurred to me that the topic is perhaps a bit "softball" and unchallenging. I think that's in contrast to the last series on giving, though. And, as "dreaming again" says, basically what it amounts to is that we're setting aside the whole summer to praise God. What could be wrong with that? The Anglican communion liturgy says (based on the Book of Revelation, I think) something about "angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, who forever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of Your name:
"Holy, holy, holy Lord
God of power and might
Heaven and earth are full of your glory
Hosanna in the highest
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord
Hosanna in the highest"
If angels and archangels and all the company of heaven do nothing but praise God "forever", then us doing it for a summer ought to be OK.
Hmm. Maybe we should take this discussion to the Core List or the Theology Pub?
Liz, I wrote this a couple of years ago ... your post has had me thinking about it all week.
A Question of Worship
by Peggikaye Eagler
What does worship mean to me?
To honor and trust on bended knee.
How does worship change my life?
Worship reaches God, He comforts me from Strife.
Who am I worshiping today?
Father God, my heart on your alter I lay.
Where does my worship take place?
My spirit rejoicing while I run the race.
Why is my worship to God a treasure?
My sacrifice of praise to Him a pleasure.
When is my worship to fit into my time?
Without God's presence life has no rhyme.
Does Worship mean my life will be free?
It means place and comfort from Jesus to me.
Will worship impact my daily walk?
Effecting my behavior, my life, my talk.
Is worship a lifestyle or Sunday exhibit?
A heartfelt giving of my love, all of it!
Do I fully understand my worship to God?
As I go through my daily routine, I trod.
Lord, to worship you from my heart and soul.
My life an example of Your love my goal.
Lord, my heart I give in sacrifice of praise.
My heart, my life, my hands I raise.
© Peggikaye Eagler
WOW! That's beautiful! Thanks for sharing that.
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