I've been kicking around some ideas for essays on the topic of worship. In talking to my Writing Buddies, they suggested rather than writing individual essays and trying to market them to magazines or journals, that I compile the essays into a book. The basic premise is to look at and evaluate and make suggestions on our current state of worship. It would be geared more toward the lay participant sitting in the pew, rather than the worship leader or pastor (although they will be welcome to buy and read the book as well).
So before I begin writing, I want to kick around some ideas and questions. I don't want to do a lot of formal research for the book (I don't want it to be a really "academic" book), but I want to get some feedback and interaction on the ideas.Here are some of the issues and questions I hope to address:
1. First of all, what is worship? What would be your "twitter" definition of it (one sentence, 140 characters or less)? Is it simply singing? reading liturgy? corporate prayer? individual prayer?
2. Why do we worship? Some have said it is our purpose in life, why God created us, but is there more than that? If God created us simply to worship him, doesn't that make God sort of narcissistic? How does worship fit into a relationship with God?
3. If we look at the Pre-Fall Garden as God's "Plan A" (the way things are supposed to be), how did worship (or at least what we think of as worship) fit into that picture? What would worship have been like? How would that fit into
4. It would seem that the Old Testament idea of worship and relating to God contained a lot of ritual and sacrifice and formal procedure, and New Testament idea is much more personal and relational (God is our father, and Jesus is our "homeboy"). How do we reconcile these two very different approaches? Should we incorporate the formal ritual into our contemporary worship?
5. Jesus told the woman at the well that God desires those who worship him in "spirit and truth." What does it mean to worship in spirit? in truth?
6. Romans 12 tells us to "offer our bodies as living sacrifice, which is our spiritual act of worship." How do we offer our bodies to God? And how does that equate to worship?
7. Hebrews (I think it's Hebrews) talks about offering a "sacrifice of praise." What does that mean? How might this relate to the OT idea of offering to God our first and best? What is the contemporary equivalent of offering God the first fruits of our crops or the best from our flock of sheep? Do these things relate only to tithing or giving financially?
8. I have noticed a trend in a lot of contemporary worship songs that there are a lot more first-person pronouns than second- and third-person pronouns. The songs seem to be more about our experience of God and about what God does for us, than about simply praising God for who he is. Does this grammatical trend point to a trend in our worship? Is our worship becoming more self-centered, rather than God-centered? If so, how doe we fix that? Do we simply sing more God-centered songs?
9. Is there anything we can learn from other religions about worship? I don't mean to be heretical, but I believe that we have an innate desire to worship. Those who don't know the truth, worship what they see or know. But is there anything in how they approach their gods in worship that we can learn from? Example - the discipline of kneeling in prayer five times a day in Islam.
So, your assignment (should you choose to accept it) is to answer any or all of these questions. Also, please forward this to any friends who might have something to say about these topics. I don't have a lot of the answers myself, and I am hoping that through these discussions and through a lot of thought and prayer, that I can come to some answers (and hopefully turn that into a book so some sort).
thank you in advance for your input.
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2 comments:
1. I see worship as recognizing and proclaiming who God is and what he has done, is doing, will do... but there is probably a better definition out there, I'm not happy with it.
2. We worship for many reasons. I believe it is our purpose to "Glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Worship does glorify God and, if we truly love Him, should be the most enjoyable experience we know. And we get to look forward to the day when our worship will be totally uninhibited by our sinful hearts!
3. I'm not sure pre-fall was "plan A" since God had his redemption plan in place before the foundations of the earth. However, worship in the garden certainly must have been more intimate, and free from distractions and the clouding of a sinful heart.
4. I would never advocate referring to Jesus as a "homeboy." He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Lion of Judah, the infinitely powerful, wise, loving, graceful, wonderful God and should never be referred to as a homeboy. God the Father is rightly called our Abba - Daddy. That is not irreverent becuase it is a term of deep love, trust, and respect. As for ritual and sacrifice: they were pointers to what was to come. They were a shadow of the True Sacrifice that was coming. They showed that blood would be required to repay for sin. They showed just how costly sin was.
5. I may come back and answer this later.
6. I may come back and answer this later.
7. I may come back and answer this later.
8. One point: don't forget about the 3rd person. Certainly we should sing mroe songs in the 2nd person, but I think the 3rd too. God is not only about redeeming one person at a time. He is grafting people into his larger covenant, his church, the bod of Christ, so we should talk about how God loves and cares for us, not just me, etc.
9. I may come back and answer this later.
Oops... answer #8 I meant 1st person plural not 3rd person. Sorry :)
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