How Does God Want Us To Worship Him?







 

John 4:24 – God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
 

What a loaded question! On the one hand I could answer this quickly and easily, on the other hand it is virtually impossible to answer completely and satisfactorily. This is because there are two separate worlds of worship: private (or personal) and corporate. One is a very deep personal love relationship and the other is a complicated mixture of faith, doctrine, religion, traditions, customs, politics, Kingdom growth, evangelism, discipleship, business, marketing, sociology, community, technology, celebration, beauty, art, music, teaching, preaching, praise, prayer, appropriateness, timing, flow, and a whole lot more.

What is in the world of private or personal worship?

The Bible says that God is jealous for our worship and will not share His supremacy with any other god, person, or thing. Since God is a “pneuma” which means “spirit” and “breath” and must be worshipped in spirit, our personal worship is all a matter of the heart. Yes, we worship Him with gifts and offerings, but I Samuel 15:22 tells us that He desires our obedience more than the sacrifices and gifts we bring to Him. And Romans 12:1 tells us that our real spiritual act of worship is to present ourselves to Him as living sacrifices. In private worship there is peace and serenity. There is also joy and exuberance! In private worship there is conviction, confession and repentance.

What is in the world of corporate worship?

The question that we grapple with as corporate worship leaders is probably better asked, “Who is the worship for?” This seems like an odd question because we would all quickly answer that our worship is for God of course! But the truth is that our weekly corporate worship is a blend of private worship going on in the hearts of Believers with a great deal of planned, measurable and desired outcomes for the mission of the church organization, the spiritual edification of the Church Body and for the expansion of Kingdom of God. There are aspects of corporate worship that appear to be more directed at the people for their benefit than for the worship of God alone. Such things as mood enhancing sound and lighting, musical style preferences, and careful service planning for flow are all intended to facilitate the people in their participation in the worship. There are also aspects of worship which are meant to be for the sake of evangelizing the lost. These kinds of things tend to be more obvious in “contemporary style” worship where the atmosphere is intended to be less formal in attire and appear less traditionally “churchy” so as to appeal to certain demographic groups.

I believe that the challenge for a worship leader today is this: Plan and lead times of corporate worship which result in a private worship experience for the worshipper. This will only happen if the end result of private worship is the model, target, and goal in worship planning. But this also means that the worship leader must know and experience firsthand and regularly a deep, personal, and private worship with the Lord if he is to be in the place of leading others to that same place.

 

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