Agreed Tyler.

And it extends beyond the American church to the western world in general I think.

In our local church, the subtle differences (ie: I’m the music director, not the worship pastor) and the use of other creative arts help to define worship as more than music – while we also don’t talk about the music as being the worship…the whole service – singing, praying, preaching, ministry (or response) time – is worship.

And beyond that, life needs to be worship – every moment infused with an understanding of what it means to be a worshipper.

Spot on! My Pastor and I constantly and consistently remind people of this from up front. Funny, but as I pray during the service, I catch myself saying these words quite often, “…as we worship You in so many different ways this morning, through singing, through giving, with our intellect as we spend time in your Word…”.

I’ve also gone so far as to call our greeting time worship – which was confusing at first…people wondered why we didn’t start the next song! So, as a set-up, I explained that Hebrews 10:24-25 is worship also (now I put a slide with those verses up during the time as a reminder)! People get it – now I’m the bad guy when I cut the greeting time down at less than 5 minutes!

You’re right – we need to enhance out worship confessionals and celebrate the baptisms, Communion time, etc. that make up gathered worship! Amen brother!

I think you are right. Worship should be the way we live our lives. Have you ever read the book The Air I Breathe: Worship As a Way of Life by Louie Giglio. It talks a lot about worship is the way of life and not just an action. I have a question for you, How are you going about this change in your own life?

Good word… all of life is an act of worship…not just singing and not just what happens in the context of a service.
I want my every breath to be an act of worship.
The challenge is living that and communicating that it is so much more than singing.

So I will preach to the choir here.

Worship is so many things, many of which can – and should – occur within the heart of a believer as they worship. Thanksgiving, Adoration, Confession, Repentance, Obedience all come to mind. Most worship leaders are not even given the chance to weave any spiritual formation ideas into their worship sets. Perhaps if we could do that more often we might help our congregations “connect the dots”. I wonder if we are missing some “shepherding” of our congregations as we lead sometimes.

THEN we could go out in the world and LIVE OUT that encounter with God in worship. Worship via song, in an intimate time that is just about the two of us, is NOT self serving. It is needful – to BE with God, to BECOME more like God. But from this BEING we should see the fruit of BECOMING and then DOING that flows out of that. How powerful it would be if our actions as Believers always flowed out of the encounter with God we have!

Doing without contemplation (prayer and worship) is disaster. Contemplation without action is to stay self-focused perhaps. (this is a sort of quote but I can’t remember where I read the thought)

To do both is to worship with our whole heart and being in one congruent statement. THAT is powerful!

Teaching this to our congregations is needful – modeling it is even more important.

BTW, THIS is the reason I am involved in missions. That is worship for me – a chance to live out to the world around me the encounter with God I have as I focus on being with Him in worship. This is also why I’m so committed to reaching out to other worship leaders and encouraging indigenous worship leaders in developing countries, why I write and why I’m going to the DR to train. I think we shortchange the power and potential of our worship times – when we reduce them to “Singing” and don’t think about the spiritual formation, or that we are even “resting in God” we don’t acknowledge the very work of worship itself. That realignment we experience from being with God, that powerful work that occurs when we proclaim the truth about God, is all for a purpose of Kingdom work.

Bottom line – don’t cut out the worship times in favor of serving. Instead pray and teach and EXPECT that our worship should SEND US!!!

So now you have my “throw up” on the subject!

I have abandoned the title “worship leader” and intentionally started to use use the words “Worship facilitator” as part of my attempt to show that the role of the singer or musician on stage is one of facilitation… because the current trend in most evangelical churches that I have visited – and I have visited a few of all sizes and flavors – is that the sunday morning service is more like a buffet than it is a “Service” or a weekly divine encounter. Since it is a buffet, the saying that “you can take the horse to the water, but you cannot force it to drink” is HIGHLY applicable”.

Therefore as much as I buck the trend, I realize that on my own I am powerless to stem the tide and so what I choose to do as I re-train one mind at a time, is facilitate/make available moments in which I hope those that are willing shall choose to worship through their tithes, through their singing, through their response to God’s word, through communion, through fellowship, and ultimately through laying down their lives. I am no longer the LEADER of worship, I am now the facilitator and cue giver in worship gatherings.

[...] Ways to Practice Holistic Worship 2009 May 11 tags: worship by Tyler You might remember my challenge to worship leaders that I posted a week ago. Go to most any church and a perception can become that worship=singing [...]

Tyler,

I could not agree more with your assesment. People always say that worship is more than singing, implying that singing is the highest form of worship, but there are other ways to worship. Singing can be worship. it certianly can facilitate worship, but it can also just be singing. We can “draw near to Him with our lips, but our hears are from him.” Everyone who has ever been responsible for leading corporate singing knows that THAT happens all the time.

The church, by its focus on a tight band and rock band style music, has led many people to conclude that singing is worship. This has had an absoloute catastrophic effect on the church.

The early church looked upon prayer, the reading of the OT and writings of the Apostles, the message, prayer and communion as worship elements. Singing was not a big deal. Yet our generation has made the band and singing the most important thing. I have written a lot about this on my Not For Itching Ears blog.