Over the next couple weeks I am going to post my theology of worship, as it stands right now (in several posts). As with many theological positions, I tend to shift my perspective as time moves on.
So don’t take these posts as Gospel or even as the correct way to view worship. I’m merely in the process of landing somewhere on my theology of worship. I have titled this “A Theology of Worship” rather than “The Theology of Worship.” The difference is small, yet significant. I’d much rather have an engaging discussion about this topic than for my position to be perfect.
Why am I writing this? I think the current landscape of worship music and evangelicalism is moving away from looking at why we worship in order to focus exclusively on the how. I don’t know that doing so would change how our churches are worshiping but it would at least change the focus back to its correct place.
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Intro.
My current job title is “band director” within a creative arts team at a local church. Essentially my job is to help the instruments and the church worship during our weekend service gatherings. I wish I could say that I spend a good majority of my time focused on answering the question of why we worship, but the sad truth is that my time is focused around how we worship.
I don’t think this is much different than how worship pastors around the world spend their time. Go to most any evangelical church in America and you will quickly begin with the assumption that worship is the songs we sing during church. And once you start getting involved with the church you will begin to see worship as the one thing people argue and disagree over most.
Somehow we have gotten away from the “why” of worship in order to focus our time on the “how” of worship. I am, to my core, a pragmatic person. I love to explore the how of something, so my job fits me well. But I am greatly challenged to look into the why of my job.
Why do we worship?
Ask any Christian and they will give you a different answer about what worship is. Some say, “worship is a lifestyle,” or “worship is giving God our lives,” or “worship is worth-ship” or even worse yet, “worship is the music time during church.”
As we look at this subject from biblical, practical, and theological perspectives I hope that one thing is clear: worship is not about us, it is about Him.
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