The Nature of Worship
NOTE: this piece is posted as a conversation opener. Responses are warmly invited.
A working definition of worship
Worship is submission to the Lord and all that flows from it.
The first act of worship submission is to quit our rebellion and enter the covenant relationship with God on the terms he sets and through his appointed saviour/ king who is Jesus.
The second act of worship submission is to live faithfully in that covenant relationship on the terms that God sets and under the rule of his appointed saviour / king who is Jesus. This primarily means living a life of faith, hope and love. It also includes specific acts of intentional devotion, whether in private (quiet time), with our earthly family (family worship) or with the family of God (church services).
Notes
This definition derives from study of the key Hebrew and Greek words for worship and from the way that worship is discussed within the flow of the Bible.
For example, God saved his people from
That is, intentional acts of devotion are a derivative of the primary meaning of worship as entering and living within God's covenant. This does not reduce their importance but puts them into perspective within covenant and kingship theology. This needs present emphasis because of the trend to invert the Biblical order and push devotional acts into prominence as the primary meaning of 'worship'.
Note also the emphasis on all this happening on God's terms. As the saving king who initiates the covenant relationship and makes all this worship possible, God sets the terms. We worship in the way that pleases him not us. The Scripture must thus be carefully studied to know what pleases God in both the principles and the actions of worship.
David Peterson’s Engaging With God is the primary inspiration for this definition. It steers between views that equate worship purely or mainly with church services (or parts of them) and between views that reject use of the word ‘worship’ for church services.
Implications
The primary worship task is to help bring people into right relationship with God as they enter his kingdom by faith and then go on to live under the rule of Jesus.
Congregational acts of intentional devotion are very important for fostering this right relationship and for giving opportunities to worship God by declaring his praise, depending on him to meet needs (both temporal and eternal), listening to his word, supporting his work and both preparing and encouraging one another for the worship of life. Because these acts are so important, care is needed in their planning and presentation – including care that we don’t unwitting foster a reductionist theology of worship as just being these corporate acts of devotion.
Words matter and the way we use them matters. Care is needed to use the word ‘worship’ in a way that reflects the wide sense discussed above. For example, it is right to speak of church services (or any part of them) as worship but the word should not be used such as to imply that church services (let alone any one part of them) are the sole, main or primary meaning of ‘worship’.
8 comments:
hi david,
i think the closest translation of "worship" that relates to worship services would be "abad" (hebrew), or the "service" that the priests performed in the temple.
i would advocate not only we stop using the word worship in church, but also in our english bible translations since there is no one-for-one translation in either hebrew or greek for the word "worship".
i've been blogging about worship at http://turnyourears.wordpress.com trying to understand why and how we worship in our churches today.
cheers,
jon
Hi Jon & thanks for your comment. That's a good point re translation and the words we use. It's common to hear song leaders call us to worship God when all they mean is singing songs .... I cringe when I hear this kind of talk.
I think that we are stuck with using the English word 'worship' but I'd want to use the word in the widest sense ... eg we worship God by depending on him to meet our needs, listening to his word, encouraging each other and we especially and primarily worship God by a life of faith, hope and loves as we submit to him through Jesus. I'll take a look at your blog later and thanks for the reference.
"'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,' it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'"
Through The Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll
The impression which I got from reading your blog, is simply that you're just trying to change the conventional meaning of the word "worship". I am not so sure the point or end for trying to do this. I agree that obedience to God, practicing love, faith and charity in our daily lives outside of a Sunday service is of utmost importance.
But we already have a perfectly suitable word for talking about this. Its called "integrity", which will pretty much cover the imperative for Christians daily to behave consistently with what they profess on Sunday.
So, instead of saying that we also need to 'worship' God the other six days of the week, we can just say that we need to practice Christian integrity and save us the trouble and confusion with trying to introduce a new meaning into a perfectly functioning word.
I am not so sure to what extent is this issue a verbal matter and to what extend is it a substantive matter. I am sure no Christian denies that we need to do all the things which you have listed in your blog, but I fail to see the advantage of subsuming it all under the term of 'worship', rather than just directly saying it as God's Will.
Dominic's point is nothing new .... in ordinary language analysis words mean what the speaker means them to mean - although, in these days of reader response hermeneutic, they also mean what the reader means them to mean.
My post comes from an effort to understand what God means by the Hebrew and Greek words that are commonly translated as 'worship' across different English Bible versions.
By far, the most common words are the Hebrew 'hawah' and the Greek 'proskuneo'. Both have root meanings related to the physical action of kneeling, bowing, prostrating oneself. In cultural context, these actions express homage, submission, loyalty etc.
Hence my suggested definition that worship is primarily submission to God - trying to let the words mean what God means them to mean in his Scripture.
I see... Thanks for the clarification Rev. Burke. I guess the meanings of Hebrew and Greek in Scripture is pretty much out of my league. Alas, my knowledge is only limited to what the ordinary language.
I better keep quiet now lest it be said to me that "if you kept your mouth shut, we would have thought you were clever".
:P
@ Rubati,
Actually I feel that your comment is a valid one and I've been also having people ask me - why bother with changing the terminology?
I feel that although those who have a good understanding of worship and what it means have a responsibility to educate either 1) the youth, or 2) new christians.
Having a clear definition of worship from the start just makes it a whole lot easier to teach God's truth without having to tear down misconceptions and start from scratch. It won't bring world peace, but at least its a start.
It is very difficult though, when the Bible itself uses the same word "worship" to describe different things e.g. latriea (service) in Rom 12:1-2, and proskuneo (bow/submission) in John 4 as Rev. Burke has shared.
Which is why I think with modern day terminology, it may not be such a bad idea to relook the words in our Bible translations (apologies if anyone takes offense to that!).
Out of curiosity, why not use the word liturgy, especially when talking about the structure of congregational worship, its planning and presentation?
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