Tough Question (WonderfulWorship #3)

This week’s question was much harder for me to answer than the last couple (so I probably won’t be as eloquent and definitely not as waxy), but I couldn’t quite figure out why it was so different. I’m not a terribly private person, so it isn’t the sharing of the intimate details of my life; and I’m not much prone to putting on a public face for people (not MUCH, let’s be honest!), so I don’t mind saying that I haven’t arrived. So, what’s the problem!?! What does my personal worship look like? Why can’t I describe
it?

The first thing I realized was that somewhere, not so deep down, I still think that real worship is supposed to be a primarily emotional experience. I usually don’t feel worship-y throughout my days, I don’t get that tingly feeling for the most part, and I rarely break into spontaneous singing. So, what part of my day is worship? All this talk and I still have old misconceptions hanging on. Rats. So, what does my personal worship look like?

And that’s it, my personal worship doesn’t LOOK like anything. My personal worship looks like me going through the motions of my everyday life. My personal worship IS the stubborn remembering that God is the reason that I’m doing stuff and He’s worth my best efforts in all the stuff that I’m doing every moment of every day. It’s trying to keep God in the forefront of my mind as I’m doing life. It’s having conversations with God in the bathroom (hey, everyone has their place!) about the deep things of life and His plans for me. It’s having short mental chit-chats about little things like the radio announcer or dishes. It’s the Holy Spirit reminding me, and me agreeing, that even when I don’t feel like it, I need to do my best at whatever God has asked me to do because that’s the very least that He is worthy of.

My personal worship is spending my days with God. Asking Him things and expecting Him to answer. Stubbornly remembering that He is worth me sticking to what He has called me even when it’s hard and I want something easier (or faster). It’s sensing and responding to what He wants me to do next. And saying sorry when I don’t. My personal worship is trying to live every step of every day as though God is with me.

Because He Is.

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Ash even gets her own author tag as she submits her reponse to this week’s WonderfulWorship topic.

Looking at the definitions given last week, or your own definition if you’d prefer, discuss personal versus corporate worship.

God has created us to be creatures of community. From the very beginning people have needed the companionship of one another. And it’s important to note that this is not a sinful need; the observation of this need came from the very mouth of God before fruit salad even entered Adam’s imagination. The need for community is also true for worship. We cannot fully worship God on our own because we cannot fully consider and experience God on our own. Corporate worship is telling each other who God is and what He has done. It is, like so many of the psalms, reminding ourselves of His past actions and encouraging each other to depend on His future constancy. Corporate worship is proclaiming His worth to each other and to the world. Corporate worship is absolutely and vitally necessary.

So then, what does worship look like in a group? (Are we allowed to ask that this week?) It certainly can involve singing and music. It probably involves reading scripture and hearing a message. It could also involve some drama or art or dance or other types of expression. It definitely involves testimonies and stories of God’s involvement in our lives. It could involve physical acts to express our worship like kneeling, raising hands, or giving offerings. It looks very much like the churches we attend every week.

So then, what is the difference? I believe the difference is two-fold.

The first difference is in stated purpose. What do we say the purpose of gathering as a church is? Often we don’t say at all, we just get together every week because we ought. Sometimes we call it a “worship service” but we don’t explain what that means (both for people who have gone to church their entire lives and for people who are coming for the first time). I believe that the first step to having genuine corporate worship is to explain what that means to the people gathered. We must emphasize how each aspect of the service is worship, in the same way that each aspect of our individual lives should be worship. We must explain why the singing/offering/message/dancing/special music is worship. Amazingly, when we do this the explanation itself becomes worship because we are telling each other about God’s worthiness! Doing so will help teach those who are learning to worship and remind those who have a clearer understanding of the purpose of the worship service.

Secondly, and maybe more importantly, individuals bring to a corporate worship time the fruits of their individual worship. If we as individuals have not spent time contemplating God’s worth and worthiness on our own, what have we to bring to tell the group? I believe when individuals bring their own personal worship to the corporate setting to share with others, the worship of the group is exponentially improved. One person tells about what they’ve learned about God’s character or how He is involved in their life and then another is reminded (or notices for the first time!) how God is involved in their life and worship spreads like wildfire! The Holy Spirit uses the experience of others to teach one another (both through direct telling and the mystery of group participation) and we are all able to worship God more fully because of His involvement in all of our lives!

Corporate worship is all the people bringing their personal worship into the same room and putting it into a huge pile so that when we all take a step back to look at it we see how much more God is that what we have individually experienced. We can then go home with a more full understanding of who God is and why He is worthy so that our individual worship is improved. Then we all come back again next week to see how the pile has grown and become even more beautiful. The small piece of crystal that is beautiful in our hand becomes a tower of diamonds in corporate worship.

Ash :)

As an aside, it’s important to note that the church as an entity in-and-of-itself is also responsible to worship in all the ways that an individual is as well. The church itself (meaning the larger organism made up of all the people, both in the global sense and the local sense) must constantly and continually acknowledge that God is worthy of its complete efforts. The church’s job is to be constantly expressing God’s worth and its thankfulness for His essence and his actions in the world. The church, and the leaders of it, must constantly examine its actions to ensure that the glory of God is its only goal.

(Ash adds her thoughts to this weeks Wonderful Worship)

So here are my thoughts on worship. I wasn’t able to pull them into an articulate paragraph, so you’re getting my point-form train of thought. I’m not 100% confident that my own understanding of worship is completely outlined here, but the deadline arose! So, with that in mind, my thoughts….

• Worship is seeing God for who He is and, because of that, giving him what He is worth. Worship is answering the question, “What is God worth?”
• Worship is the constant awareness of God’s presence and involvement in your life.
• Worship is all of your heart, soul, and mind constantly and continually acknowledging that God is worthy of your complete efforts in whatever you’re doing. Attempting to do your best in all things, not because it’s good to do well in and of itself, but because God is worthy of our best efforts.
• Worship is expressing thankfulness and appreciation for God for who He is, what He’s done, and what He’s going to do. Recounting the stories of God’s involvement in our lives and in the world.
• Worship is never complete or perfected because we will always be seeing new aspects of God’s character and will thus need to change how our heart, soul, and/or mind will respond to Him.

Ash :)