This week for our InResponse question, we are seeking to reframe, retell, restate, rearticulate, a definition of worship based on the following situations. Through our studies in What Is Worship?, we’re seeking to re-examine what worship is, how it lives in the world, and how the form of it shifts from situation to situation – while the content remains the same.
Friends outside our class, feel free to join in.
A Journey Into Worship
You are sitting across the table from a convict. He is in jail for a crime he didn’t commit, and he is a Christian. His heart is aching to get out, to see his family and friends again. He wants to meet with God, but finds the old ways of doing it just don’t connect with him in this place. He has no privacy. What is worship?Corporate singing?
Worship is…
You are sitting at the bedside of a cancer patient, who will die in the next few hours. She is a dear friend, though hollow in her eyes and thin to the bone. She can speak to you by blinking her eyes, the only thing she has the energy to do. She used to dance in worship in her church; it was her favorite time with God. You are told by her friend that she wants you to sing worship songs to her, for as long as you want. What is worship?A happy time?
Worship is…
You are in Nepal, amidst the swirl of dense religious activity, incense and sexual religious rites. Trusted people throughout the village tell you that some of the swami’s actually do levitate. What is worship?An encounter with spiritual power?
Worship is…
You are in the Sistine Chapel, and you look up to see the magnificently-colored paintings of Michelangelo. What is worship? Creativity?
Worship is…
You have a 3 month old infant, who won’t sleep through the night. She keeps you and your spouse awake with her endless crying, and you have no capacity to much of anything musical or creative day in and day out. What is worship?Leading or participating in a church worship team?
Worship is…
A firefighter (you don’t know what he believes about God) is running into a burning building, after others who are unable to get out, as the twin towers fall. What is worship?A bunch of bad people doing good things?
Worship is…
You are asked to do the music for a funeral. It is the funeral of a little girl, 3 years old, who was struck by a car. What is worship?A wonderful church service?
Worship is…
You are at a Dave Matthews Band concert and the crowd of 70,000 is grooving to the music of the band. A girl screams out, “Marry me, Dave!” For 2 hours the crowd is mesmerized by the lyrics and music of the band. What is worship? Only music with Christian lyrics?
Worship is…
Gathered in the diverse church of 500 you lead in worship is a single mother, her mentally handicapped child, a computer engineer at the local hospital, a machine shop worker, a truck driver, little children, an artist, high school students, university students and a garden supply store owner. As you step up to the microphone, you strum your first chord. What is worship? Your favorite music, led in front of a crowd?
Worship is…
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….watching your three month old baby who is out staring out of the window of an airliner at 34,000 feet. With nothing but a few inches of glass and metal between it and immense clouds, miles of countryside, cities and sky. At that moment you see both the small and fragile and the awesome and powerful of God’s creation at the same time. Realising both the magintitude and the precision of the Creator, that is worship.
…sitting in the back of the church during a memorial service for a 3 year old boy who without warning got sick on Thursday and passed away on Saturday, and watching from the back as the father, devistated beyond measure, somehow musters up the strength to lift his hands as the band fumbles through trying to lead this gathering in worship…
Worship is living out of the knowlege that God is worthy of our devotion regardless of circumstance. While our experiences of life can serve as inspirations pointing us to God, or barriers attempting to block His presence out, any “definition” of worship must be rooted in the knowlege that it is ultimately about Him and His Life, not us and ours.
Wow! I’d love to be in on this discussion live. You have touched several that I’ve lived or am living (having a 2 week old baby in the house).
I wonder if Worship is a moment when God chooses to break into our reality and reveal something about himself that we need to know or never new existed…and we are compelled to express out thanks to Him.
Thanks for the responses guys. Rich thoughts all round.
The students in the class will be seeking to “redefine” worship according to each context, moving us out of familiar definitions of worship into what may be psychologically (or anthropologically/theologically) unfamiliar terrain.
I.e. They have to redefine worship in a way that would be meaningful to the central figures in each of the micro-stories presented. Should be interesting….
1. Worship is an act of vulnerability; a surender before God and man.
2. Worship is finding peace in over whelming fear and rejoicing at the mercy of God.
3. Worship is celebration amidst protection and wonder.
4. Worship is an expression of the soul shared with each other.
5. Worship is staying in the silence; being still within the ‘madness.’
6. Worship is an expression of life. It is recognizing the value even if God is unknown.
7. Worship is the response of greif. A response of the spirit.
8. Worship is the heart beat within the soul, an echo of the greater celebration given rise to expression.
9. Worship is finding the heart of God and entering into his presence.
1) worship is being internally ‘free’.
2) worship is a fellowship with a friend who knows no ‘time’.
3) worship is a communication with the holiest of holies of spiritual powers.
4) worship is using the gifts God gave you. Worship is appreciating the gifts of other people.
5) worship is giving to God the little you have and finding rest in Him.
6) Worship is putting the well being of someone else abve the concerns you have for yourself.
7) Worship is the gathering of mourners to raise questions about loss, and have a place to lay anger and sorrow. Worship is allowing yourself to recieve peace.
9) Worship is submitting to God’s song line up.
man…
worship is awesome.
end of story.
worship is suzanne asking for you to come and join her in her suffering … and you having the courage to do it. i still weep and feel so incredibly honoured to have been with her. and yet … i remember her humanity … that is what makes it so beautiful and gives me so much hope.
1.Worship is being faithfull and willing through periods of highs and lows
2.Worship is being free and at peace in the presence of god
3.Worship is praising what you believe and having respect for the belief of others
4.Worship is sharing in other’s gifts
5.Worship is commitment
6.Worship is morality
7.Worship is comfort in times of trouble and dispair and comforting others in times of their dispair
8.Worship is enjoying a passion god has put in you
9.Worship is listening to god and allowing him to work through you
1, Worship is a form of praising the glory of God, in every situation. Worship could be him forgiving the people how falsely convicted him. Worship can be a vital question to God, like why?
Woship can be stepping out and being that shining light.
2,For the cancer patient, worship is a freedom, a love, a gift and for her to come close to her firend in heaven. For the friend worship might, in this case be a duty to her friend.
3,Worship can be of false idols but true worship is of the God of creation, the one and only.
4,Worship is an appreciation of gifts from God and the skills hes given us.
5,Worship is leading people but with an open/soft heart and leading them in times that you don’t feel like it. Again it’s a duty, aswell as a passion.
6,Worship is the prayer that went into the live of the families for years to come.
7,Worship is honoring her life and serving, in doing so.
8,Worship is the appreciation for music, is the thankfulness of hearing.
9,Worship is ministering to thier needs and not your own. Worship is finding a place where they can all meet with God.
Worship is…believing that God is in control and getting up everyday, committed to finding God’s image and/or purpose in those that he interacts with everyday: his fellow convicts, the guards, the visitors that he sees.
Worship is…holding onto the expectation and hope that she will be with her King in just a few hours, dancing before His throne free from pain. Worship is…honoring your friends request no matter how hard it is to worship God at that moment.
Worship is…remaining confident in who you worship and being open to doing His work among the darkness.
Worship is…finding yourself in awe of the amazing works that God inspires and the ability He gives people to create such masterpieces.
Worship is…crying out to God as you rock your child, thinking about how exhausted you are.
Worship is…being grateful for his courage and commitment to his job.
Worship is…comforting the parents, giving them space to be angry at whomever they choose.
Worship is…grooving to the music of the band and having an awesome time!
Worship is…a selection of prayerfully chosen songs that allow space for people to connect with God and being open to the Spirit’s leading: an upbeat song for the children to dance to or the university students to rock to, something mellow for the single mother to sing softly as she weeps from exhaustion or that the artist can paint to, a well known song that is comfortable for the truck drive, machine shop worker and computer engineer to sing, sit, dance or clap to.
1. Worship is thanksgiving, meditating on God’s blessings
2. Worship is bathing in the atmosphere of God
3. Worship is peace and confidence is Christ’s healing love
4. Worship is appreciation for the God given talents of others
5. Worship is patience and trust. This, too, shall pass
6. Worship is the inspiration to sacrifice
7. Worshi is searching for light in the darkness
8. Worship is allowing God to touch you even when you are not sure if He is there
9. Worship is connecting with the One who connects to everyone
1. Worship is…Having remorse for the people that have convicted him for the crime he didn’t commit.
2. Worship is…Not worrying about a time limit and just being in the presence of God.
3. Worship is…keeping your faith so strong that maybe it will speak to the village people
4. Worship is… loving the gifts that God has given to others
5. Worship is…praying that your baby will soon fall asleep and appreciating the little gifts in life……like a baby to have sleepless nights with
6. Worship is…risking their life by going into a burning building not knowing if there are any survivors to rescue.
7. Worship is…comforting the family in song that has lost a sweet young life
8. Worship is…The appreciation of a great musical gift even though it is secular music.
9. Worship is… coming together to worship even though we all come from different backgrounds and have conflicting daily schedules with each other, we still can worship corporately.
1. Worship is… to take Jesus’ words seriously: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2. Worship is… to long for God’s presence in your last hour here, truly knowing that He will be the first to welcome you there.
3. Worship is… to be rendered only to God, Christ Jesus, and to put no confidence in the flesh.
4. Worship is… to rejoice in the beauty of human creativity.
5. Worship is… to be grateful for those moments that I will glamorize sooner than I think.
6. Worship is… compassion put into action.
7. Worship is… to mourn with those who mourn.
8. Worship is… to gaze at the effect of music.
9. Worship is… to allow the Holy Spirit to overcome human differences and unite in the presence of God.
1. Convict: Worship is smiling everyday, in the tough and difficult situations
2. Cancer patient: Worship is having hope, looking hopeful, and just know hope is there
3. Nepal: Worship is fixing one’s eyes on Jesus, and live out his presence everyday
4. Sistine Chapel: Worship is going “WOW! this is crazy but you’re great, God…” and just drink in the magnificence
5. Won’t sleep baby: Worship is enjoying those kiddie tunes you play in hope of making the child sleep, and sing along to them, and finding God again like a simple child
6. Firefighter: Worship is finding peace and courage, and putting it into action, and appreciating others who do something in the name of “good”
7. Worship is to praise God for the things he has done–in the little girl, through the little girl, and crying with the family in grief, yet knowing she is safe.
8. Worship is just lifting your voice and your heart to the saviour.
9. Worship is letting the nervousness fall away, forgetting some lyrics, but just telling the crowd: “man our God is so Great!!”
1 worship is prayer, an inner conversation of the mind with God, thanking Him for a free life lived and identifying the blessings produced out of that freedom that live on.
2 for her, worship is anticipating the freedom of heaven, thanksgiving for a good life spent on earth and an expectation of dancing before God in His courts.
3 worship is honoring God’s call for sexual sacredness by refraining from participation in these acts.
4 worship is identifying the artistic techniques of each painting and appreciating God’s genius of creativity imprinted on the mind of man.
5 worship is seeking rest in the presence of God, a desperation for calm in the midst of chaos.
6 for him, worship is preserving the value of human life, a God-inspired thought. it is self-sacraficial because it sets aside the self-preservation for preservation of God’s creation.
7 for all, worship is a time of expressing the deepest pains of confusion and anger in indignity, fully alive and honest. it is confronting this mysterical will of God and seeking His reason/purpose for it.
8 for me, worship is enjoying the sounds of music, identifying myself with the human likeness of the crowd: in need for joy and searching for it in the freedom of self-expression.
9 worship is music inclined towards the Spirit of the moment, responding to the heart of God with the God-given gift of discernment for the needs of the congregation. It is being sensitive to the Spirit.
You are sitting across the table from a convict. He is in jail for a crime he didn’t commit, and he is a Christian. His heart is aching to get out, to see his family and friends again. He wants to meet with God, but finds the old ways of doing it just don’t connect with him in this place. He has no privacy. What is worship? Corporate singing?
Worship is…forgiving the people who were responsible for the crime he wasn’t. Worship is silently giving yourself over to God.
You are sitting at the bedside of a cancer patient, who will die in the next few hours. She is a dear friend, though hollow in her eyes and thin to the bone. She can speak to you by blinking her eyes, the only thing she has the energy to do. She used to dance in worship in her church; it was her favorite time with God. You are told by her friend that she wants you to sing worship songs to her, for as long as you want. What is worship? A happy time?
Worship is…the sacrifice of praising God while you are grieving. It’s doing something for someone when it’s difficult to do anything but sit there and cry.
You are in Nepal, amidst the swirl of dense religious activity, incense and sexual religious rites. Trusted people throughout the village tell you that some of the swami’s actually do levitate. What is worship? An encounter with spiritual power?
Worship is…not an encounter with a spiritual power. But we are made to worship, and we will worship something, any way we can.
You are in the Sistine Chapel, and you look up to see the magnificently-colored paintings of Michelangelo. What is worship? Creativity?
Worship is…anything you do for the glory of God.
You have a 3 month old infant, who won’t sleep through the night. She keeps you and your spouse awake with her endless crying, and you have no capacity to much of anything musical or creative day in and day out. What is worship? Leading or participating in a church worship team?
Worship is…doing what God has put before you to do. Personally, I’d rather sing while holding the crying baby x100 times more than leading a worship team!
A firefighter (you don’t know what he believes about God) is running into a burning building, after others who are unable to get out, as the twin towers fall. What is worship? A bunch of bad people doing good things?
Worship is…[I'm sort of unclear about this question]…who is bad? The firefighter?
You are asked to do the music for a funeral. It is the funeral of a little girl, 3 years old, who was struck by a car. What is worship? A wonderful church service?
Worship is…trusting that you can – trust – God in such a time.
You are at a Dave Matthews Band concert and the crowd of 70,000 is grooving to the music of the band. A girl screams out, “Marry me, Dave!” For 2 hours the crowd is mesmerized by the lyrics and music of the band. What is worship? Only music with Christian lyrics?
Worship is…not only music with Christian lyrics. There are often things in songs that are non-Christian lyrically that can inspire a person to worship somewhere in their heart.
Gathered in the diverse church of 500 you lead in worship is a single mother, her mentally handicapped child, a computer engineer at the local hospital, a machine shop worker, a truck driver, little children, an artist, high school students, university students and a garden supply store owner. As you step up to the microphone, you strum your first chord. What is worship? Your favorite music, led in front of a crowd?
Worship is…bringing all these different people made in the image of God together in a place to appreciate and focus on him.
1. Worship is.. using God as you rock when the raging rapids of life torment you. It’s Depending upon the Lord whole heartedly.
2. Worship is spending time with god in anyway you can.
3. Worship is god moving in your life, and can be found in the simple act of just breathing.
4. Worship is finding joy in what he does to us and what he does through us.
5. Worship is being a good parent, like god. Which is why we call him the father.
6.Worship is being in 2nd place, someone always should come in first before you.
7. Worship is finding peace in the eye of a hurricane. Although there was a horrible loss, the little one will now only feel joy forever.
8. Worship is putting god into things you love.
9. Worship is your way to share your love of god with him, and anyone else who needs to hear about it ( so everyone).
Worship is why where here on earth… To praise him and serive him, till he calls us home to him.
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