https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OS82PwdEuEo# There's a lot of discussion (or, at least, there has been in certain circles) on the approach to and the order of worship. It's definitely an important topic; our vision of who God is matters, and our understanding of his character and how he desires to be known by us ultimately matters for a number of reasons: for one, if God is the object of our worship, the way he desires to be approached really should affect our approach. If it says in Scripture that in prayer we should let our words be few (Eccl. 5:2), then we need to change our prayer life to accommodate that heart. If it says in Hebrews that we have full access to God and to His presence (Hebrews 10:19-22), that should fundamentally affect our view of intimacy with God. There are some big nonnegotiable's, but my experience has been that for most churches and worship leaders, there is an element of uncertainty in knowing what I'm allowed to do in terms of worship. I have personally seen worship leaders get torn apart in the push and pull of cultural pressures in a church community--if we're not careful, we can all very easily get eaten alive by the demands of individual agendas. That can be a dangerous tyranny when our theology hijacks Scripture. Our theology always has to be kept in check by the word of God, and our theology needs to be rewritten when it's heretical. Here are a couple things that we know that worship is: 1) Worship is eternal - we get a couple glimpses in Scripture (Isaiah 6, Rev. 4) of worship in the context of heaven. It seems as though there is this parallel reality where worship is going on nonstop, forever. It's dynamic, it is passionate, it is reverent. It is such a powerful experience that when temporal things touch it, they are changed for the rest of history. 2) Worship is seeing God as he is and responding -- there is an exchange that happens, where we literally behold the God of the universe and we can't stay the same. Moses was changed at the burning bush (Exodus 3); Paul emerged from the man Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9); Simon saw Jesus as the Christ and became Peter (Matthew 16). We receive a vision of God as he is, and something about that realigns our purpose with the way that it should be. 3) Worship is dynamic -- Jacob wrestles God (Gen 32), David cries out in agony, praises naked in the streets, questions the length of his trial. Believers sing hymns in the Acts, an eternal cloud of witnesses lies prostrate for over an hour in Revelation, then erupts with the cry: WORTHY. This next and final point is why I wrote this reflection on worship today: all of these elements should remind us that in the context of God being glorified, worship is an experience that we enter into with immense freedom. I may not understand all of the elements in a Catholic or Anglican liturgy; I may not personally feel the tugging of the Holy Spirit to raise a physical banner over a group of people or blow a ram's horn (both are biblical images in worship by the way--my acoustic guitar isn't). But I can say that God has used these and many more experiences, images, instruments, formats, and elements to draw people to him and see them changed. We can talk about our own communities culture and how to best serve people in the context of our city or region, but it's a good reminder to remember these things bear absolutely no weight when it comes to what is ok to do in worship in the eyes of God. It's freeing to know that God is not limited by our formats, and yet at the same time, he chooses to honor himself--and us--through them. My prayer is that if you have been burdened with the question of what is pleasing to God in worship, that you are released to worship as he leads you and rest in the truth that he is pleased with you as His beloved son, His beloved daughter, through the work of Jesus. Teach us, God, to honor you above all else, to run to you, To be changed by your heart and your glory As we see you face to face
