Worship in a Biblical and Relevant Manner

Worship is the act of honoring God as creator, provider and Savior; expressing our adoration and dependence upon him through praise and thanksgiving from our hearts, by words and through our obedience.

Worship is a personal and corporate act of love and devotion to God. Each believer worships the Lord personally each day and as part of a local congregation. In the Old Testament, worshipers congregated in the temple on the feast days. Later, they also gathered for worship in synagogues.

It is done in spirit. Worship is deeply spiritual and often expresses itself in our emotions. Worship is very heart-felt. Worship is also done in truth. It must be worshiping God with the correct, Biblical understanding of who he is. The principles of worship may be derived only from God’s Word.
Six usual parts of public worship are recognized in God’s Word:
1. The Bible will be read for all to hear and follow.
2. The message of the preacher will be the interpretation and application of God’s Word alone.
3. The minister will welcome the people in God’s name and dismiss them with his blessing.
4. The minister will lead the congregation in public prayer.
5. The congregation will sing songs of praise, thanksgiving, confession, offering and petition to the Lord.
6. The tithes and gifts will be received as the offerings of thanksgiving from the Lord’s people.

Worship is directed to God alone and – when in the assembly – it is also done in a way that is edifying to all the worshipers. Therefore worship is both vertical (to God) and horizontal (edifying to the worshiper).[1] Because corporate worship is also horizontal, it must also be relevant to all the worshipers.

A good example of the need for relevance is found in 1 Corinthians 14:23-25 --
"So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? 24 But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, 25 and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"

Tongues are a spiritual gift no longer.[2] Believers in the Corinthian church were abusing this gift (which may indicate that many of them were pretending the gift). If they were speaking in tongues in the worship service, and if an unbeliever entered, he would not be able to relate to what they were doing and would think they were crazy. The Apostle Paul vindicated the judgment of the unbeliever. He is justified in not being able to understand what was going on and what was being said.

The application for us is that even an unbeliever (seeker) walking into the worship service ought to be able to relate to and understand what is going on and what is being said. This is how people, untrained in the faith, may be converted. Language in worship that is too archaic or too intellectual should be avoided. All language in worship – in the message and in the singing – should be comprehensible and relevant.

The relevance of language, lyrics and music:
Strive to keep the pastor’s message and the lyrics understandable. Avoid archaic language with which people untrained in the church are unfamiliar. This is not “dumbing down;” this is avoiding tongues. Tunes can also be archaic and very strange-sounding to people unfamiliar with them. Historically, church music has always trailed changing styles in music.
[1] To edify means to build up. Vertical and horizontal worship, see John M. Frame, "Worship in Spirit and in Truth".
[2] Tongues. Literally languages. The charismatic gift to speak in another language unlearned. It is miraculously given by the Holy Spirit. This gift ceased with the early church. The church father’s testified to its disappearance. In 1 Corinthians 14:20-22, Paul wrote that tongues were intended as a sign for the Jews that Messiah has come.

Faith
What are some of the most important teachings of the Christian Faith?

1. God is the almighty creator. He is full of grace, mercy, peace and truth. He is completely content. God is love and he will save his people from their sins. God is light and he will guide his people in the truth. He exists in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three persons of God are equal in power and glory – three persons in one God.

2. He created everything by the power of his Word. He created us in his spiritual and intellectual likeness and gave us authority over creation to take care of it for human welfare. Adam and Eve were the original pair of human beings. All human beings have descended from them.

3. Adam and Eve were created holy and righteous with free wills. They could obey or disobey God. They sinned disobeyed God when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They alienated themselves from him and became sinful and miserable. God judged them. Their punishment was death. All of us have inherited their guilt and sinful natures; consequently, we are all sinners.

4. Because God is holy and just he must judge and condemn those who break his holy and just laws. His judgment is eternal exclusion from himself and torment in that place Jesus called Gehenna (the rubbish heap outside the walls of Jerusalem, hell).

5. In his love and compassion for us, God revealed to Adam his covenant to save us from our sins. This covenant is revealed in his holy Word, the Bible. All the books contained in the Bible were written by men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit so that their words are really God’s Words. God’s plan and promise was to send his Son to obey the law for us and then to die for our sins.

6. The eternal Son of God is that same Jesus Christ who was born of the virgin Mary by the miracle of the Holy Spirit. He lived a sinless life, taught the truth of God’s covenant, healed the sick and raised the dead. After three years of ministry, those who hated him crucified him to death. On the cross he suffered the punishment we deserve. Because he died for us, we are released from judgment and condemnation. He rose from the dead on the third day and when he returns he will raise us from the dead and gather us to himself and the Father. In this way we will always be with our loving Lord.

7. To be accepted by God through Jesus, we must repent of our sins, believe in him as our Savior and follow him as our master. We cannot believe by our own strength. He enables us to believe and repent by the power of the Holy Spirit. He will give us his Holy Spirit if we humbly ask him in prayer.

8. God does not want his people to live in isolation from each other. His people are the holy assembly, the church, the collective witness. Jesus commands his people to join in fellowship for instruction in the faith, worship and works of service. We do this for his glory and to be his witnesses on earth.