Moving on from the past, present & future worldview that I wrote last week, these are my thoughts on biblical worship:

What is worship?

To worship is to come before God in humility and reverence [1], recognising His ultimate authority and power. In this place of submission, our worship is also expressed in service [2]; our lives laid down as sacrifices to Him. We are to live lives full of love, goodness, wisdom and creativity – all to the end of learning to rule and reign with the living Christ [3]. In choosing to make human beings in His image [4], God crafted us to reflect His nature, back to Himself and to the world He created – given the capacity to love Him because He first loved us [5]. God, in His mercy, has provided a promise of restoration woven into our past, present and future. In Jesus’ death and resurrection, God’s intention for us to be eternally reconciled with Him was made complete. As we respond by laying our lives before Him in worship, He makes us more truly human [6].

What does music and creativity have to do with it?

As we seek to reflect God’s image, we must return to worship to keep this reflection fresh and authentic. As image-bearers of God, we emulate He who is the source of all creativity. Music stirs our hearts. It aids us as we approach Him with high praise, fervent petition, celebration, bold witness, sane wisdom, calls to warfare, intimate abandonment, breaking and healing hearts, prophetic drive, secure hope. God’s people form and are formed from this kind of praise and prayer [7]. Our identity is found, nurtured and celebrated within the place of community [8] and we reflect back to God the new creation He is doing in and through us. As we express our God-given creativity in our worship, it allows us to celebrate Him as He restores us.

How does worship further the Kingdom Story in the world

Worship draws us into God’s presence, His Spirit moves among us and His power is released in us [9]. Through Jesus we are being restored, to become fully alive, glorifying the God whose image we bear. ‘Heaven’ is not just a future reality, but a present one [10] and we proclaim that story through our worship. We declare the truth of the kingdom of God; His rule and reign; the means by which He is renewing and re-creating His people and the world in which we live. We sing the stories which tell of the future that Jesus’ resurrection made possible and of how that future is already being expressed now. Our worship sustains and nourishes our fellowship with one another as we begin to experience glimpses of the communion we were made to have with God in all its fullness and goodness [11]. When we sing ‘Thy kingdom come’…” we are not just calling out for the age to come where God brings to perfection what He began in Jesus. We are also asking ‘…that God’s will be done here, and now, today’[12].

How should all of the above affect how we lead worship as worship leaders?

As worship leaders we need to strive for a vibrant and intimate relationship with God. As we authentically model this submission to Him, we facilitate people giving their lives to God, and God infusing His life into the hearts of His people [13]. We provide a space for Him to move as He so wishes. We express the truth that Jesus rescues us from our terrible situations, heals past hurts, comforts us in our pain and sorrow, transforms and re-creates us, that He is the fulfilment of our hope. We sing of Jesus the liberator, who rescues, who makes as new, better than before. Jesus said He came to ‘proclaim good news to the poor…freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free’ [14]. We must make those words of promise come alive as a living, breathing expression of hope to others –through our worship and through the worship of those who stand alongside us.

[1] Proskuneo – (greek) to bow/prostrate oneself in reverence/humility
[2] Latreuo – (greek) service/sacrifice
[3] Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Theology: The Nature of Human Beings
[4] Gen 1:26
[5] 1 John 4:19
[6] NT Wright, Simply Christian
[7] Don Williams, Worship Fit For A King, Inside Worship, vol.44
[8] Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Theology: The Nature of Human Beings
[9] Don Williams, Worship Fit For A King, Inside Worship, vol.44
[10] NT Wright, Simply Christian
[11] Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Theology: The Nature of Worship (Audio)
[12] GE Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom
[13] Dan Wilt, Essentials in Worship Theology: A Theological Synthesis
[14] Luke 4:18