Worship—Waste of Time
or Whole Life Project?

By Neil Earle
Pastor, Glendora, California congregation

When I was reassigned to the U.S. field ministry in 1996 my superintendent briefed me with, “The biggest issue in the church right now is music.”

Music?

Well, yes, so I had heard. And we in WCG were not unique in going through that. Major denominations joked that the Music Ministry was now known as “the War Department.” Even now, it's still pretty brave of Northern Light to tackle the subject. It's important, though. I'm sure other articles will explain that the word “worship” derives from our English word “worthy,” meaning only God is worthy of worship.

That's important to keep in mind. After all the ups and downs we have been through it seems two or three basic positions have evolved in our approach to worship – contemporary music, more traditional music and various middle positions along the spectrum.

Variety a key

But whoops – I've done it. My editor doesn't want me to cover musical styles as such. He wants me to help explain that worship in the Bible is a much broader subject than music, as big as that is. Which is too bad because I had a whole dissertation ready on how varied the Bible's approach to music is, from informal “Irish folk song” spontaneity (1 Samuel 10:5, perhaps) to the massed bands and orchestral symphonies David and Solomon arranged for the Temple (1 Chronicles 25).

Oh, well. Some other time, perhaps. Just the fact that the Bible presents such a variety of music – from laments to dances to satires to protest songs – this should get us thinking. Worship is more than music. It is a whole approach to life with God, the way we approach God, the way He wants us to enjoy him, wherever and whenever. We simply must hold that broader vision before us when we discuss worship.

In Worship as Pastoral Care, William Willimon asks, “Are we substituting the experience of newness for the experience of worship.” He quotes C.S. Lewis to deadly effect: “The charge is, ‘Feed my sheep,'” not “‘run experiments on my rats.'” Ouch. That hits close to home. Here's a longer quote from this savvy counselor to ministers: “Too much modern worship has degenerated into a personality cult for the adoration of the preacher or a shallow narcissistic subjectivity that builds on the latest pop psychologies and fads,” says Willimon. “[W]orship is not up-to-dateness but reformation…Nor does it mean to hide in the past. It means to carry out better than yesterday the task of singing a new song unto the Lord” (page 23).

Along those same lines comes this quote from Marva Dawn, an adjunct professor at Regent College. She is famous for boldly and humorously debunking shallowness in worship. Her title A Royal “Waste” of Time is not only attention-getting. She really does believe in the power of worship. As she says, an MBA might well see worship as an inefficiency, an “add on” in a cost-effective service. Not so, says Marva. The rationale behind godly worship comes from an altogether different realm. Worship takes us out of ourselves. We worship because our God deserves it. While she sometimes teases modern songs for their lack of focus (she hilariously skewers “Celebrate Jesus, Celebrate”) she also exposes the self-centeredness inherent in old favorites (“and the joy we share/ as we tarry there/ none other/ has ever known” – what presumption!). Mainly she is worth reading because of her almost off-handed definitions of worship. Here's one that will suffice for this article:

“Worship is a total immersion in the eternity of God's splendor for the sole purpose of honoring Him” (page 11).

Worship as a total immersion – a total life response? Whatever could that mean?

Crisis worship

Let's start with Jonah. Did he worship God in the belly of the whale? You bet he did. He gave us one of the most effective and meaningful prayers in the Old Testament simply because life's experiences had turned him back to God in submission, praise and prayer. Here he is stinking of whale juice, with weeds and algae wrapped around him yet offering up fervent worship:

“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple…But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, Salvation comes from the Lord (Jonah 2:7-9).”

There are important elements of worship – praying, singing, sacrificing, vowing, testifying – all from the whale's belly.

So what's all this fuss about the right position in prayer or needing a crowd of bedazzled people to hear your great pipes in order to worship properly? I well remember the trapped miners in Springhill, Nova Scotia in 1957. They lived on songs and hymns when their food and light ran out. The old hymns served the purpose. Caleb Rushton claimed, “We'll live on songs and hope” according to the moving “Ballad of Springhill.” Paul and Silas had the same thing going for them in the jail in Philippi (Acts 16:12). The WCG has always known that “making a joyful noise” is more important than sounding like Celine Dion.

Rule one in whole life worship, then, is: Let life's experiences turn you back to God in praise, thanksgiving and sacrifice.

Formal,ceremonial worship

However, the Bible clearly upholds formal, ceremonial worship. We alluded to David arranging his 288-voice choir and there is Nehemiah making financial outlays for the singers (Nehemiah 7:72-73). What about the early church – weren't they more humble, folksy, “real,” down to earth? Well, yes, except their first meeting place was the Temple area – Solomon's Colonnade, to be precise (Acts 3:11). This beautiful structure glistened in the sunlight with gleaming pillars flanking one of the most awe-inspiring sanctuaries ever built. So big production worship is not wrong. A lonely Christian on the German-Czech border once asked me if it was okay to watch Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral service. “I'm sure it keeps your thoughts upwards and Godwards,” I replied. It did indeed. Television can help isolated believers to worship with a congregation, even vicariously. And congregational, big-production worship has its place.

David's chorale extravaganzas highlight the participatory element in whole life worship. Quite frankly, we need to go to church. The Bible abounds with this teaching. Think of the psalmist hacking out his troubles in the sanctuary, or Jesus discussing Scripture with the wise doctors, or the brief vignette of the Pharisee and the Publican at the altar, the twelve disciples with Jesus in the upper room, the anxious assembly praying for Peter's release (Acts 12:1-17).

There is a time for structured, formal, “big production” worship. It reminds us how important occasional and sometimes regular “Sinai spectaculars” can be for our whole life development. We are not solitary souls. We are part of a body. Real life needs drive us to formal worship where we can experience more of the sense of the holy. The fancy term is “mysterium tremendum.” This desire for something extra explains Hannah's presence at the tabernacle door (1 Samuel 1:10 -11). In formal participatory worship we can take our needs to God in a way that more boldly reaffirms our commitment. A wedding ceremony is a worship service for those very reasons.

All this ties in with Marva Dawn's best reasons for going to church:

That last point was true for Marva Dawn for a good part of a year and it underscores how life's experiences should lead us to the temple. We need reassurance in the company of other believers. As the old song says: “Hearts can inspire/ Other hearts with their fire.” This is put brilliantly in Psalm 73: “But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold…till I entered the sanctuary of God” (verses 2, 17). What an insight into the brokenness of our lives being knit back together by the beloved community.

As a pastor friend recently reminded me: “The church is Christ's idea. We need it.” As the song says: “We are the Body/ Of which the Lord is head/ Called to obey Him/ Now risen from the dead”. Our individual lives are like streams designed to flow towards that place where God's people have been called together. Participation. It can help mend our lives back together. More importantly, hearing about brethren suffering in New Orleans or sermons about Paul in prison reminds us that our individual story is part of a much bigger narrative, one that stretches from here to eternity.

Mystical worship

Robert Benton ends his award-winning movie “Places in the Heart” on a mystical note. In the 1930s a dusty community on the Great Plains is meeting for worship. In this pew over there is a white peace officer who had been accidentally killed by a drunken black youth who now sits next to him. His widow is beside him as well with the two children she had been left to rear on a broken-down farm. Over there is a black farmer whom the Klan had chased out of town. He sits alongside town leaders who periodically don the white hoods to lead racist attacks. The camera picks up on a blind man, an elderly woman previously swept away by a tornado, and an adulterous husband clutching the hand of his now forgiving wife. They are taking communion. As they pass the bread and wine they repeat to each other “the peace of God.”

Communion is the most mystical thing average Christians do. As a fellowship we haven't used that word much. Yet every Christian truly touched by the miracle of new life, Holy Spirit life inside of them, is a bit of a mystic. Jesus was. He spent forty days alone in the wilderness. Paul knew that solitary experience as well. Down through the ages men and women feeling the need for a deepening sense of God's presence have trod the mystical path. In the most inspiring cases, though, their solitary meditations have led to greater effect in the real world. It reminds us of Jesus returning from private communion with God being well able to remove obstacles that resisted his disciples (Mark 9:14-29).

What are we saying? Simply this: Mystical worship at communion time lifts us out of life's mundane round. This is the centerpiece of whole life worship, as Benton's film shows. It flows out of and accompanies our individual, daily experiences. It releases God's people for acts of sacrificial service in the real world. Food banks, shelters, cancer drives – these activities are our “spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:2).

Something inside of all active Christians makes them want to be more useful to their Lord. This is where the spiritual disciplines come in, always seen as part of the mystical side of worship – fasting, praying, meditation, aloneness, silence. It's the kinder, gentler side of the faith. And let's never forget also hours-long periods of deep, searching, transformational Bible study where we reconnect once again with our one, true Center.

Worship. What an enormous subject! Jesus was worshipping on the cross. He prayed. He pleaded. He cried out. He quoted Scripture. He wrestled. He submitted. Finally his wrestling paid off in the conversion of a thief, the conversion of us all. That is effective worship, probably one reason John Wesley saw communion bread and wine as excellent tools of evangelism.

There are as many approaches to worship as there are Christians to practice them. But to have His richest blessing, effective worship leads us back to that total immersion in a God who is always ahead of us and whose ultimate reality no one song or style or building will fully enclose.