We have begun discussing worship at Thorington Road Baptist Church. I am most excited about this discussion/dialogue/debate. Growing up during a transitional era of the church, a.k.a. the 90’s, has allowed me the opportunity to see/witness/participate in/experience many different perspectives on issues and particularly worship. Let me lay out my presupposition and build around it. Christians modern, contemporary, and postmodern have two definitions of worship. (For those of you that don’t know me, I argue that there are actually three groups now found in the evangelical church. These three see the world differently and have much different paradigms for church. I will discuss this in another blog as I continue to flesh this out.)
The first definition is accepted by all which is the Sunday School/Biblical answer that worship is a lifestyle. I remember growing up and hearing Romans 12:1 over and over. Worship is a lifestyle not an hour of the week. Here is where the trouble comes for me; the second definition is the functional definition. Oftentimes, no most of the time, the functional definition is what we end up basing and centering our lives around. The functional definition for all three generational categories places “me” as the center and “my” experience (emotional, psychological, intellectual, etc. whatever) as the most important aspect of worship. Church is a shopping mall and we are consumers looking for a worship commodity which moves us and we will shop around until we find what “we” are looking for.
In my opinion this is where we must attack and do battle as preachers and teachers. We must move our people from the functional to the Biblical. The functional places man in the center, the Biblical model says everything we do is done for God’s glory and our Sunday morning worship service should be an overflow of our ongoing everyday walk with God. We come to over ourselves at his feet. I pray that God help me to get this and allow me to present this to our people.
