final thoughts on worship (for now)

so my initial thoughts on worship centred around the general feeling that worship isn't scratching where it itches. people who, through worship, have briefly tasted God now long for more. other people who, through worship, have found themselves transformed in some way now long to continue along that process of transformation. and, if something is missing from worship, i believe that looking for innovations within the current methodology is not the way to go about finding whatever is missing, i.e. there's no point in hankering after 'more intimate worship' because a) that is what we're already doing for quite a while, and b) it is patently not working if people are still unsatisfied.

following up that bunch of thoughts, i wondered if one way of arriving at a satisfactory answer is to ask the question 'what is worship for?' and to then consider the secondary purposes of worship which God has graciously arranged. so, although worship is primarily for God, he also has made it so that worship changes us and that we enjoy worship.

so final thought - let's start by asking another question: 'how does worship work?' as briefly discussed last time, the process of worship (bringing images and thoughts of God before our minds) is a form of meditation. by immersing our minds in correct images of God, our trust in God is built up. learning to trust God means we unlearn the ways of the World (trusting no-one but ourselves for our safety and welfare) and anyone who pursues this will know that it brings about tremendous change in the deep heart of a person that cannot leave the behaviour and attitude unaffected.

always, always ask 'yes, but how?'

i love hearing what worship does to people. i love hearing how wonderful worship is. write glorious prose about the intimate language of love that flows between Father, Son and Spirit and that all we are doing is joining in with that ongoing Trinitarian ecstasy! i love it and can't get enough. but write more about how we do it. write in simple terms how an average human being, fraught with human concerns of money, hunger, self-esteem, lack of guitar skills, tone-deafness, can do this. and demonstrate it! demonstrate that a worship leader doesn't have to worship with a guitar. demonstrate that you don't have to sing. because people will hear what you say, but do what you do. and while we can (and often do) wax lyrical about how worship is more than singing songs, we do not demonstrate to people otherwise. our common experiences of 'joining with the Trinity' remain entombed in 'corporate sung worship' and we do not give people any other viable models of worshipping (by 'viable' i mean a) do-able and b) experientially true.)

if worship is meditation, then we need to teach people to do it. (we also need correct subject matter to meditate with, but thankfully theological analysis is done on a song well before we ever buy the CD.) if worship changes us, envigourates us (literally 'fills us with life') then we need to teach people how to do it. to do the first thing, we must stop looking for the 'cutting edge' and trusting in our own smartness - God may be mysterious, but he is always accessible. and to do the second thing we need to be serious about doing it ourselves.