Vow III: Worship

A God-Centered Life

Is there a more talked about word in our pop Christian culture than "worship"?

I have to wonder how much we hamstring the word "worship" in our Christian-ese lexicon with "worship music", "worship leader", "worship service", "worship center", etc. Sadly, at some point our contemporary Christian culture has turned the word "worship" into an adjective, and for some reason it has become equated with music. It's a word that appears exclusively in Christian contexts.

It hasn't always been this way. The word "worship" as translated in our English bibles comes from the Hebrew 'abd. It is a verb, and it means "to work" or "to serve." It is an extremely common word in the Old Testament, occurring in 964 verses. And Yahweh isn't always the object. The noun form of the root means "slave" or "servant".

"Worship ('abd, i.e. serve) YHWH with gladness; come before him with joyful songs." (Psalm 100:2)

"And no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work ('abd) the ground." (Genesis 2:5)

"Even on my servants ('abd, i.e. worshippers), both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days." (Joel 2:29)

"Surely the Sovereign YHWH does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants ('abd, i.e. worshippers) the prophets." (Amos 3:7)

So how does this affect our idea of what worship is?

Certainly, music can be worship. But it very often times isn't, and it definitely is not the only activity in which we worship God. Perhaps I'm idealistic, but I hope that my every breath is worship to God. I hope that I can worship God in all the mundane details of my life - when I brush my teeth, when I say hello to strangers, when I sit down to eat, when I wash dishes, when I'm reading the day's liturgy, when I'm reading a theology textbook, and yes, when I'm sitting among my community of faith on Sunday morning. My so called "quiet time" need not be limited to my nose in my bible.

How can we worship together as one house? I don't think this has to be limited to some song service scheduled for sometime during the week. I think there's something deeper and more meaningful to corporate worship, but I don't have a clear picture of what that might look like.

I just know it has something to do with getting myself out of the center and getting God in that place. I know it has something to do with effort and work and service.

I remember last year visiting a megachurch in Louisville with McAnally and above the doors of the sanctuary as we entered were the huge gold letters "WORSHIP CENTER." And I turned to Jason and said, "If I ever get the say so, I'm putting those words over the doors on the inside so we see those words as we enter the world."

The whole world is my worship center.