Dear Church family,
Recently I have felt God tugging at my heart to begin to
share some Biblical concepts about worship with you. Since I have been put in
the position of Worship Director, it is my responsibility to make sure those
whom I am leading in worship understand what we are doing. In our culture of consumerist,
experiential, and “my-way-or-the-highway” worship it is very easy for people to
lose sight of the Bible’s teachings on the matter. There are actually right
ways and wrong ways to worship! However, surprisingly to some, these correct
and incorrect methods of worship have little and even nothing to do with the
style of the music!
It is my prayer that
the following articles will teach you something that you did not know about worship or
maybe re-enforce something you already knew about worship. Ultimately I want to
help you to grow in your relationship with the God who is most worthy of our
worship. May He be glorified in all that we do!
The first concept I’d like to share with you is the one of
the most important things that anyone can understand about worship (other than
the fact that God is to be the only subject of our worship). This is the fact
that our Worship must be shaped by Christ and the Gospel that he came to
proclaim and fulfill! In worship we gather together to hear the gospel, participate
in the gospel, and proclaim the gospel to one another.
One of the ways that we make sure that our services are just
that is often referred to as “The Dialogue of Worship.” It has a lot to do with
the order of our worship services and why we do what we do when we do it. To
summarize it briefly, it is the way in which we engage with God in a
conversation… some might even call it a dialogue!
And as we all know (some of us better than others) a conversation is not
one person talking at another person. A conversation is two or more parties
engaging with each other, listening to what the other party says and responding
appropriately. In worship the ‘parties’ that we engage with are God and the
other people gathered.
The best Biblical example of this dialogue can be found in
Isaiah 6:1-13. Before you continue reading I encourage you to open up your
Bible or your internet search engine of choice and look up those verses. It’s
an awesome example of heavenly worship and a wonderful display of the Gospel and
how we are to respond to it!
Notice the first 4 verses we see God’s character revealed.
The heavenly creatures are declaring that He is “Holy, holy, holy.” Let’s also
take note that Isaiah did not get to see God because he went looking. He saw
God because God showed himself to Isaiah.
In worship we call this Adoration.
In verse 5 we see Isaiah responding to God in confession. “Woe
is me…” It’s when we see God’s character that we realize our own character:
unclean. The glory of God not only displays his holiness, it illumines our blemishes.
Isaiah experiences this first hand and responds accordingly with a confession
of his sinful character. In worship we call this Confession.
In verses 6-7 it’s God’s turn in the dialogue. He responds
to Isaiah’s confession by the cleansing touch of a coal from the altar. He then
says “See this coal has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your
guilt atoned for.” Notice how not only does God make sure Isaiah’s sins have
been forgiven, He also makes sure Isaiah understands the forgiveness that he
has received. What wonderful grace! Not only does God forgive us once and for
all, He constantly reminds us of that forgiveness! In worship we call this Assurance.
In verse 8 we see Isaiah’s response to this wonderful grace.
When God ask’s “Who shall I send…” Isaiah without hesitation responds, “Here am
I, send me!”. Paul encourages the same response from us in Romans 12:1. He
says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of Gods mercy offer
you bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God – this is your true
and proper worship.” You see, when we experience God’s mercy there is only one
logical response and that is worshiping God in all of our life. In worship we
call this Thanksgiving.
Next, in verses 9-12, God gives Isaiah instructions. He
tells him what to do and how to minister to the people of Israel. Basically,
God gives Isaiah His Word. He tells Isaiah what to say to the people. In
worship we call this Instruction.
Lastly, God assures Isaiah that He will uphold the covenant
blessing that he promised Israel, in spite of the judgment that will occur. In
verse 13 God says, “But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut
down, so the holy seed (referring to the remnant of Israelites that will be
left) will be the stump in the land.” God sends Isaiah out reminding him of His
covenant blessing and assuring him that He will keep His promises. In worship
we call this the Sending, or Blessing.
Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Wow AJ, this is great
stuff, but I’m not sure if God meant for this passage to be a model for our
worship services… Wasn't he just showing the calling of Isaiah?” Why, yes!
Thank you for bringing that up! Here’s a quote from the book Christ Centered
Worship by Bryan Chapell (the book I took the outline of this passage from).
My purpose for outlining this
passage in this way is to point out that when faithful persons encounter God’s
glory, there are common responses. Isaiah’s pattern of response also is not
unique. Check out Jeremiah 1:4-19 or Ezekiel 1:26-3:15 (p. 103).
Bryan Chapell goes on to say that if this is a common
pattern of what happens when people meet with God in the Bible, shouldn’t we
expect similar patterns to be reflected in the worship of others who encounter
the glory of God in the testimony of his Word (p. 103)?
Here’s the meat and potatoes of the matter: following this
pattern in our worship services insures that the Gospel is proclaimed in the
whole service, not just the sermon. If our goal is for our worship services to
be focused on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and shaped by that same Gospel (which
it is) this Dialogue of Worship is a valuable pattern to follow.
*If you’re interested in reading more about this Dialogue of
Worship I’d encourage you to read the books: The Dialogue of Worship by Milburn
Price, or Christ Centered Worship by
Bryan Chapell.
