Trinitarian Worship

My goal for this article is to give a brief summary of what Trinitarian Worship is, and is not. I also hope to give some practical points of application about how Trinitarian Worship informs (or at least should inform) our Worship services.

Trinitarian Worship is not Unitarian Worship. Unitarian Worship is the worship of those who believe they have a direct line to God the Father. You might be Unitarian if you believe that worship is primarily something that humans do. Or if you believe that you can directly access God the Father, offer him a sacrifice of praise and have him be pleased with it. If you believe that the burden of creating an acceptable offering of praise to God is on you, you might have a Unitarian view of worship.

Trinitarian Worship is not emotion driven. You might have an emotionally driven view of worship if you’re only goal when you come to worship is to experience an emotional high. Or perhaps your view of worship is emotionally driven if you only sing things like “I want to feel your presence.” If you are constantly seeking a moving experience when you are in worship, you probably have an emotionally driven view of it. Eugene Peterson says this about how we feel and worship, “We can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship (p.54, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction).” We worship because God commands us to worship, not because we want to experience an emotional high.

So then what is Trinitarian Worship? James B. Torrance in the book Worship, Community & The Triune God of Grace, says: “Trinitarian Worship is when we the Church participate by the Spirit in the incarnate Son’s communion with the Father.” Trinitarian Worship is the Father’s downward movement through the incarnation of the Son and by the Spirit’s work in us. We as Calvinists believe that God has saved us through the Holy Spirit quickening our hearts to accept Christ as our savior in order than we may be right with the Father. Trinitarian worship is the reflection of that very same process. We approach the Father as those who are in Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Paul talks about it in Ephesians 2:18 “For through Him (Christ) we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” This Trinitarian theology of worship emphasizes the idea that it is only by God’s volition that we are able to engage with Him. God is the primary actor in worship.

Also, in Trinitarian Worship we are invited to participate in Divine Community. The relationship between the Father, Son, and Spirit has been described with the Greek word “Perichoresis.” In sum, this word describes the co-indwelling, same substance yet distinct persons of the Trinity. Perichoresis helps us to understand the mutual submission and glorification of each member of the Trinity. There is perfect unity, yet constant submission and glorification going on between each person. I've had perichoresis illustrated to me with the image of a divine dance. In this dance each member of the Three is distinct, and yet weaving between each other in perfect rhythm working to glorify the next, all the while submitting to each other in perfect love and unity displaying the oneness of the Three. We see a great example of this mutual submission and glorification in John 17:1 where Jesus prays “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” The Spirit is not left out, in John 16:14 Jesus says of the Holy Spirit; “He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.” It's this divine community that we get to be enveloped into in Trinitarian Worship.

How does this change the way that we think about Worship on Sundays? It comforts us. We are relieved to find out that there is nothing we can do to offer a perfect sacrifice of praise to God so we lean more heavily on to Christ, who takes our sacrifice of praise and makes it holy and pleasing to Him. We are comforted because we know that even when we do not feel like worshiping it is the Spirit that will move us, help us, and intercede for us. We are comforted because we know that God is the primary actor in worship and that even if things don't seem to go correctly, God will direct worship as He pleases. We are comforted because we are invited into the perfect community of the Trinity.


Lastly, Trinitarian Worship changes how we think about worship because it reminds us that the primary reason for our worship is Glory. Our eyes are drawn away from ourselves, our own wants and needs, as we participate in the divine mutual submission and glorification constantly occurring between the Three Persons. We are comforted as we are reminded that even as we give glory to God, we have great hope because we get to share in His glory.