There are more generations alive today than ever before in modern history. Making up the membership of most churches in America, from the smallest rural church to the largest mega-church, are five or six generations of people. Life experience and cultural influences change over time, ensuring that the youngest of these generations sees things much differently than the oldest does. Given the generational differences, how do we plan worship for all these different people? Do we expect them all to worship in the same way? Or do we plan for each generation differently?

Many churches have addressed this dilemma by scheduling multiple worship services of varying styles. One service might include “contemporary” music, use a band, and project lyrics on a screen. Another might make use of “traditional” instruments like an organ and piano and use a hymnal. And I’ve known churches to offer a third type of service, which they call “blended,” which is a happy mixture of the other two. The thinking behind that is that if you like both contemporary and traditional music, you’ll like the blended service format. So churches have turned themselves into cafeterias of worship services.

Two Initial Problems…

There are two problems I see with the thought process behind the multiple worship service idea. The first problem is that it places music at the center of the reasoning for why a worship service is planned the way it is. Music isn’t the most important aspect of a worship service. The second problem I see here is that it grants our human likes and dislikes great importance in determining the content and direction of a worship service. But worship isn’t about us; it’s about God. It is directed by, for, and to God. It’s great if we enjoy it, but it doesn’t matter much whether we do or not.

…Lead to a Third Problem

The two problems I mentioned above are on the front end of the multiple worship service process. There is a third problem that comes as a result of the implementation of multiple worship service programming: the church becomes split. All of a sudden, the local church that has been called together to serve God in their context has split into different churches that simply share the same building and staff. If a church chooses to use this approach, great pains must be taken to guarantee that the body doesn’t splinter. Whether that’s through a diligent use of small groups or some other solution, the battle will always be an uphill struggle.

The Power of the Gospel

In an article entitled, “We Are One,” Tullian Tchividjian, pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (and grandson of Ruth and Billy Graham), has recently addressed his church’s use of multiple worship services. Here’s a quote from Tchividjian:

You see, when we separate people according to something as trivial as musical preferences, we evidence a fundamental failure to comprehend the heart of the gospel. We’re not only feeding toxic tribalism; we’re also saying the gospel can’t successfully bring these two different groups together. It’s a declaration of doubt about the unifying power of God’s gospel. Generational appeal in worship is an admission that the gospel is powerless to join together what man has separated.

The gospel is more powerful to unite us than music is to divide us.

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

 

Yesterday, I began a discussion entitled “Toward a Definition of Worship.” This is a working definition of worship that I’m discussing with a group members at the church I serve, and we can break it down into several components. As a reminder here’s the definition:

Worship–the act of God’s people submitting and drawing near to God in spirit and in truth to declare His worth and to ascribe to Him the glory He is due

Worship Is a Deliberate Act

When you think of worship, what do you think about? Does your mind automatically bring up an image of a time and place, like a church sanctuary on Sunday morning? I’ll be honest; mine does. And I’ve been leading worship and teaching worship theology for many years. The first thing that pops into my mind–I’m sure out of habit more than anything else–is eleven o’clock Sunday morning. Why? Because for the vast majority of my life, I have joined in corporate worship at that time on that day of the week more than any other.

What that tells me is that ingrained in our 21^st century minds is the idea that worship is a noun. It’s a finite time or place. It has a specific beginning and end. That’s only part of the picture, though. When we speak of corporate worship, out of necessity we do need to have a specific time and place so that everyone in a local body of believers can set aside that time to gather. But the gathering itself is not worship. Worship is the act in which we engage when we gather.

Abraham Demonstrates Deliberate Worship

The first time we see the word “worship” in an English translation of the Bible is in the account of Abraham’s obedience to God’s command to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham’s long-awaited son (Genesis 22:1-10). In verse 5, Abraham tells those traveling with him to stay where they are. “I and the boy will go over there and worship.” Abraham uses the word “worship” in an intentionally active sense. It was something he was going to do, something he was going to offer. While it had a specific geographical context, it was the act of offering his only son as a burnt offering to which Abraham was referring when he said, “I and the boy will go over there and worship.”

In his book Worship is a Verb: Celebrating God’s Mighty Deeds of Salvation, Robert Webber sums up this idea nicely.

Worship is something we do, not something that is done for us (by ministers and musicians). Again, the mental and physical “doing” must be acts that express the love and commitment of our total selves. For instance, true worshipers do not give money in the offering primarily to support the work of the church. They do so as an act of worship, a token that all they are and have belongs to God, One-in-Three.

In much the same way runners cannot “go for a run” (noun) without running (verb), believers cannot “go to worship” (noun) without worshiping (verb). We may find ourselves in the presence of believers who are worshiping, but unless we are actively engaged in the worship of God, we are simply bystanders and observers. In biblical worship, there is no credit for simply showing up.

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

 

I’ve recently been having a conversation about worship with several members of the church I serve. So that we could all be on the same page in our understanding of what worship is and what it isn’t, we looked at a few passages of scripture (the book of Leviticus, Isaiah 6, John 4:7-24, and Hebrews 10:19-25) to help shape our views. Because we’re all fallen beings, we couldn’t rely on our own understanding of what worship is; I wanted the group to learn–or at least to be reminded of–what God says it is.

Looking at these passages gave us an opportunity to form a biblically-based definition of worship:

Worship – the act of God’s people submitting and drawing near to God in spirit and in truth to declare His worth and to ascribe to Him the glory He is due

This is a working definition and it could easily change through the course of our subsequent conversations, but it’s a good place to start. I’ll break it down here and walk through the individual parts in later posts.

Worship is:

• The act
• Of God’s people
• Submitting
• And drawing near to God
• In spirit and in truth
• To declare His worth
• And to ascribe to Him the glory He is due

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,