I recently saw a video where the speaker explained the problem of "a worship service." "It's not in there," he essentially said. We refer to what we do on Sundays as "a worship service," but there is nowhere in Scripture that you'll find this kind of a description. There are descriptions of teaching and preaching. We read of "love feasts" and sharing meals, even. But ... nowhere do we find a description of a church gathering where they sang some songs and heard a sermon. Interestingly, there are two references to "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16) and neither are in the context of a church service. Strange, isn't it? I mean, we all have "worship services" and even "worship teams," but Scripture doesn't seem to talk about it.
"What are you saying, Stan? We shouldn't sing in church?" No, of course not. At the Last Supper, we read, "After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" (Matt 26:30). Jesus did that. The Old Testament is full of music. The first reference to music is in Genesis. Jubal was "the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe." Most of the prophets prophesied in musical form. All of the psalms are music. There were singers in the Temple. Most of the prophets prophesied in music. In Revelation, they "sang a new song" (Rev 5:9). So singing isn't our idea. It was God's.
But ... worship. Is "worship" defined as "singing"? I know a lot of people think so. It's not. Worship is the assigning of worth to something. It is the assigning of ultimate worth. So "worship" is assigning ultimate worth to God. Because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. We do that on our knees. We do that with hands lifted. The biblical version is proskuneō, which originally meant "to kiss toward" (like a dog licking a master's hand). The image is to prostrate oneself. So ... we prostrate ourselves, maybe not physically, but certainly in every other way. Paul wrote, "Therefore, brothers, I call on you through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom 12:1) (where "service" is literally "service of worship"). Present your bodies. That's your sacrifice. And it's your ... oh ... "worship service." There it is.
9 comments:
It is frustrating how often we hear "X isn't explicitly written in the Bible", as if we didn't know that, but the concept clearly is.
Reducing worship to the singing portion of a church service is a pet peeve of mine, has been for years. Especially when it's someone who should know better.
I am reminded of your message from Friday--that the purpose of the church is for equipping the saints for the work of ministry; therefore, it makes sense to me that gatherings of local church members would be in full support of building believers up in the faith for service to God. Therefore, I for one don’t find it strange at all that “worship” is not mentioned in the context of “a church service” anywhere in the New Testament (since to my mind, worship is properly offered to God 24/7 on a personal basis, as Stan regularly points out). I believe that most church-goers these days are not aware of the actual focus of the early believers when they assembled; nor do they feel that a distinction between “edification” and “worship” is important. However, the difference is significant in at least one obvious aspect--the view that the service should be geared towards the saints rather than designed to appeal to nonbelievers and/or seekers (as was discussed a bit in comments on Friday).
Lorna, I have difficulty with the idea that worship is not mentioned in the context of a church service simply because worship was designed to be a full-time thing for believers (Old Testament and New). God had music in the Temple. Paul commanded to teach and admonish with music. I don't believe that music ought to be excluded from church meetings. I am concerned that too many equate worship and music, not that some include music in worship.
Stan, I’m a bit confused. I never commented about music as it relates to “a worship service”--i.e. whether to include or exclude it. Neither would I disagree with anything you just said.
David's comment was about how people will try to exclude things because "It's not in the Bible" when the concept clearly is. Worship is clearly in the Bible. It is a primary function of the ekklēsia ... the church ... the "called out ones." It worship should be in church. And out. The POST talked about "worship teams" and music as worship. These are not good definitions of worship, but they aren't excluded from worship. So, my comment to David was that I agreed that just because neither "worship" nor "music" are listed as parts of a church meeting in the Bible is no reason to assume that they shouldn't be. AS YOU'VE pointed out, the primary function is "the building up of the saints" and that's sorely lacking today.
I think the confusion comes because you addressed your comment to David to me.
For the sake of all readers, I didn't actually address my comment to Lorna. This new comment system in Blogger is confusing. In one view it would appear I addressed Lorna because the comment is beneath hers. But if you try to enter a comment, the comments reorder themselves, and show my comment under David's comment. It's an irritating system and there's nothing I can do about it. THIS comment is addressed in general and should appear at the bottom of the list, as it's not addressed to anyone in particular.
Stan, Your comment under David’s comment began, “Lorna,….” Thus my confusion.
I will say that I have no problem with how Blogger orders and displays the comments and replies. If I click on “X comments” at the bottom of a post (from your Home page), the screen is changed to only the comment threads, with comments and replies to comments exactly how they are entered. However, if I click on the post title from your Home page, the post is shown, followed by comments in order of receipt--all on the same screen. So, one can view posts and comments in two ways with different appearances (but they are all ordered properly). (The first method allows for replies to individual comments, with the ability to delete one’s own comment as well, while the second one does not.) Hope that’s clear!
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