WS: Dynamic Relationship
So here it goes,
You are not an accident of science or a cosmic mistake. Your life is not meaningless and your choices matter. You were created with a purpose. The Bible tells us that God made the universe and breathed life into the human race, and calls you to ‘know that the Lord is God’, and that ‘you are his’. (Psalm 100:3-4) God created you – just as he created all of us – to be caught up in a dynamic relationship with him at every level of your life: heart, soul and mind. That is your purpose: the dynamic relationship between you and your heavenly Father that impacts every level of your life. That’s what worship is.
Worship is central to your existence because the God who created you as an act of pure joy intends you to know his love and to love him in response. The Bible tells us that before the creation of the world God chose us to be in relationship with him, and that your very existence is to be for ‘the praise of his glory’ (Ephesians 1:6). Just as sin is described as not giving glory to God (Rom 1:18-25), our great rescue by Jesus will ultimately lead to the arrival of heaven, which is portrayed in terms of worship (Rev 4:11).
You live, breathe, move and love as expressions of God’s joy. You were made to know him, to connect with him, to follow him, to serve him and to enjoy the mind-blowing, heart-stirring fullness of this world he has created. In other words, you were created to worship. It’s deep in your spiritual DNA, in every encounter with God, is this sense of coming home – worship.
Everybody worships something. Whatever captivates your heart’s affection, your mind’s attention and your soul’s ambition, it effectively has your worship. The English word ‘worship’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon ‘weorthscipe’ which literally means to ascribe worth to something, and today we worship anything from rock stars to endorphin-exploding experiences.
Those things that you value, admire, love and enjoy most, are by definition objects of your affection. C.S. Lewis explains this really well, writing, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.
The Place I find Purpose
Worship is going on all around us in every possible form and style you could imagine, on earth and in heaven, today, right now just as it has been for thousands of years. Throughout the world and throughout history, wherever there is worship, there has always been a conversation going on about worship; from the Church Fathers wrestling with what worship should look like in the decades after Jesus, to the reformers asking what God requires of us in the light of Scripture. Today, this discussion is still as relevant as ever.
For the past couple of months I’ve spent some time thinking of why my life is so full of failures. Failures in relationships, job interviews and life in general. My entire existence is full of failures, but is that my purpose? Should I let that influence the way I worship?
Like me today you might be disillusioned with worship, tired of performance instead of praise, or burnt out by empty religion, or you may be afraid of the change that seems to be sweeping away all around you and uncertain of what you can bring? Or perhaps you are excited about growing in your worship but unsure how to build a firm foundation for a lifetime of authentic worship?
Whoever you are, whatever has led you to this moment, you start here with this simple yet all-important question: why is worship so important?
So as a worship leader I’ve set my self a challenge which is to help some very gifted & talented musicians I know in my church to be more worshippers.
So guess what my next posts will be about?
Effective Worship
Posts like this need to have clever hooks right up here in the first paragraph. They’re the bits that get pasted on walls and make you want to read more. Without something that sparkles, who’s going to click through to read whatever comes next?
Looks like I’ve blown it.
If you’ve got this far then well done. And thank you. And sorry – because I’ve not really got all that much for you. All I have is one thought on this piece of timeless wisdom that Paul delivers in Colossians 2:
‘In Christ you have been brought to fullness’ [verse 10]
In just eight words Paul absolutely nails it. He nails it for those of us living in fear, living in luxury, living in the past or living in denial. And he nails it for worship leaders too.
We all approach the task of leading people in sung worship with different experiences, different baggage, different backgrounds. And that’s OK. It’s even a good thing as it allows us to connect with a different range of people (most often those with similar experiences, baggage and backgrounds).
But sometimes we can be tempted to allow where we have come from to be the most important thing about our times of worship. We can be tempted to put our creativity front and centre, to mine the past for the brightest colours and boldest sounds.
Somehow that doesn’t seem quite enough.
Our songs, our sounds and our creativity should only ever be the tool that helps us worship – never the focus. For no matter how bright or bold our work, it will never be a match for the fulness in Christ that Paul reminds of.
That fulness of life is on offer to us all – whatever our background, whatever our past, whatever our style. The question is, what are we going to do with the life ahead of us? Are we going to live with self-imposed limits or are we going to live a life abandoned to Christ? Are we going to use our creativity to leave people in awe of God, to set them off in pursuit of our Maker, one step closer to the fulness that only Christ can offer?
Are we going to see our times of worship as the destination to arrive at, or the departure gate for the fullest life of all?
KelaniDrums 