Worship Matters (Part 1): Why Worship?

A recent article by Thom Rainer (President and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources) reveals that worship attendance in the United States is on a downward trend across the board. The main reason, Rainer argues, is that members of churches are attending with less frequency than they were just a few years ago (Rainer Article). This matters a great deal. According to Rainer, if a church has an average weekly attendance of 200 and half miss one of the four Sundays in a month, it drops average attendance to 175. This is significant. It made me begin thinking about the whole concept of worship and why it is important for us today? This series of three Worship Matters articles will address this very question. I begin with Why Worship?

Why is worship so important to faith? Why should it be priority? Why can't we just do our own worship at home or in nature? Does God really need our worship? These are all important questions. To begin, I don't believe we worship because God has an ego problem or needs a weekly emotional build up from humans. From my perspective, worship is God's gift to us and that is why it should be a priority. 

Through worship, God offers us the gift of community with Him and other people. Matthew 18:20 reminds us that, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there with them." (CEV). In worship we intentionally engage our living God through prayers, fellowship, scripture lessons, sermons, songs, music and art. Worship is a window into God's own heart. In worship God meets us and we reach out to God. Yet, worship is not just about a personal spiritual experience. Throughout the Bible we see that God encourages community. Worship brings all of us together in God's presence as one people, one family. That is why I will often tell people we can't reduce worship to private devotions or experiences of God in nature (although God can certainly be encountered there), because we would miss gathering as a community, a family that God has built. 

A second gift of worship is spiritual formation. God's Spirit works in unique and powerful ways when we intentionally gather with God and others. As we encounter God, we enact the grace of God with one another and carry it out into the world. As we do this, our hearts are gradually transformed into the heart of Jesus. We grow week by week in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is more than a weekly "feel good" or "spiritual uplift". It is a radical transformation of our lives to reflect more of Jesus. Worship helps this to happen. It is a gift of God!

For me, community and spiritual formation are two of God's gifts through worship.  This is why worship must be a priority and not something to do if there is time left over, or there is nothing better going on. Too often today we attempt to make worship work around other things. What if we made other things work around worship? If we do, it can lead us to a depth of living we call abundant life, shared with God and others. 

Together we are the hands and feet of Christ,

Brett

Worship Matters (Part Two) - The Downside of Missing Worship

Worship Matters (Part Three) - A Worship Audit