Why do we worship?

At seminary class today the point of worship in church was brought up. What is the point of worship in a church service? OK so we know that our whole lives are devoted to God as an act of worship, as Peterson put it...our 'ordinary lives - our sleeping, eating, going to work and walking around lives' should be offered to God as a living sacrifice an act of worship. This is a true and right point - however, for the majority of church goers when we refer to 'worship' we actually mean the musical/singing part of the church service. So in this respect - what is the point of worship? Why do we do it?

Do we worship because we are in the presence of the living God and our souls are compelled to worship? We worship because in his presence - we must!-what else can we do? Or do we worship as an act of 'drawing into the presence of God'? If it is the later, (I have often heard it said that worship is the gateway to the holy place of The Lord) then I must ask the question how much of our 'worship' is a genuine spiritual response and how much might be emotional manipulation by gifted musicians? Music can after all ignite all manor of passion and emotions within...

I was interested to learn today that the early church did not have musical instruments present at their Sunday services (although they sang hymns so presumably these were acapella). Apparently they didn't wish to have instruments in their services in order to differentiate themselves from the pagan services of the day -who used playing music as a means to approach their god in order to enter into interact with him. This was especially true of Apollo worship ( I suppose that makes sense as he is the god of music). Early christians wanted to make a distinction between them and pagans so that anyone walking into a Christian meeting for the first time would know they were different. Unlike the pagans Christians did not have to 'work themselves up' in order to have an encounter with God!

Later, Quakers - so called because when the Spirit touched them, they would physically quake (how very Pentecostal) began their services in silence. Men and women would file into the meeting hall, sit segregated and in silence and wait. They would wait to hear God and when and only when they had confirmation from God would they begin their service - with many voices from the congregation contributing.

Why do we worship? That is why do we sing songs in a specific order every Sunday morning? Could we worship God without music? Could we worship God through silence? Through spontaneous praise and prayer - reading and teaching from the text? Could our Sunday mornings stand more than one preacher? And what would happen if all this spontaneity in the Spirit took the meeting over it's allocated two hour slot? How would congregations in general cope if next Sunday morning the Pastor announced there was no worship as it is generally understood but instead we were all invited to participate in worship by bringing our own offering to The Lord in our own voice in our own way....what would happen? How would we cope?

Paul instructs the Corinthian church (1Cor.14:26) that everyone should bring something when they come together. His list does include a hymn. There is nothing wrong with singing worship songs to Jesus, it is a sweet sound in his ear...but should an allocated slot for controlled worship always be the norm? Should we encourage more sensitivity and spontaneity to the Spirit? My Pastor likes to tell us that 'if the Holy Spirit didn't turn up for a meeting 80% of the church would carry on regardless', he means of course, that they simply wouldn't notice.

Music Worship is great - it is a way to experience a deep and intimate encounter with the living God, but it is not the only way. The Holy Spirit is creative and so are we - the problem with front lead worship is that it can at times be mechanical. It also makes worshippers lazy...waiting to be led and fed. Sat in a pew, sucking up the service like a sponge rather than contributing to it. Is this really what we should be doing?

Depending on our denominational focus different items will be placed at the centre of our meeting rooms. The focus for Anglicans for example, is the alter, while for the free churches it is the lectern. Someone joked today that meant for Pentecostals - it would be the drum kit! That joke is both funny and sad!