Before we get into the actual discussion about the planning of a purposeful worship service, an all too common misconception needs to be addressed. I’ve heard this statement many times and in different ways: “you really lead me into the presence of the Lord today…” It warms my heart to hear things like that, because it makes me feel like I succeeded in the goal of the worship service. My goal ought to be to lead people into God’s presence right? That goal is based on an assumption that the presence of God is a place, spiritual or physical. Is the presence of God a place? You see in the Old Testament the affirmative of this question in terms of the visitor to Abram (Genesis 18), the burning bush (Exodus 3), cloud and pillar of fire (Exodus 13, 40:34), the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25), the tabernacle (Exodus 26), and then culminating in the Temple’s Holy of Holies (1Kings 5-6). Those manifestations were indeed specific locales that the Lord displayed his presence. Keep in mind specifically the locale of the Holy of Holies where God’s presence was in the Temple, we will revisit this thought soon. But to say that God’s presence was only in terms of manifestations in the Old Testament would be false. David knew this very well in Psalm 139:7-10, the omnipresence of God:
“Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there your hand shall lead me,
And your right hand shall hold me.”
In the New Testament, you see the presence of God in an amazingly new way in the person of Jesus Christ, “Immanuel, God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Jesus was indeed the Word of God, made flesh (John 1) and dwelt among men. He was fully God and fully Man. God’s presence was thus again a locale in the person of Jesus Christ. Then the most significant of all historical and spiritual things happened at the death of Jesus on the Cross. When he said, “it is finished,” the wrath of God was satisfied and the curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two, revealing or opening the then symbolic presence of the Lord (Luke 23:45; Mark 15:38; Matthew 27:51). With Jesus’ proclamation to believe in Him and Him who sent Him as the Savior of the world, the torn curtain now symbolized that man was reconciled unto the Holy and Almighty God of the universe; His wrath was taken on by Jesus in our place, as believers, and his presence is now not a locale, but a REALITY for the believer. This is made all the more solidified for the believer that God is present to them at Pentecost (Acts 2) where the promised Holy Spirit came and empowered the disciples and believers now into all of history.
The reality of God’s overwhelming and constant presence for the believer is ONLY made possible because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ making atonement for our sin. To say that we, as worship pastors, or worship leaders, “lead” people into the presence of God is a feat that we are not worthy of nor have the ability to do. Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man and HE is the reason why we experience God’s presence in an overwhelming way (1Timothy 2:5). My friend Joel Brown, a contributor for The Resurgence, comments on this issue with the ultimate answer being one that is the necessity of Christo-centrality:
You want to bring your congregation before the throne of God? Great. Show them the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18) and by faith, the Spirit will take them there. The Holy Spirit is the conduit through whom we experience God’s presence, and Christ is the place whereby we are made most aware of his presence.[1]
As a worship pastor, our job then is not to lead them into the presence of God, it is to proclaim to them the glory of Christ, which is the gospel, and lead them in responding to it. Worship is a response, not a style of music, nor a raised hand or simply the beginning time of a church service. When we lead as worship pastors, we are to lead a congregation in responding to the greatness and overwhelming presence of God, and ONE method we do this is in the Sunday morning Church service and planning for that strategically and prayerfully. But the reality of worship as a response, and the biblical mandate we have to worship, is that genuine worship has no contextual barriers. In other words, if the worship pastor or senior pastor references or speaks about Sunday morning as “our time to worship Christ and give Glory to God,” they are inadvertently putting forth an assumption that that it is the only time of week that this can happen. Again, this is an extreme over generalization; many church leaders and worship pastors say this not meaning or intending an assumption. But if we are to cultivate a genuine culture of worship in our congregation, we should speak and discuss in a way where true and biblical worship is not limited to the confines of the church walls!
Here is a biblical definition of Worship that has its foundation in Romans 12:1-2 but is consistent to all scripture in terms of the “act” of worship: Genuine worship is the logical response, physical, emotional, and spiritual, of an overflowing heart, gripped by the greatness and overwhelming presence of God.
I use the word “logical” on purpose in this definition and it reflects directly from the text in Romans 12:1. The word used in the ESV as an adjective to worship is “spiritual.” It says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Spiritual has a few meanings, but to go back to the Greek root of this particular word translated “spiritual” we get the Greek word logikos. In the English, we get our word “logical” from this word. Some translations of the bible will actually translate this as “rational” as well. Regardless, the point is the same: presenting our bodies as “living sacrifices” is our rational or logical worship. Worship is a response and it is a rational one. To what? That makes all of the difference.
Rational and genuine worship is not a response to good music or an amazing light show, rather it is a response to the greatness of God and the realization that he is present. In the context of this particular passage in Romans 12, the Apostle Paul is culminating a major thought. If you look at Chapters 1-11 of his epistle to the Romans, you see some of the most extensive and deep theology of the salvation by God to those who he has chosen out of his mercy and grace through the sacrifice and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ. Paul spends 11 chapters on this! He culminates with the first two verses of chapter 12 which at this point you shouldn’t necessarily even need to have said: “in view of God’s mercy and grace and everything I’ve just written to you about how awesome and great he is, how do you think we should respond to this?” He not only says it, he “appeals” to the people saying in essence, “People! Please recognize what God has done for you! It was according to his mercy! He was not obligated to save you, but he did! Don’t you think that your logical response to this would be to be 100% sold out for the cause of Christ and the Gospel!? Sacrifice your fleshly desires, sacrifice your worldly pursuits and present yourself before the Holy God Almighty in humility! This is your spiritual worship; This is your logical response to the greatness of God.”[2]
The term ‘worship’ is misunderstood if it gives the impression that the major element is what human beings do or offer to God. Biblical religion is primarily concerned with what God does for his people (Mk. 10:45). This is particularly evident in the NT, where words expressing the human activity of worshipping God are surprisingly rare in descriptions of church meetings (Heb. 13:15f.; 1 Pet. 2:5). Worship is human response to a gracious God, and it needs to be placed in this context if it is to be properly understood.[3]
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