What is “worship”?

Dan Kimball, my friend and pastor in Santa Cruz, has a new post up about worship.

How is the word “worship” used in your church? Do you think this makes a difference? How so?

He begins with where we are today, and I doubt anyone would dispute this is what “worship” means at the populist, street level.

If you were to ask most teenagers and young adults what comes to their minds when they hear the word “worship” it will likely be singing. I understand why they do, as we have pretty much defined worship to them over the past 20 years or more as worship = singing. Now it is totally true that we worship as we sing. But that is only one aspect of worship. We have subtly taught (in my opinion) a reductionist view of worship limiting it primarily to music and singing as what defines the word and practice.

Then to the way the term is often used for the worship pastor:

I try to pay attention to reasons why we define worship mainly as music these days. And it is not too difficult to discover. What do we call the person in a church who leads the band or singing? It is normally the “worship pastor” or “worship leader”. When our music leaders say, “Let’s now worship,” that is when the singing begins. When a sermon begins or when the offering is received we often don’t say “”Let’s now worship” like we do when the singing starts. When we think of Sunday gatherings of the church and when does worship happen, we generally think of the singing – not the teaching or the sacrifice of people who are worshiping by volunteering time in the children’s ministry or other things happening. You look the Christian albums and as we call them “Best of Worship” or “Worship Greatest Hits”  that reinforce the idea that music is the primary—or even only—form of worship. I just read on a Facebook post how a group was bringing in a guest person to “lead worship” and of course this guest person was a musician.We constantly, constantly reinforce by how we use that word casually all the time that it primarily means music and singing. 

Dan then observes that the word “sacrifice” is often connected to “worship,” and wonders aloud by suggesting sacrifice today is most connected to time and money:

As you look at sacrificial worship, in today’s world what are the two most sacrificial things that do cost us something as we worship? It seems to be our time and most of all, our finances.

Then pushes with this:

So why don’t we switch the title to the person who does lead or oversee the area that people generally sacrifice the most – is finances – so shouldn’t the title of “worship pastor” or “worship leader” be the person who oversees the finances of the church?  Usually the church accountant. Isn’t that person the one who truly oversees the most sacrificial worship of the people of the church, not the person who leads the music when people sing?