Is Our Worship Good?
Churches are constantly trying to discover and create good worship. They’ve expanded their song catalogs and elevated their presentation methods in an effort to find a formula that accomplishes that goal. Some just bypass the heavy lifting altogether by imitating the worship practices of other congregations and call it good.
Scripture speaks to the issue of worship that is or isn’t good on several occasions. Isaiah illustrated worship that isn’t good when he wrote, “The Lord says: These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men” (Isaiah 29:13).
Amos criticized worship that is ego driven when he wrote, “I hate, I despise, your feasts! I can’t stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. Even if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle. Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice flow like water, and righteousness like an unfailing stream” (Amos 5:21-25).
The minor prophet Micah faced similar challenges as he responded to the shallow worship practices evident in the lives of the religious leaders of his day. He vigorously condemned the dishonest, corrupt, and meaningless worship prevalent in Judah and Israel.
According to Micah, outward appearances indicated they thought their worship was good. But their worship character wasn’t consistent with what God calls good. So, Micah wrote, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
GOOD WORSHIP
Acts Justly
If someone says, “I love God, (an act worship) and hates his brother, (also an act of worship) he is a liar” (1 John 4:20a). Worship that acts justly realizes loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength is incomplete until I also love my neighbor as I love myself (Luke 10:27). We have politicized justice primarily out of a fear of losing control of what scripture says was not ours to begin with.
Mark Labberton wrote, “The heart of the battle over worship is this: our worship practices are separated from our call to justice and, worse, foster the self-indulgent tendencies of our culture rather than nurturing the self-sacrificing life of the kingdom of God.”[1]
Loves Mercy
Mercy is the willingness to sacrifice our own interests for the greater worshiping good of our congregation. Loving mercy is only possible when our common ground is deference instead of preference. Deference is a learned and practiced submission based on conviction, preference is based on feelings and traditionalism. Deference encourages worshipers to respond in spite of the embedded theology that previously influenced their thinking and actions. Deference is the agreement that although we may not always prefer the worship practices of others, we are willing to sacrifice as an act of mercy because we love others more than our preferences.
King David understood merciful worship as he responded to God’s command to build an altar so the plague on the people of Israel might be stopped (2 Sam 24:21). At no cost to David, Araunah offered his threshing floor, his oxen, and even the wood from the oxen yokes for the burnt offering. The king replied, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing” (2 Sam 24:24).
Walks Humbly
We often take credit for instigating God’s presence by what we sing and how we sing it and call that good worship. In reality, God started the conversation, was present long before we arrived, and has been waiting patiently for us to acknowledge Him. He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light that we may declare His praises (1 Peter 2:9). The Father seeks the kind of worshipers who worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23).
Humility is one of the most difficult qualities for worship leaders to embrace and sustain. It is always a challenge to be both up-front and unassuming. In the name of artistic excellence, we are often unwilling to take a secondary and supportive role to those who are obviously less talented. Worship that walks humbly allows us to lay aside the unflappable pursuit of our own satisfaction, entertainment, pleasure, or routine in order to pursue God and ask Him to reorder our priorities and passions.”[2]
We’ll never discern what good worship is if we only evaluate it through the lens of our favorite songs; if we claim to know what God likes because we assume he likes what we know; if we think our favorite worship style is also God’s favorite worship style; or if we believe good worship begins and ends with the worship of our generation.
[1] Mark Labberton, The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God’s Call to Justice (Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity, 2007), 22-23.
[2] Labberton, The Dangerous Act of Worship, 170.