The Service of Worship

It's funny that when Christians talk about the worship service we're almost always referring to our time of singing during church. The worship service is the 1 or 2 fast songs compiled with 2 or 3 slow songs and a time of prayer. And if the songs that were sung were our favorites, then it had to be a great time of worship. But I wonder how accurate that really is?

Paul talked about worship in Romans 12:1 and said, "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship. (NIV). But what's interesting is that a more accurate translation would be "your spiritual service of worship." And when you look at the life of Christ, you'll never find him leading a worship service in the Bible, but you will consistently find him serving as an act of worship. In Mark 10:45 it says "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

So is worship in song wrong? Absolutely not. The Bible also has a lot to say about singing songs unto the Lord and using the instruments to bring glory to God. But the point is this, if our worship is reduced to music on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night then we have missed the point. Our lives were meant to be lived out in service unto the Lord and singing songs is only one small element to the service of worship. Dr. Lee Campbell puts it this way, "Worship is the response of grateful and humble people to the living God where submission, sacrificial service, praise, profession, testimony and gratitude are freely expressed in innumerable ways. This is a much richer concept than mere corporate singing and praise once each week for 20 minutes - an event that could occur without any actual worship going on at all."

So let me challenge each of us as "worship leaders" and "worshippers" not to make the worship service our main focus. Let's focus on the "service of worship."