Season 4 - Episode 34
To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.
It can be seen every night the Leafs take the ice, especially during the playoffs. It was obvious on NFL draft night. Lineups at movie theatres for the latest blockbuster musical or action film are examples of it. Some of us bring it to certain foods. It’s visible in how some teenagers react to their crush or how some parents respond to their children. It’s apparent in how some of us treat our vehicles, cottages, or large toys. You can probably think of a lot of other examples where we put it on display. What is it? Worship. Worship. Worship isn’t an inherently religious activity. James K. A. Smith suggests that worship refers to the habits and rituals that we perform for the things we love. The next BIC value that we’re going to consider is Worshiping God. Let’s dig into this together in the Covenant Weekly for May 6, 2025.
We value heartfelt worship that is God-honouring, Spirit-directed, and life-changing.
I’m going to bust a bubble first thing. I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to you. Worship does not equal music. It has become, over the past 40 years or so, common to equate worship and music in the church. While it is our common language, it is bad theology. Music can be a form of and a part of worship. But worship is so much bigger than singing.
In an essay about this value, Alan Claassen Thrush suggests that worship is “both our relational posture towards God…, and the habits and rituals that shape and orient that relationship.” In Colossians 3, Paul suggests that our whole life can and should be lived oriented towards God. Worship is an ongoing response to the love, grace, mercy, and conviction of God in our lives, both within Jesus’ centred community and personally.
Let’s keep fostering our collective imaginations to recognize how expansive and beautiful the idea of worship should be. Changing oil in our car can be worship. So can eating a meal with friends. So can a quiet walk in the woods. So can a difficult conversation. So can dancing and singing in a crowd to loud music from a stage. So can sitting with someone as they leave this side of eternity. As we recognize that everywhere we can be, God is there, we can worship.
Our value statement does highlight the term heartfelt in worship. This is in response to worship, which could often be ritualistic and rote, where the emotional part of ourselves was devalued or even discredited. We are called to love God with all of ourselves, which includes our emotions. But let us not slide to the other extreme where we think, “If I don’t feel it or feel like it, it isn’t important or it isn’t worship.” I believe true heartfelt worship includes all of who we are, even when it may not feel fully heartfelt!
With all that being said, not all “worship” is created equal. Worship, even worship ostensibly directed to God, can be misguided, selfishly motivated, or even wrongly directed. I’m not going to spend time on this claim. I just want it to be something we’re aware of.
Instead, let’s quickly look at the three descriptors of the worship we say we value.
God-honouring - Our worship seeks to have God at the centre. And for it to truly have God at the centre, it must first pursue a right understanding of who God is. (There is a reason we looked at the values Experiencing God’s Love and Grace and Believing the Bible first!) Worship must aim to respond to God as God has been revealed in Jesus. And worship must aim to respond in ways that align with the heart of God. This is a part of why community is so important in our worship. It isn’t because we can’t worship on our own or that we don’t relate to God on our own. It is because God prioritizes us being a people, not just a bunch of persons.
Paul talks about us, together, being the body of Christ. We want to live in such a way that Christ is visible to each other and the world. This is God honouring worship. In what we sing, how we relate, how we fight, how we play games, how we work…we long to live lives of God-honouring worship.
Spirit-directed - Worship includes both planned, habitual practices and spontaneous acts and responses. Within the New Testament, we already see the church community wrestling with these extremes. Some wanted to limit the work of the Spirit to the rituals and practices that already existed. Others wanted to be free to do what they wanted when they wanted and credit the Spirit with their pursuits. Both extremes are corrected. There are clearly times when God works uniquely within an individual. Paul was knocked off his horse in a dramatic call from God. Peter had a vision calling him to include the Gentiles in what God was doing. Others had clear times where God led them to specific actions. But almost every time, that unique call or work was tested and confirmed within the community.
Likewise, the work of the Spirit within the community had significant personal implications. The most obvious example is how Pentecost impacted the lives of the individuals present. When there was conflict in the church, they didn’t just ask the most spiritual person there to go “up the mountain” (see Moses in Exodus) on their behalf. They got together and trusted the Spirit of God to lead them in community. It can be easy to imagine “Spirit-led” as a nebulous, unexplainable phenomenon that mostly happens within someone's psyche. Most of the time, in the Bible, it looks like thoughtful consideration, difficult consensus-building, clear teaching, and the hard work of learning to live in community together in a way that aligns with Jesus.
Life-changing - And that brings us to the final descriptor. We value worship that is life-changing. As with Spirit-led, this language of life-changing can raise some ideas to mind that are, at best, misguided and, at worst, dangerous. We often imagine “life-changing” as something that happens in a moment. A quick and immediate act of God that puts us on a new and different path or brings special enlightenment. While those times can happen, most of the time, life change happens over the long haul. If I want to get fit, it isn’t going to happen by being bitten by a radioactive spider. It would happen through daily walks, workouts, and food choices. Putting too much stock in pursuing “life-changing” experiences of worship can lead us to miss out on the day-by-day process of being changed into the image of Jesus.
When we say we value life-changing worship, we want to be thoughtful and careful to sustain worship practices that help us grow in this way. I think this is what the writer of Hebrews has in mind when they write, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.” This may include their regular weekly gatherings and singing, but that isn’t the focus. The priority is consistent living in relationship with God and each other in a community fostering life change aligned with Jesus.
Is God (a God who looks like Jesus) truly at the centre of our worship? Are we open to the move of the Spirit as affirmed by the community? And are our lives being changed?
Those are the things we want to consider, as we value heartfelt worship that is God-honouring, Spirit-directed, and life-changing.