Christian Worship

The English word “worship” comes from an Old English word meaning worthiness: worship is “worth-ship,” giving God the honor he deserves. Heaven’s worship says exactly that: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things” (Revelation 4:11, KJV).

The Greek word for worship that Jesus uses in John 4, proskuneo, pictures bowing low or kneeling before someone in reverence (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). The Psalms call for the same posture: “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker” (Psalm 95:6, KJV). Worship begins when we recognize who God is and who we are.

Jesus spoke about worship to a Samaritan woman who wanted to know which mountain was the right place to worship. His answer changed the question:

In spirit means worship from the inside, by the Holy Spirit, not only with the right building or ritual. In truth means worshipping God as he really is, as he has made himself known in Scripture and in Jesus, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6, KJV). And notice the remarkable line in the middle: “the Father seeketh such to worship him.” God is not waiting to be impressed. He is looking for worshippers.

Paul widens worship to the whole of life:

The word translated “service” here, latreia, means the service or worship of God, and “reasonable” translates a word meaning rational or spiritual (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). In other words, offering your body, your time, work, relationships and choices, to God is worship. Sunday and Monday belong together. As Paul says elsewhere, “whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31, KJV).

That is also why the prophets were so blunt about worship that did not change how people lived. Through Amos, God told a people who sang loudly but treated the poor unjustly, “Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs... But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream” (Amos 5:23-24, KJV). Jesus quoted Isaiah against the same problem: “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8, KJV).

The first Christians in Jerusalem “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42, KJV). Teaching, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper and prayer: four marks of Christian worship from the start.

About a century later, in the 150s, Justin Martyr described a typical Sunday gathering in a defense of the faith addressed to the Roman emperor. The writings of the apostles and prophets were read aloud as long as time allowed. The leader then taught and urged everyone to live it out. They stood and prayed together, and bread and wine were brought, thanks was given over them, the people said “Amen,” and all shared in them, with portions taken to those who were absent. Those who could gave money, which went to orphans, widows, the sick, prisoners and strangers. That outline, the word read and preached and the meal shared with thanks, is still recognizable in churches today. The Catholic Catechism, for example, describes the Mass as two parts forming one act of worship: the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist (CCC 1346).

Walk into different churches on a Sunday and worship can look very different. Two broad styles are common, with many churches blending them.

Liturgical worship follows a written order of service, with set prayers, responses and Scripture readings that move through the church year. Catholic Mass, the Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Anglican services from the Book of Common Prayer work this way, and Lutheran churches kept the Mass at the Reformation, adding hymns in the people’s own language (Augsburg Confession, Article XXIV). Its strengths are depth and stability: the words are soaked in Scripture, they have been prayed by generations, and they carry you on days when your own words fail. Its risk is that familiar words can be said without the heart.

Contemporary worship, found in many evangelical, Pentecostal and nondenominational churches, is led by a band, with newer songs, longer times of sung praise, spontaneous prayer and a sermon at the center. Its strengths are warmth, freedom and a language newcomers understand, in the spirit of “O sing unto the LORD a new song” (Psalm 96:1, KJV). Its risk is that worship can drift toward performance or chasing a feeling.

Some traditions add careful limits of their own. The Westminster Confession, for example, teaches that God may be worshipped only in the ways he has set out in Scripture (21.1). Scripture itself gives the elements of worship more than a single style. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul says that when the church gathers, “every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine” (1 Corinthians 14:26, KJV), and then insists, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40, KJV). Freedom and order belong together, and the best test of any style is whether it helps people meet God in spirit and in truth.

Worship was never meant to be only a Sunday event. God told Israel to keep his words in their hearts and talk about them “when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deuteronomy 6:7, KJV). Daniel prayed three times a day at his open window (Daniel 6:10). Home worship does not need a band or a script. It needs a few minutes, a Bible and an honest heart.

A meal is a natural place to start, with a short prayer before meals or a prayer of gratitude. Mornings and evenings are others; see morning prayers and evening prayers. Faithero can help with the rhythm: a verse of the day each morning, a chapter each night that you can read or have read aloud, and a prayer about your day.