I opened my reader this morning to find a great discussion going on about “worship” and whether or not we should use it to teach theology.

The first post = Worship is not Meant to Teach (milestoneworship.com)

The second post = Worship Is Meant To Teach (billychia.com)

My thoughts, which have actually been posted on both sites:

1) Worship isn’t worship without something to worship, an object of worship, if you will.

2) God, who is alive and powerful, is more than just an inanimate object, but is the focus of our worship.

3) We worship, in any capacity, because God is God. Whether it’s study, prayer, song, fellowship, etc. we worship because He moved towards us first. Worship is our response to Him. He gave us Scripture. He initiated the conversation for prayer. He created creativity so we could sing and dance to Him. He birthed the Church so we could gather corporately.

4) Since, God IS the focus of our worship, and since He is such a great, immeasurable, unfathomable being, we can’t help but learn when we worship. Teaching moments happen during worship because of the very nature of worship: focusing on God.

5) Focusing on God, or the study of God is called theology. Worship is all about God (He’s the object of our worship), so worship has within it’s very nature an element of theology. We can’t help but learn about God when we truly worship Him.

Worship is worship. Nothing more, nothing less. But, worship facilitates learning moments. We should “use” times of worship to focus on God, a by product of this God-focusing is learning about God. Responding to God is worship. He does, we respond. He moves, we respond. He talks, we respond. He leads, we follow. We respond to God in and through worship. All the while, His Spirit is teaching us more and more about Him.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 8:24 am.
Categories: Worship.

6 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. Chris from Canada

    Since everyone is just cross-posting their responses, I’ll do the same :) Canadians like to follow what everyone else is doing, anyway.

    Isn’t teaching going to be a natural by-product of whatever songs you ask your congregation to sing? If you ask them to sing songs that are written as teaching songs then they may learn more, deeper, insightful things about the character of God but even if you are inviting them to sing songs which are not “theology to music” you are STILL teaching them, no?

    There is a great amount of theology that is both directly and indirectly learned from congregational worship. Anytime church leadership puts words on a screen or a songsheet and asks the congregation to sing those words together, there is definitely the assumption that the leaders are approving the words and the sentiments of those words.

    Can the church not be expected to grow in their knowledge and understanding of who God is through the singing of songs AND through the preaching of the word?

    I’m not here to wave the flag of the Reformed songwriter-teachers but I think there’s a general assumption being missed - whatever songs we sing, those are the songs which will teach.

    Jun 25th, 2008

  2. Billy Chia

    “Moments of teaching and learning just happen during worship because the LIVING object of our worship is the greatest, most unfathomable being in existence”

    I love you how said this in the comments of my post. This hits the heart of it.

    Jun 25th, 2008

  3. russhutto

    @Chris. Definitely true. That’s the point I’m leaning towards. We can’t help but have teaching/learning moments in and during worship because of WHO we are worshiping.

    @Billy. Glad you started the conversation on this. It really gave me something to ponder this morning.

    Thanks for commenting, guys!

    Jun 25th, 2008

  4. Jeremy Killian

    Worship does teach us a great deal in the way that you’ve described, Russ. I just feel that a worship songwriter should keep in mind the focus of his worship, which is God, and not the congregation. The point is to exalt God, not to educate the congregation about the ins and outs of Epistemological Dualism or any other such “constructed” or “man-defined” concept.

    Jun 25th, 2008

  5. russhutto

    @Jeremy: Definitely. I’ll agree with you 100% on that one. I guess my point is more about the inherent nature of worship, not necessarily the songwriting worshiper.

    But, at the same time, we should, at the very least, be aware that when we are focusing on the object of worship (God), that we can and indeed should be willing to bring others along with us.

    I think in all of this, without sounding to cliche, the goal is to find the sweet spot of worshiping with abandon and also being a pastoral influence in the lives of those around us.

    Worship not only gives us the ability to personally focus on God, but it also gives us te opportunity to help others focus on God.

    Jun 25th, 2008

  6. Free

    I think there are many definitions and expressions of worship, way beyond just the music and corporate expression. Living our lives for the purposes of God because we love Him is a form of worship.
    We teach by the very act of worship, without words and with words.

    Jun 29th, 2008