How Should One Develop

a Theology of Worship?

A theology of worship is of critical importance for the church of God.  The first place to start in articulating a theology of worship is the Old Testament (OT).  OT worship is relevant for the New Testament (NT) church because of the authority of Scripture.  Therefore, Christians should seek to understand the entire Word of God, as it is God’s revelation of Himself to mankind.  Understanding OT worship is important because Hebrew worship provides the foundation for Christian worship.  The OT narrative describes “the life of the Israelite nation” and bestows “the pattern for public worship in both Judaism and Christianity.”1

OT worship is relevant to the NT church because it is “Christ-centered.” Hebrew worship was “essentially theocentric” and foreshadowed Jesus Christ.2   There were numerous types of Christ in the OT that are celebrated in the NT.  The worship of Christ in the NT is based on a proper understanding of the OT.  The more Christians understand the person and work of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of OT prophecy the more they will the truly appreciate the Christology of NT worship.3  Hill writes, “True worship must be a response of the whole person to the God of creation and redemption.”4  In this respect it is pertinent for the NT church to understand Hebrew anthropology since it is the whole person that worships God.

In dealing with a theology of worship, one problem area is that OT temple worship has often been substituted for that of worship in the synagogue. One writer comments, “As to the influence of the Synagogue on the Church, there can be no doubt that the earliest Christian meetings and meeting-places were modeled on the pattern of the synagogues.”5  Yet another writer comments, “The influence of the synagogue on Christian worship was more permanent and deep [than OT temple worship].”6  Therefore, one conclusion to be drawn is that Christian worship should be modeled after the synagogue and not the OT temple worship.  Worship in the synagogues was characterized by the reading and exposition of Scripture (Mk. 1:21, 22; Lk. 4:16-22; Jn. 6:59).  Prayer and fellowship was also central to worship (Acts 2:42).  The liturgical singing of the Psalms was also a central element to the worship7 (cf. Col. 3:16).  Ralph Martin refers to the reading and exposition of Scripture as “the centre of gravity of the synagogue’s service, with the blessings and prayers gathered around it.”8  It is wrong to assert that “a major influence on the early church was the music of the Jewish temple.”9  Since the early Christian gatherings were modeled after the worship in the synagogue this will prove to be central to developing a theology of worship for the church today.

The worship in the OT was centered around the temple as the sacrifices were offered by the priests (cf. Jn. 4:21, 22).  The significance of the ripping of the temple curtain was that true worshippers no longer needed to approach God through a temple or the work of a priest.10  The “shadow of good things to come” had been manifested (Heb. 10:1).  It is grace through faith in Jesus Christ that believers can now approach God’s presence at any time (Jn. 14:6; Heb. 4:16).

The most noticeable influence upon the public worship of the early church was the fact that it was illegal.  Of course, this affected the church significantly.  Webber notes four stages of the acceptance of new members within the early church.11  First, there was the “seeker stage,” which was a time of inquiry.  Second, there was the “hearer stage,” or a time of catechetical training.  The third stage was the “kneeler stage,” which was a time of refinement and illumination.  The last stage was the “faithful stage” wherein the believer was given full membership into the local church.  Therefore, the worship in the early church was “seeker sensitive,” but for the most part it was believer focused.  Webber writes the following:

Some churches have maintained the strong Word-centered approach to worship that intends to edify the saints.  Others continue to have an evangelistic thrust in worship directed toward sinners.  The seek service has tried to deal with the problem by separating worship from evangelism.12

It appears then that a theology of worship should be predominantly believer focused, but in order to stay connected with the church tradition it must also maintain a contemporary relevance.  Worship should not be disconnected from church tradition but should identify with the rich history of the church.  Carson adds the following insight.

The critical issue is not the techniques of worship, or the traditions of worship, still less the experience of worship, but who is being worshipped, and who is worshipping….  If the heart of sinfulness is self-centredness [sic], the heart of all biblical religion is God-centredness [sic]:  in short, it is worship.  In our fallenness we constrict all there is to our petty horizons.13

This now leads into another issue as to whether Christian worship should be thought of as edification (people focused) and/or as God focused.  Dawn criticizes worship services that are more performance oriented than worship oriented.  The music during worship should not be to entertain a congregation; it should lead the congregation into worship.  During times of worship, musicians should not be demonstrating their talent to influence others.14

Jesus declared, “true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:23).  He restates the same point that “they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:24).  This means that worship is also a personal act and not just corporate.  Worship involves personal commitment as well as corporate expression.  Piper comments as follows:

The two words, “spirit and truth,” correspond to the how and whom of worship.  Worshipping in spirit is the opposite of worshipping in merely external ways.  It is the opposite of empty formalism and traditionalism.  Worshipping in truth is the opposite of worship based on an inadequate view of God.  Worship must have heart and head.  Worship must engage emotions and thought.15

Jesus teaches that not only must one’s body be bowed toward the ground, but also one’s heart must be right before God.  Worship is not a solely intellectual exercise, but it is a loving response to God with heart, soul, and mind (Mt. 22:37).  Piper writes, “Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers….”16  One must believe God as He is and worship Him as Scripture declares Him, in nature and essence, to be.

God does expect believers to use their mind, but the wisdom of God must be based on His Word and not man-centered.  Worship that is people focused will tend to cater to man’s fallen nature, puffing him up and feeding his self-will (Isa. 47:10).  Believers should be critical of the practice of worship that “reflects the self-centered bent of the modern world.”17  Worship must be God focused as believers humble themselves (Prov. 16:19).  Allen and Borror remark, “When we worship, we edify; when we edify, we evangelize; when we evangelize, we worship.  Thy cycle is endless, but stops when one part is omitted.”18 

It is essential that worship begin with a proper knowledge of God.  Worship is not a gift for the edification of the church body; rather it is the demand of God and privilege of the believer (cf. 1 Chron. 16:29; Ps. 29:2; 45:11; 66:4; 96:9; Mt. 4:10; 1 Cor. 12-14).  When believers gather in worship it is “as a church” (1 Cor. 11:18), which is a corporate expression.  Worship is not a gathering of various individuals but of the people of God.  Edification will take place if the worship is God focused, and therefore, God should be the focus of attention and not the believer.  Worship is for Him!

The knowledge and wisdom of God should be uppermost in a theology of worship.  Christian theology and doxology are inseparable from each other as King David declares, “Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage” (Ps. 119:54).  God’s Word is the songbook (Ps. 119:172); therefore, worship should be based on the praises of biblical truth.  No matter how lovely a Christian song may be it should be rejected if it does not reflect the correct teaching of Scripture.

Is there a need for Trinitarian worship?  Dawn rejects this notion and finds it more necessary to address God rather than allowing for the witness of the Holy Spirit in worship.  Morgenthaler would not limit worship to absolute surrender, but would also include the work of the triune God drawing believers into worship.19  This is appropriate since it emphasizes both the immanence and transcendence of God.  In other words, God is unapproachable (transcendent) apart from faith in Jesus Christ and it is the Holy Spirit (immanence) drawing believers into that relationship.  The danger will be in emphasizing spirit or truth above the other.  Worship in spirit and in truth must maintain balance.20

Since worship is to be God focused, then the issue as to whether it is participation or presentation needs to be addressed.  The Collins Gem Webster’s Dictionary defines liturgy as a “prescribed form of public worship.”  However, the early church was not public in their worship since they were undergoing intense persecution for their faith.  Certainly, temple worship was a presentation toward God.  The worship within the synagogue appears to have been more of participation as can be witnessed in the reading and teaching of Scripture, exhortation of one another, and singing praises to God (Col. 3:16).  The sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper were certainly a presentation though.  It appears that the trend in worship tended toward a liturgical dimension.21  The early church viewed participation as being a member of the synagogue.  The use of symbol and sacrament required the participation of believers.  Therefore, the worship services were structured so that none was encouraged to be oblivious to others (1 Cor. 14).  Worship is not an extension of a so-called “prayer closet.”  Christian liturgy does emphasize the basis elements of the faith.  However, the danger again is not to worship in truth only.  Worship should not be divorced from being biblical and historical so that it can then be viewed as participation and presentation so that the worship of God does not become pragmatic toward the desires of the people.22

Worship then is simply declaring, in the presence of God, who He is and the marvelous works that He has done (as the sons of Israel did in Exodus 15).  It is believer focused since only Christians can worship intelligently (“in truth”) as to their salvation and in response (“in spirit”) to the leading of the Spirit of God as He has indwelt every believer.  Everything that is done by the Christian must be representative of the highest estimation of God that seeks to glorify and worship Him (Job 40:6-41:34; Ps. 29:1, 2).  Therefore, Christian worship should be Trinitarian (Rom. 11:33-36; Rev. 5:12) since this will bring glory to God in the totality of His being (Ps. 103).  Theology of worship begins and ends with God and His glory for no believer lives greater than his understanding of the Creator and Savior (Eph. 1:3-14).

Should worship be culturally accessible and/or distinct from culture?  Is there a value to newness and/or tradition?  How then does one worship?  Commenting on Ephesians 5:18, 19, McKinnon comments as follows:

The verb for (making melody) originally meant “to pluck a stringed instrument” but by NT times it came to mean simply “to sing”…to translate it here as singing would…create an obvious undesirable repetition.23

The Old Testament clearly employed the use of various instruments, whereas in the New Testament there are no clear statements for or against musical instruments.  The fact that Levite musicians are no longer needed does not necessarily imply a ban on Christian musicians.  The problem is going to be when the church is “stooping to use music which in many cases is barbaric in its very nature.”24  It has often been wrongly asserted that the Reformers took the old bar hymns and simply changed the lyrics to use the vernacular of the people.  The Reformers adopted the genre of the current day and created hymns that were then relevant to the culture at hand.25  The real issue is not worship style, but it is a worship that reflects substance.  Worship that entertains rather than praising God should be rejected.  The church must be extremely cautious to avoid worship styles that trivialize the content of worship.  Tradition is “the heritage of the faith” and “one of the strongest sinews that held Western society together.”26  Worship has a value then toward newness and tradition, although one should not exclude the other.  Contemporary styles can be God-honoring as well as being culturally accessible.  Nevertheless, whatever style of worship one adopts all should be done as unto the Lord and for His inestimable glory and worth (1 Cor. 10:31; Eph. 1).

1 Andrew Hill, Enter His Courts With Praise (Nashville:  Star Song, 1993), pp. xxvi-xxviii, xxxi.

2 Ibid., pp. xxix-xxx.

3 Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith (Grand Rapids:  Baker Books, 1999), pp. 62-63.

4 Hill, Enter His Courts, p. xxix-xxx.

5 W. K. Lowther Clarke, ed., Liturgy and Worship (New York:  Macmillan, 1932), p. 75.

6 R. P. Martin, Worship in the Early Church (London:  Marshall, Morgan, and Scott, 1964), p. 66.

7 Ibid., pp. 66-67.

8 Ibid.

9 Dave Fellingham, Worship Restored (Eastbourne:  Kingsway, 1987), p. 17.

10 Robert Webber, Music and the Arts in Christian Worship, Book 1 (Peabody:  Hendrickson, 1994), p. 439.

11 Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith (Grand Rapids:  Baker Books, 1999), p. 147.

12 Ibid., p. 98.

13 D. A. Carson, “ ‘Worship the Lord Your God’:  The Perennial Challenge” in Worship:  Adoration and Action, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids:  Baker Books, 1993), p. 13.

14 Marva Dawn, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down (Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans, 1995), p. 190.

15 John Piper, Desiring God (Sisters:  Multnomah Publishers, 1986), p. 76.

16 Ibid.

17 Dawn, Reaching Out, p. 107.

18 Ron Allen and Gordon Borror, Worship (Sisters:  Multnomah Publishers, 1982), p. 57.

19 Sally Morgenthaler, Worship Evangelism (Grand Rapids:  Zondervan, 1995), pp. 47-48.

20 Piper, Desiring God, pp. 79-92.

21 James White, Protestant Worship (Louisville:  Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989), pp. 97-102.

22 James White, Documents of Christian Worship (Louisville:  Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992), p. 114.

23 James McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 15.

24 Leonard Seidel, Face the Music (Springfield:  Grace Unlimited Publications, 1988), p. 2.

25 Personal conversation with Steve Camp, 20 October 2000.

26 Dawn, Reaching Out, pp. 58-59.