Where Did You Learn to Worship?
As we continue to think more critically about worship and how we can be better worshippers at Pughtown Baptist Church (PBC), I want to ask you a question: Where did you learn how to worship?
I ask this question for a couple of reasons. First, where we learned how to worship is extremely influential in how we worship today. The places that we have learned give us our normative ideas about worship. For those of us who have learned how to worship in a traditional setting, chances are that a traditional service with hymns and responsive readings seems like a more normal expression for us. Likewise, those of us who have learned how to worship in more contemporary settings, praise songs and clapping and lifting hands in worship is more of a normative expression.
Secondly, I think it would be interesting to survey the congregation to see how different people have learned how to worship. It is amazing that even though we come from a variety of backgrounds, we still come together on a Sunday morning and worship the Lord together.
I want to tell you where I learned how to worship. I can point to three distinct settings. The first setting is the churches that I grew up in - Roxborough Baptist Church and the Baptist Temple, Blue Bell (now known as the Grace Baptist Church of Blue Bell). I learned something different in each church. I attend Roxborough Baptist Church until the tenth grade. At Roxborough I gained a deep appreciation for the hymns of our faith and a traditional worship service. Since I was younger, I didn’t fully understand all that was going on in the service. As I reflect back on it now, I have come to appreciate how a traditional service allows for quiet and reflection, how it helps me stay connected to the larger church that has been worshipping God in similar ways for hundreds of years (in a world where transition and change is so present), and the high view of God and Jesus that comes inherit in the service.
During the year that I spent as an intern at the Baptist Temple in Blue Bell, I learned two things about worship from the pastor I worked under - the Rev. Fred Lewis. First, he was very diligent, thought-filled and deep-thinking in planning a worship service. Every part of the service was well thought out. I learned about preparation and planning a worship service. Secondly, there were occasions at the Baptist Temple where we used the arts and media in worship. I earned how to expand my scope of vorship from the realms of the typical Sunday morning experience.
The second setting where I learned to worship was at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at James Madison University during my college years. During the weekly meetings, the worship team led us in a more contemporary service. The goal was to have a living encounter with Jesus while we were singing and praying and listening to speakers. This was the first time that I saw worship as an active pursuit. I looked around and saw people raising their hands as they were singing, getting down on their knees as they prayed, tears falling down their face as they sought to encounter God through the worship service. I learned in this setting how to be more open when I worship and also how to encounter God while worshipping.
The final setting where I have learned about worship was at conferences I have attended - conferences like the Urbana Mission Conference in 2003 and Encounter, the National ABC Youth Gathering in the 2004. In each of these settings, the worship services were led by a diverse group of worshippers - people of diverse races and ethnicities. At each conference, the worship was intentional in blending various styles and forms of worship throughout the conference. For instance, at the Urbana 03 conference, the worship team led worship in an African American style (Gospel music), an Asian style (more quiet and reflective), with hymns and praise songs, and even with hip hop. I learned at these conferences that the best type of worship is one that honors the diversity of the worshippers. The invitation in these setting was for those of us who were not familiar with or didn’t like a certain type of worship music to submit and sacrifice to the people stand around us from other cultures who were worshipping in their normative way. I learned that the acts of submission and sacrifice were acts of worship in themselves - that the more that we sacrificed and submitted to others who were not like us, the more the gospel of Jesus Christ was infiltrating our lives.
Where did you learn how to worship? What was the setting? How was it similar to and different from the worship experience at PBC? As we continue to worship together and grow as worshippers, we want to be sure that we always are learning to be better worshippers. Looking back at our roots is a good way to start.
Pastor Tim,
Updated May 1, 2008
