As the church of Jesus Christ enters a new century and a new millennium, we find her worship in a state characterized by profound contradictions.

On the one hand, the past 30 years have seen an explosion in interest in, and focus on, worship in churches.Conferences and books on the subject abound; we have witnessed a landslide of printed and recorded worship materials; there has been a massive trend away from "Directors of Music" to "Pastors of Worship." Most importantly, there is no doubt that there has been a God-honoring return to genuine worship in spirit and truth in many churches.

At the same time, worship has erupted out of its former benign neglect to become the leading hot button and center of controversy in the church today. Churches and staffs have split over the issue, while in other situations there is constant foment or an uneasy truce. Scarcely any congregation has been spared the debates over individual tastes, music styles, instrumentation, dynamics, audiovisual aids, and the list goes on. And whatever decision (if any) has been rendered by the church leadership on these areas of disagreement, it has often resulted in someone leaving the church out of dissatisfaction (or, worse yet, staying with a grudging spirit).

What's at Stake

Sadly, there is no sign that the storm is abating. It is scandalously true that the supposed worship of our holy and almighty God is today's leading source of dissension and division in our churches.

Brethren, this need not be! This must not be! I believe that in the swirl of debate and controversy we have all too often lost sight of some foundational truths which must undergird and fortify our worship practices, regardless of which direction those practices may take. We must agree on these fundamental premises concerning worship, that we might move forward together on this common ground. For only if we strive for unity, even in our diversity, will we truly be acting as Christ's universal body, and be pleasing to him in our worship.

Foundational Truths

1. We must focus on God's glory.

Are we preoccupied in our worship with God and his stupendous glory? Do we dwell on his absolute holiness, whereby he stands infinitely above and distinct from everything else that exists—because he created everything else that exists? Are we so intoxicated with the wonder of his love and mercy and condescension towards us in the Lord Jesus, that "the things of earth ... grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace"?

What aspect of the currently raging worship debates is so weighty that it deserves even mentioning in the light of his ineffable glory? Do we really think that the God who flung a billion billion stars into space, who calls each of them by name (Isa 40:26), and who keeps each of them in their courses, is really that concerned about whether it is a hymn or a chorus thjat is lifted up to him in praise, or whether the text is in a book or printed in a bulletin or flashed on a wall or screen?

If we could really grasp something of the glory of God, and commit ourselves to its display and celebration in corporate worship, our petty squabbles would quickly fade into insignificance.

2. We must remember that worship is first and foremost for God.

The New Testament seems to allow for considerable freedom in terms of the actual forms of our worship. That freedom has found expression in an incredible diversity of worship practices in the church of Jesus Christ, both through history and around the world today! The fact is that worship is for God, primarily and fundamentally; and all decisions about form or style or taste, while inevitable and necessary, must never lose sight of the fact that worship must be utterly God-centered; God must be both subject and object in our worship, and all other considerations are secondary.

Hence, talk about personal tastes, about the "appeal" of this or that kind of music, about style preferences, about "relevance," about being "user-" or "seeker-friendly" must always and forever take a back seat to the primary focus of our worship, which is God himself. Rather than these man-centered issues, our main concern must be that our worship is acceptable to God and gives him the honor and reverence which he is due. God is the true Seeker, and what he seeks is our worship (John 4:23); we must devote ourselves to pleasing him, not "playing the house."

Neither must we presume to know infallibly (for our church or for others) what kind or style of music is acceptable to God and what is not. If one looks at Christian expressions of worship worldwide, one could reasonably conclude that God himself is much more tolerant than we are about what can be fittingly brought and laid at his feet as a musical offering! And to apply standards of discernment and value that go beyond what God himself has set forth is to stand on very shaky ground indeed!

Worship is for God; and whatever factors are taken into consideration in settling on the structure and style of our corporate expression, may the first and primary grid concern that which will truly reflect and magnify the glory of God in the company of his people.

3. We must obey Paul's admonition "to consider others more important than yourselves." (Phil 2:3)

Have we even thought to apply Paul's principle to the practice of worship in our churches? How often in our considerations concerning worship do we rise above thinking only about what I like, what I think is good, what I think honors God and is worthy to be offered to him? We are so prone to assume that God's taste in music amazingly happens to coincide exactly with our own!

The application of Paul's exhortation must start with a recognition that what does not bless me may, indeed, bless the person next to me (again, realizing that "being blessed" is of secondary importance to God being exalted). And even if "being blessed" is an issue, then the direct application of Paul's principle is that my neighbor's blessing should matter more to me than my own!

Let us not consider the comfort of the person in the pew (believer or unbeliever) as of first importance, but rather how God would be honored and pleased if we sought to genuinely defer to one another in self-sacrificial love in the body—even in the area of worship! What a gift to offer God—a corporate sacrifice of praise infused with self-effacement and mutual humility!

4. We must understand the New Testament teaching on "whole-life" worship.

One of the main points Jesus was making in his conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4 (obviously a pivotal passage on worship in the New Testament; the term itself occurs some 10 times) was that his coming was responsible for the transformation of worship into something which was no longer centered in a place nor oriented to one event "either on this mountain or in Jerusalem" (v.21).

How we tend to revert to the Old Testament model of place-centered, event-oriented worship, which Jesus was very clearly abrogating in John 4! How quickly we forget that, while worship may well culminate and find its climax in the corporate gathering (in fact, it should), it does not, must not, cannot begin there. What shallow, undernourished Christians will we be if we come on Sunday morning for a fix of "weekly worship"!

Instead, an appropriate worship response to God for his saving work through Jesus Christ is a life and lifestyle of worship; a moment-by-moment, weeklong offering of ourselves for God's pleasure and glory. "I beg you to offer your bodies so him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That's the most sensible way to serve God" (Rom 12:1, CEV). "Whatever you say or do should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks to God the Father because of him" (Col 3:17, CEV). "When you eat or drink or do anything else, always do it to honor God" (1 Cor 10:31, CEV).

What makes corporate worship meaningful is when believers come together out of a week of walking with and worshiping God (both in times of focused individual worship, and in a life-permeating attitude of gratitude and prayer). The Holy Spirit can take a people thus prepared and forge a precious and powerful corporate expression of worship.

5. We must see the entire ministry of the church as ultimately directed towards worship.

John Piper, in his book Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions, explains how worship is the ultimate and eternal purpose of the church while missions is but a "temporary necessity." He also shows how missions must flow out of worship ("You can't commend what you don't cherish.") and must ultimately lead to worship being offered up by those from "every tribe, language, nation, and race" (Rev 5:9); as he puts it, "Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal in missions" (John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1993, p. 11).

What Piper says about missions could indeed be applied to all ministry, and to all ministries of the church. "Worship is the only Christian activity which is an end in itself," Piper has also written (John Piper, "Worship Is an End in Itself," sermon transcript). In other words, worship is unique in its purely vertical focus. All other ministries and Christian endeavors necessarily include a horizontal aspect which is focused on people, be it evangelism, discipleship, children's or youth ministry; but indeed the ultimate purpose of all these activities is to direct people's gaze heavenward, to bring them to that place of vertical focus, and to draw believers into a closer walk of God-glorifying worship. In short, the goal of all Christian ministry is to make more and better worshipers of God (and, of course, ultimately he is the One who must make this happen).

We Must Worship in Unity

How easily we lose sight of the forest for the trees! To be sure, decisions must be made concerning musical selections, form, and instrumentation. But these decidedly secondary concerns pale in importance next to far more weighty biblical considerations: the primacy of God's glory; worship being for him; the humility and mutual submission in our practice of worship; the pervasiveness and centrality of worship in the life of the church and of the individual believer.

These things must be pursued or our worship will not be pleasing to God—no matter how high the quality or how big the crowd. We must worship in unity, or we worship in vain.

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Rev. Ron has ministered in churches in Texas and in Vienna, Austria, and for the past 12 years has served as pastor of Worship and Music at First Evangelical Church in Memphis, Tenn. Since August 2000 he is living in Germany, where he serves as Worship and Arts Resource Consultant for Greater Europe Mission.

Ron has written a number of articles on worship, all of which may be accessed at www.firstevan.org/articles.htm. He may be contacted at RMan@gemission.com.

Originally published in the Reformation & Revival Journal, where you can find additional articles of a similar nature. Reformation & Revival Ministries, founded by Dr. John Armstrong, seeks to encourage the church, through its leadership, to pursue doctrinal and ethical reformation and to foster spiritual awakening. Reprinted with permission of Reformation & Revival Ministries.