June 16, 2012 1:42 pm

What does it mean… worship?

by Pierre in Questions,What does it mean

“Worship” is one of those words we use, and think we know… but it is also one of those I find really hard to translate into French. And that’s because there’s no equivalent: the French would tend to use “adoration”. So I have found myself in the situation where I have to explain what “worship” is. And I struggled. So I asked my friends on twitter and face-to-face, but their answers generally didn’t tell me much about the essence of worship. That should have told me I was looking in the wrong place, but I think I got there eventually.

Photo credit: Mauro Cateb, under CC license.

So here’s a few thoughts I picked up along the way:

The Greek word used for “worship” in most instances in the New Testament is proskuneo. The translation is a bit contentious: one I’ve read is “to lean forward to kiss”, which conjures up, in today’s society, images of two close friends greeting each other. Other translation guides seem to point towards lying down, prostrate, to kiss the feet of a sovereign; and towards the evolution of the word to mean simple submission.
Regardless of the actual meaning, though, there are two important elements:
Pro at the root of proskuneo implies a movement and a direction.
There is a definite closeness involved in kissing. That should also be the case in worship.
The Latin used in some hymns is colo, from which we get the word colony. The first meaning is to cultivate a land, but ultimately, it means properly inhabiting a place. Indwelling brings the idea of closeness to a new level which encompasses our entire being.

Most importantly, though, worship is relational. It is not something that comes from us – the only thing we bring is an attitude of submission which allows us to respond. Worship is then our response: “a feeling of awe and wonder, your mind gets blown away and worship is the response that you can’t control”. That was the first answer I got when I asked people how they defined worship. I wasn’t satisfied because I wanted to be able to look at worship separately from anything else. But I realised such a task is impossible: worship does not make sense in an empty space; it does not mean anything apart from God. It is, first and foremost a response.

This is where modern languages are less helpful. Worship comes from worth-ship: thus worship is about declaring God’s worth (as compared to other things). Worship taken literally is nothing else than magnifying God. The German word used for worship songs means “praise (and prayer)”. The French, as I mentioned above, is the same as “adoration”. None of these mean anything independently of God, but they can be performed in a vacuum.
And it looks to me as though we have lost something in the process. Worship can sometimes be understood as constricted to worship songs, which in turn can be limited to praise, and literally describing God’s worth. Now it is right to give God thanks and praise, but worship is about so much more than that!

How do you see worship?

And, even though I just said worship isn’t just when we sing, singing can help worshipping, so:
what is your favourite worship song?

tags: definition, meaning, praise, prayer, worship

http://profiles.google.com/jonathandchase Jonathan Chase

I struggle to define this one too actually, but one helpful way I’ve heard it described is ‘worth-ship’. Obviously that’s not the origin of the word, but I think in a way, worship is giving to God what He deserves. That’s why worship is not simply singing or praying – they are acts of worship, but they are a subset, a way of worshipping. True worship is living the whole of our lives for Him – because that’s what He deserves.
So on what you said about it being relationship-based, I think that makes sense – because I think we express it in our relationship with Him. That’s one reason why I’m not quite happy when Heaven is pictured simply as a bunch of people singing – I think that’s more a Bible image to convey that Heaven will be worship, which will probably be much more than just singing, it will be living in relationship with God, giving Him all of ourselves, because we will have a perfect selfless relationship.

Imma gonna stop now, I’m starting to waffle. Is this your blog, Imma find me the RSS feed.
- http://edsslipper.net/ Pierre
  
  Jon, actually, worth-ship is the origin of the word worship (well, that’s what the Internet tells me, and the Internet is always right). It seems weird, though, to talk about giving to God what He deserves, because how can we make ourselves judges of what God deserves? The very notion of God “earning” our worship jars – because it was all His to begin with!
  But on the whole, yes, worship is all-embracing, pervading through our entire lives; not an event. Funny that you talk about prayer there, because I’ve been thinking the same thing about prayer: not an event, an attitude/identity and something that pervades through our lives. Either that or I don’t understand the meaning of “Pray at all times”!
  
  But then in what ways would worship be different from prayer?
  
  (Also, yes, this is my blog :-) glad to have you as a reader!)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Wigmore/61311392 Stephen Wigmore

One of the things that annoys me most about most Evangelicals is the conflation of worship with praising God through song, or even (slightly more broadly) praising God. It points to the sheer poverty of Evangelical worship that comes from abandoning a structured liturgy.

A complete Anglican or Catholic church service is Worship of God from start to end, whether in confession, in prayer, in welcome, in the peace, or the preparation for the Eucharist, and more widely we should worship God with our entire body, mind and soul in everything and moment we do.

I have always assumed that this is because fundamentally Worship means relating to God in a manner that acknowledges God’s true majesty. We most vocally and obviously do this through worship in services or prayer, but fundamentally those are just concentrated examples (made easier because they are consciously organised for the purpose) of what should make up our whole lives. In the same way that St Paul encourages us to pray without ceasing. He obviously didn’t mean we should be muttering prayers the whole time, but that we should internalise the attitude of prayer and communication and acknowledgement of God until it becomes an entirely automatic and passively constant part of our mode of being without any actual active effort required to activate it. The same should be true of worship.
- http://edsslipper.net/ Pierre
  
  Hey Steve,
  thanks for your comment, and sorry I didn’t answer earlier.
  I believe it’s a bit harsh on Evangelical worship. Different people have different ways of responding to heavily structured liturgy. When I was trying out churches in Lyon and went to a Catholic, I discarded the “stuff around the sermon” as unimportant. At that time, I was far more responsive to the worship songs followed by sermon structure.
  While now I see how it all is worship and important, I hadn’t reached that step on my own. A tradition which sees the Spirit as all-important also tends to reject strict liturgy to “give him space to move in us”. It is poor theology from the listener’s perspective (though it comes from a good sentiment) – I’ll point you to this cool post by Ben Reed here: http://www.benreed.net/index.php/2011/09/07/structured-sunday-services-crazy-people/ – but if people will only be open then, then there is some rationale in structuring services in a “modern” way.
  
  Funny that you didn’t mention the sermon in the parts of the complete service, though :-p I reckon it is also part of worship, albeit with an intermediary…
  
  And yeah, I agree that worship should make up our whole lives. As you saw, I made the comparison with prayer as in Paul’s command to pray at all times.
  
  What would you say is the difference between prayer in that sense (i.e. not as an event) and worship? Or what should it be?
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Wigmore/61311392 Stephen Wigmore
    
    Yeah, that is a bit harsh on Evangelical worship. This is me putting my catholic hat on. Certainly more basic styles of worship can be more accessible, especially to newcomers. Full catholic (whether Anglican, Catholic or Orthodox) liturgy can be pretty inaccessible, especially if it is not presented with a degree of effort. This is partially why I don’t think just inviting people to church is a great evangelistic strategy, but that’s another story.
    
    From the other angle though for those who are already Christians, I do really think that the lack of all those other elements means a lot of Evangelical worship can miss a lot out. Taking purely as an example we’re all familiar with, rather than because it’s a particularly bad offender, part of the reason I can’t stand Westwood’s services more than once a term is precisely because it misses out all those other elements that should form part of our relationship with God, and our human life.
    
    A worship that is purely based on going on about how wonderful everything is, without moments to reflect on the ups and downs, the more serious and downcast and more cheerful moments of life and our spiritual development will almost inevitably create a distorted impression of what religious life is like, and what God is like, and even create some pressure to be constantly inanely cheerful in church, and/or thinks that’s what God wants us to be like anyway. This can be harmful, both just because it’s repressive, and also because it doesn’t encourage people who are like that anyway to challenge that one sided way of being.
    
    Sorry, that’s a bit of a rant. Partly because this is something that has niggled at me for years, but I’ve never had a chance to talk about it properly. I’ve even noticed this with ‘Worship’ music, as opposed to Hymns, though I’m prepared to accept this is just due to my relative lack of exposure to modern ‘worship’ music. ‘Worship’ music seems to be just praise music. Whereas hymns have a much wider range of themes. Some are just full throated praise songs, and there’s nothing wrong with that in proportion, but others explore themes of doubt or personal service, or more personally sad thankfulness for what God has done for us, including the cost it bore.
    
    Sorry again. That is a bit of a tangent from your original article. And it must be said that even in my most catholic moments I think that liturgical structure should be framework only. At each point you should be willing to pause, wait, alter or even abandon elements of the structure if it feels like the Spirit is moving in that particular direction. It annoys the hell out of me when clergy rush through the liturgy, as though just getting through it all is the beneficial bit, not the fact it gives us the chance and space to consider and challenge ourselves and experience the spirit in different ways. As Ben’s point 1 says. We don’t have to be done in exactly an hour. Give it some time and space for God’s sake.
    To answer your final question. I don’t think there is a vast difference really. Because the whole point of this attitude is that it becomes holistically part of our whole mode of being. And thus any distinction between prayer, worship, ordinary life all but entirely disappears. Which surely must be out natural attitude in the absence of personal and original sin. That said, I always imagined that constant prayer was a matter of constant awareness and communication with God, in the same way that when someone is in the room we adjust our way of sitting, and body language and being, etc, even when we’re not talking to them. Whereas constant worship was acting and being in a manner that reflects a constant awareness of God’s wonder and glory, and his love for everything, in the way Jesus did, rather than from our own preferences, in the manner of a principle that has become totally internalised so that it motivates our actions and mood without any conscious effort or reference.I hope that makes some sense. Sorry for the long response. I really liked the article. It’s a really good set of questions to ask and issues to raise. Issues that aren’t raised frequently enough.
    - http://edsslipper.net/ Pierre
      
      I liked Westwood when I was part of it, and still do like it a lot. But here’s not the place to debate the respective values of particular churches.
      It’s quite interesting though, that with a Catholic hat, you are treating “being a Christian” as a binary property – I think that it’s more of a process. Growth, if you like. And while evangelical/modern churches do not make the worship holistic to the entire service, they are very good at developing a Christian life outside of Sunday (yet, somehow, still within the local church’s framework). I don’t have statistics, nor any idea where to find them, so take this with a pinch of salt, but from my personal experience, it appears that small group attendance is higher in more modern churches. Maybe it’s a palliative to the worship not being fully reached inside the church on a Sunday, I don’t know – or maybe it fits more with the event-based approach which transpires through limiting worship to sung praise. Whichever way it is, this discipleship training is one way to develop Christians – so while the growth is stifled in terms of understanding of , worship, it still happens in other places.
      
      Also, there is some great modern worship music which isn’t restricted to praise. Take me in closer, by Pete James, is one of my favourites. I don’t know whether “I almost let go” would be considered worship music (after all, it’s been tainted by Rev :-p) but that’s also a great song. In the same vein, Matt Redman’s “You alone can rescue” *is* praise, but spoken through pain. “Voice of Truth” by Casting Crowns is another good example. Although, with the exception of the first of these, I’ve never seen them sung in church, so I suppose your point still stands ;) (Seriously, though, if you haven’t, give Pete James a listen!)
      - http://www.facebook.com/people/Stephen-Wigmore/61311392 Stephen Wigmore
        
        I like Westwood too. And I don’t meant for that to be a particular dig. Just an example we’re all familiar with, of what I think is a wider problem.
        
        I agree that Evangelical churches do often tend to be better at getting people to attend different groups outside services, though I’m glad to say that I think this is spreading to less modern churches. But purely talking about worship I still think something is lost by not having that as a constant part of worship itself in services and without. Or even just it being referred to as a core part of worship, so that everyone is consciously aware that all those things are as much an element of worship as praising God. Even in small groups I’ve been in it has been a case of the ‘worship’ section of that small group being just singing praise songs, which is fine if you’ve only got 5 minutes, but as an example of the wider approach means that various important things are being missed out.
        
        And purely a personal irritation, but the use of the word ‘worship’ to purely refer to singing praise songs, which this approach engenders, drives me nuts. It’s just a fundamental misuse of the word.
      - http://edsslipper.net/ Pierre
        
        Glad you like Westood :-)
        And yes, restraining ‘worship’ to sung praise is a fundamental misuse of the word. But language does evolve, so you’ve got to look at what’s replacing it; rather than simply ranting because the word no longer means what it used to.
        And what’s worrying is that God is often left out of the equation – teaching, prayer, and sung praise end up as isolated segments which could work independently of each other, and which lack the unity brought by worship. Do we still have a holistic approach to church (let alone Christian life)?
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What does it mean… worship?