How do we Approach Worship?
Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 at 2:41 PM by David Zavadil
How do we know what we can do in worship? Isn't this an interesting question? There are so many ways you could go about answering it and yet it still may not feel fully answered. D.A. Carson in his book Worship by the Book writes, “Constructing a theology of worship is challenging because of the different kinds of answers that are provided, in this case, by biblical theology and systematic theology.” How we arrive at our theological positions colors how we approach worship.
I want to look at a few of the differing views of worship. In particular, I would like to look at these models of worship: 1. the Anything goes model 2. the Doesn't contradict Scripture model 3. the Word model. This look is by no means meant to be exhaustive, but simply to give us an over view as we move forward in our study on worship.
The “anything goes” model, or maybe better called, “the ends justify the means” model, approaches worship from the perspective of worship is for God's people and can take a variety of forms. This approach to worship would argue that true worship is different for every believer. What might be worship for one person may not be worshipful for another. To remedy this probability, you seek to include something for everyone. This model will argue that there is nothing taboo for worship as long as it leads people closer to Christ. Often times someone will quote, Joh 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (ESV). Our freedom enables and allows us to worship “in Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24) While this sounds good, especially to our individualistic culture, there are some problems inherent in the view point.
The “anything goes” model provides the possibility and opportunity to stray into acts and forms of worship that are simply not glorifying to God. It denies the directives that are clearly given in Scripture not to worship as the pagans do and moves the church toward an earthly looking organization as opposed to a kingdom outpost for our Lord. All too easily, in our desire to attract new people, we become more and more like the world, incorporating the latest entertainment fad in order to “keep everyone's attention.” The “anything goes” model turns worship from a God driven and focused lifestyle to a man driven and focused event. Everything become, “how can we keep the attenders happy.” I just do not see how this can be glorifying to God.
The second model is close to the first, but, to its credit, has its eye on Scripture. The desire is again to glorify God and yet be attractive. Worship is approached from the perspective of, anything is allowed in worship as long as it does not contradict Scripture. Most of our modern evangelical churches operate from this perspective. It is a pragmatic approach that appears to promote a Biblical view of worship. The problem I have with this view is that it is not driven by Scripture to glorify God but is driven my man and tempered a bit by Scripture. As long as you do not contradict Scripture anything goes. In fact you could call this “anything goes the holy version.”
The final view I will touch on is that of the Word model, also called the regulative principle. The regulative principle, in simple terms, states that everything we do must be prescribed in the Scriptures. Simply put, we worship as God tells us we are to worship. Westminster Confession of Faith 21:1 summarizes this view of worship like this:
But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture.
Scripture is to be our guide in determining how we are to worship. The problem found in this view of worship, yes there are problems with every view, deals with how narrowly to broadly to interpret the Scriptures. Take music as an example. Most would agree that Scripture guides us to include music in our worship. The questions that arise, at this point, are many. Should said music be with instruments or acapella? What is meant by “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16)? Do modern chorus' or praise songs fall into the category of “spiritual songs?” Were the hymns referred to in this passage found in Scripture or could hymns written later be used? These are just a few questions that arise from this one issue. For those who have read about worship lately, you know that there are just as many answers as there are questions.
The issue of how we are to worship is not just as easy as, “give me a piano a hymnal and the Bible.” Depending on how you use these items and how you approach that time of worship you could either glorify God or stray from God. As I said earlier, this talk was not intended to be exhaustive, but to begin a discussion. We will look more indepth at the Word model of worship in the future. For now, think for a moment about your worship. What view point predominates in your worship life?
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