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This is an excerpt from a pretty good article. However, one of the points caught our attention.
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Come to the pulpit as an act of worship
It is serious error to associate worship with music. The entire service is worship. The gathered congregation is to worship God during scripture readings, corporate prayer, and the observance of the ordinances. Listening to and responding to the preached word of God is arguably the highest act of worship. The congregation is to worship as the preacher preaches. And the preacher is to worship as he preaches to the congregation. We preach to people. But, ultimately, what is for people is not about people. God is the subject and object of Christian worship. It is for him and about him. So we should preach to an audience of one. We should remember that bottom-line of worship is that God is pleased. Paul instructs, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
Come to the pulpit as an act of worship
It is serious error to associate worship with music. The entire service is worship. The gathered congregation is to worship God during scripture readings, corporate prayer, and the observance of the ordinances. Listening to and responding to the preached word of God is arguably the highest act of worship. The congregation is to worship as the preacher preaches. And the preacher is to worship as he preaches to the congregation. We preach to people. But, ultimately, what is for people is not about people. God is the subject and object of Christian worship. It is for him and about him. So we should preach to an audience of one. We should remember that bottom-line of worship is that God is pleased. Paul instructs, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
Mr. Charles makes several undocumented statements. Where in the Bible does it say that we should not associate worship with music? Where does it say the entire service is worship?
Worship is proskuneó, which means to kiss the ground when prostrating before a superior; to worship; ready "to fall down/prostrate oneself to adore on one's knees." The Hebrew word is shachah, which means bow down, prostrate oneself, before a monarch or superior, in homage...
So worship is the direct adoration offered to God in recognition of His high position. Worship is entirely God-focused.
The activities we do in church should be done in a worshipful attitude, but the act of worship itself removes these various activities from the equation. Doing a really good job preaching is certainly a good thing, and we should be attentive to the Word. Likewise, we should be dedicated to observe the ordinances and to pray.
The activities we do in church should be done in a worshipful attitude, but the act of worship itself removes these various activities from the equation. Doing a really good job preaching is certainly a good thing, and we should be attentive to the Word. Likewise, we should be dedicated to observe the ordinances and to pray.
But for some reason we would never suggest that the congregation would get down on their knees and bow low in the awesome, holy presence of the Lord of Hosts. We just don't do that.
Pleasing God via worship is not something the contemporary church culture really knows how to do. We don't seem to have an answer to this at present.
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