Although the word ‘worship,’ has been turned into shorthand for describing the music accompanying a service, or a church gathering, I believe many people within our congregations conceptually grasp that ‘worship is more than a song.’ If we pressed the issue, perhaps our people would even agree that ‘all of life is worship.’ Author, Harold Best, moves us even deeper when he says,
‘We were created continuously outpouring. Note that I did not say we were created to be continuous outpourers. Nor can I dare imply that we were created to worship. This would suggest that God is an incomplete person whose need for something outside Himself (worship) completes His sense of Himself. It might not even be safe to say that we were created for worship, because the inference can be drawn that worship is a capacity that can be separated out and eventually relegated to one of several categories of being. I believe it is strategically important, therefore, to say that we were created continuously outpouring.’ (Unceasing Worship)
Worship cannot be compartmentalized to our songs, or our services, it knows no boundary or borderline of our time, or our lives. This continuous outpouring of worship is happening all the time, always, and forever. It includes the most mundane, ordinary, unseen, monotonous, seemingly insignificant moments of our lives.
If we are called to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice and do everything to the glory of God (Rom 12:1, 1 Cor 10:31), how do we do that on our commute, or dressing our children, paying our bills, making dinner, watching television, and brushing our teeth? We must begin by recognizing that we are constantly worshiping. There is no on and off switch. That worship is not the exclusive right of song or Sunday service.
Then we focus our attention and intention. When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:37-40).” Worship is the right response to who God is and what He has done. He is the One who loved us first, and we love in response. When we live as people experiencing, and responding to the love of God by loving God, and loving our neighbors, our lives are marked with attentive intentionality true of those who recognize all of life is worship.
It is important we understand this reality as worship leaders because we have a responsibility to connect corporate sung worship and the corporate worship gathering to all of life. To help people understand why what we do, and sing in our churches matters to all of life. Because the worship that happens in the gathering should be the culmination of lives lived in worship throughout the week.