Worship Articles - 2

How fitting it is that we are talking about worship after I have had the recent experience of leading all aspects of worship in The Current. This week we continue our discussion of worship and come to the problem of and the importance of “self” in worship. Danish theologian Soren Kierkgaard saw this problem in the church as far
back as the mid 19th Century. As he looked at churches, he saw worship being played out as a drama of Prompters, Actors, and Audience. Usually he would see the drama played out from the perspective of God being the Prompter – that the Holy Spirit moves us into worship, the leaders (musician, pastor, liturgists, etc.) were the actors – carrying out the lines that others were to see, enjoy, and get something out of, and the congregation was the Audience – those that sit and receive what the actors perform as prompted by God.

When we look around the church these days I think we still see the same thing. This is what we have become accustomed to as worshipers. Yet, as with Kierkegaard, I think this model has the order all wrong. This model of worship tends to make worship about “me” and “my needs”. If the music is off or the preacher has a bad day then we consider it to have been a bad performance for the week and worry that we didn’t get anything out of it. When the focus becomes about self, i.e. “getting my needs met, learning something, hearing a lesson that blesses me, being lifted by
the singing – then Christ has no part in it.” Maybe that is why Joe McKeever says, “Selfcenteredness Destroys all Worship.”1

Instead of this errant model that we have become so accustomed to, Kierkegaard suggests a different model and order for the drama of worship. This model is what I like to remember as I worship and lead others in worship. Whereas we often start with God as the prompter suddenly the leader becomes the prompter. Those that lead the music, read the passages, preach the sermons are the Prompters who lead the congregation to then be the Actors in the great drama of worship. Finally we realize that all this is done for the Audience of one, God. Worship truly
becomes something of great beauty when we get self out of the way – selfishness, selfcenteredness, self-interest, self-seeking, and self-absorption.

Only when we live and breathe our worship in this way do we fully realize the power of our Audience. I pray that this week you will begin preparing to be a participant in the great drama of worship.

I’ll see you Sunday.
Jay

1. (McKeever, Joe, “7 Things We Regularly Get Wrong About Worship”,
http://www.crosswalk.com/church/worship/7-things-we-regularly-get-wrong-about-worship.html , May 24, 2011)