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Who will help us worship ?

C ontemporary terms such as “worship team,” “worship pastor,” and “worship leaders” have crept into many church gatherings. Are these terms found in Scripture? The answer is “no.” In fact, the concepts are foreign to Scripture. If there is any “worship leader” in the local assembly, it is the Holy Spirit. His role is to guide believers into a deeper understanding of truth concerning the Lord Jesus and the overall greatness and goodness of God. Only through Spirit-led worship, which will be completely founded on divine truth, can the believer offer any acceptable sacrifice of praise to God.

            “ But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (Jn.4:23-24).

Worship words

Reviewing how the word “worship” is used in Scripture provides helpful insights into what God expects from those He created for His good pleasure. Probing beyond the meanings of “worship” to the context of the seven instances in which the noun form of worship is used, we find that believer's worship is not the focus. Most of the references are negative in connotation (i.e. relating to false worship of man's religious rote).

            As there are no adjectives to evaluate, and the said nouns do not relate directly to the believer's worship, we are left with an abundance of verbs confirming that “worship” is something that we do; it does not describe what we have done for God, nor does it describe who we are. So the entire concept of someone standing up before a congregation of the Lord's people as the “worship leader” is unknown in the Bible. As believer priests, all Christians are to be worshipping God, and the Holy Spirit will guide and lead the activity. Introducing worship as an adjective or to formulate a title for men is in opposition to the clear usage of the word in Scripture.

What about the worship meeting?

In light of how worship is spoken of in Scripture, it must be concluded that referring to the Lord's Supper as the “worship meeting” is not actually correct. That is not to say that worship doesn't happen during this meeting, or, for that matter, at any other meeting of the church. Certainly God's people in the Old Testament worshipped God while Ezra was teaching them from the Scripture (Neh.8:1-8). The Lord's Supper is an appointed time for the local church to remember the Lord and to proclaim the value of His death (1 Cor.11:24-26). It is a remembrance meeting in which the believers will certainly worship the Lord, but it is more specific than a worship meeting. The danger of the change in terminology is that, in time, the worship meeting will become an opportunity for offering “strange fire” to the Lord in the name of Christ, while neglecting what Christ commanded His supper to be. It has happened before, and it may happen again. Adhering to the biblical name of the meeting helps protect against drifting from the biblical intent of the meeting.

            The idea of the Lord's Supper being the worship meeting has already influenced the conduct of some. For example, some sisters only wear a headcovering during the breaking of bread and not during the other church meetings. Why? Because, in their thinking, that is the only meeting in which the assembly worships God. In fact, there should be worship, praise, and adoration for the Lord at all meetings. We should never be conscious of a time when the Lord is not at the centre of our attention.

Some dress differently for the Lord's Supper than they do at other meetings of the church: one standard of dress for the “worship” and a different standard for the prayer meeting. But why the difference?

            The reality of the believer-priest is that he or she can offer worship to God at any moment in time. Every time we yield to God's truth instead of pursuing our desires and selfish will, we offer a living sacrifice to God(Rom.12:1-2). It is the pagan that works to induce or force worship. This is often attempted through disordered music (Dan.3), but the Lord's people may be, and should be, prompted to worship from a joyful heart at all times, not just at one particular meeting. So let us be careful that we worship without worshipping our worship.

By Warren Henderson. Uplook/Nov-Dec. 2007