Right-Side-Up Worship

Participatory Worship, Purposeful Worship, Praise in Worship, Persevering Worship

By Dr. Jessica H. Jones
  

What is worship?  Each of us would probably give a different answer to that question.  Coloring our answers would be subjective beliefs that had been knitted together over time and would vary as a result of our experience, liturgy, and study. It would include answers that would be affected by our insecurities, established in our own preferences, and change based on the state of our relationship with our Triune God. 

How then can we expect any church to provide meaningful worship for the masses when each of us is carrying preconceived notions and judgment on how worship should be done?
 

This past Holy Week, Bishop Neil asked me to write down some things about worship I might choose to share with parishes regarding this question that might enable parishioners to focus their individual answers toward more meaningful worship on a personal level.
 

These points address Participatory Worship, Purposeful Worship, Praise in Worship, and Persevering Worship. The first is presented below.  The remaining points will be presented in subsequent Communique newsletters.

Participatory Worship

The biblical precedent for corporate worship was set in the Torah and continued throughout both testaments and through to today. Corporate gatherings include recounting the saving acts of God for the purpose of worship but also for the benefit of the listener.  After hearing the revelation of the word, believers respond with one heart and one voice.  This liturgical dialogue has been one of the guiding forces throughout all of salvation history, including the future heavenly worship as glimpsed in Revelation.
 

What factors enable, or hinder, us to participate fully in worship?  I believe first and foremost we must begin to recognize ourselves as continuous worshipers.[1]  We are all worshiping something at each moment of our lives.  The question is whether or not it is God. We are not mining the depths of an intimate relationship with God if we are relegating our worship to one morning a week.  
 

If we are not practicing continuous worship of the Triune God we tend to rely on aids to "bring us into God's presence" each Sunday, instead of finding ourselves living in his presence constantly.  These aids (such as music, speech, or visual additions to our worship), are human handiwork and as such have a beginning and an end: a start and a stop.  But living in the presence of God does not offer a start and a stop and we play a dangerous game by implying our human handiwork can wield the power of the Holy Spirit by being the only gateway to worship.  
 

Erroneously, equating the artistic power of the arts with the power of the Holy Spirit fuels arguments over how worship should be "done."  These aids are open to preference of style and delivery and are therefore subjective, leaving the worshiper in the role of a dependent consumer, wanting to be pleased and satisfied.  After becoming dependent on these aids we are unable to participate fully in corporate worship because we have placed the responsibility of advocate on the arts, or on the leaders, instead of on the Holy Spirit working within us and alongside us. It means that we are unable to worship if we don't like the song, or think the priest talks with his hands too much.  It allows us to blame others for roadblocks to our worship, instead of owning the responsibility of worshiping for ourselves.

Take a moment to look at the picture above of a congregation during worship.  There are three groups present: the congregation, the leaders, and God's presence.  How might one assign these three groups with the following labels: Performers, Prompter, and Audience?
 

Most people would label the leaders as the Performers carrying out the delivery of the actions, God's presence as the Prompter offering guidance and encouragement to the Performers, and the congregation as the Audience who are left to receive education and encouragement (take a moment to view Fig. 1).

               Soren Kierkegaard [2]  initially made this exercise famous when he drew the analogy in 1847 by pointing out that in actuality the labels should be the leaders as the Prompter, encouraging the congregation to Perform the worship acts to the Audience of One (see Fig. 2). 

In his Divine Embrace, Robert Webber continues this discussion by adding that if God is the object of our worship (as believers profess him to be), then worship must proceed from us: the subject, the doer, the participant, the performer. [3] As performers of worship, we move from observation to participation.  Webber continues, "Church music is not part of a concert; the sermon is not an exercise in elocution; the Lord's Supper is not a snack.... Worship is classified not in the category of entertainment, but conversation." [4]  This conversation should occur because we are in God's presence and in relationship with him. 

It is important to point out that Kierkegaard's analogy should not imply that we are the host of a worship event and we ask God to grace us with his presence as observer.  This is a conversation with God, we are already in his presence, and we are choosing to join together collectively to proclaim mutual worship for our Abba.  As "Audience," God is the recipient of our worship, but not a distant being who can be summoned by our human handiwork.

When we react to a highly skilled delivery of a piece of music or a powerfully articulated sermon because of its quality or emotion, it is possible to compromise the gospel by assuming that the presentation is a vehicle for encountering God.  Instead, "right-side-up worship," participatory worship, suggests that that feeling is a result of desiring God above all else; a result of mutual love for each other and a connection of mind and spirit recognizing that union. [5]   It enables us to distinguish that the power of that offering is the glory it brings God, not the feeling it gives me.  For if we rely on the feeling it gives, we will forever seek the feeling out and then leave disgruntled when it fails to deliver regularly, which it will over time.

To be clear, as a music educator, a lover of music, and as a former worship leader, I find music to be a powerful way to connect with my Lord.  However, I cannot rely on the music to make it happen.  I must rely on participating in the relationship. I must rely on being a continuous worshiper who seeks God and comes to worship fully engaged (which is difficult sometimes!).  Then music becomes an expression of that love, but not a requirement to find myself in his presence.  When a choir presents an anthem, we are called on to worship God with our ears; we can make it an offering of ourselves as well, even if we are not physically presenting it.  And if it is painful to listen to, or we dislike the style, take the time to pray for the person presenting it; allow yourself to continue to dialogue with God during that time instead of critiquing it and losing any opportunity to hear the Holy Spirit.

Webber recounts a known story about a child in Sunday school class who is asked by her teacher, "And who are the saints?" Having seen stained-glass windows inside her church, the child answers, "They're the people that the light shines through."  [6]  That is the purpose of the liturgy, of the music, of the sermon: to be a means through which God's light might shine. They strengthen the relationship and can motivate expression from the relationship, but they are not the Light itself.  And as a result what matters is how we respond through them and their prompting.

So let us answer the call to enter actively into all aspects of worship.  Let us agree not to depend solely upon the leaders or worship aids, but ourselves, as the performers of worship birthed from the continuous cultivation of an intimate relationship with God.  We must be bold enough to call on him, to cry out to him, to worship him fully.  When we choose to participate fully in worshiping God, we are no longer preoccupied with our self.  This makes us more of who we were designed to be, and it also allows God to be who he desires to be for us. We must be bold enough to believe, and then bold enough to respond through full participation, why we claim we are there to celebrate every Sunday: The LORD reigns!

Jessica Jones is an Adjunct Professor of Worship as well as a former worship director and music educator. She received her Doctorate in Worship Studies from the Institute for Worship Studies in Orange Park, FL.  Dr. Jones resides in Jacksonville, FL with her family and can be reached at: drjessicahjones@gmail.com. "Right-Side-Up Worship" articles can be found online for future reference at: http://www.gulfatlanticdiocese.org/communique.