Right-Side-Up Worship

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

By Dr. Jessica H. Jones 

Persevering Worship

               A young boy in my parish, about age 11, admitted to his mom one day, "I love God, but what if I don't want to spend all of eternity in worship?" Such a brave confession, and a valid concern to someone who has only experienced mere human handiwork at worship! If what we know of God is only a fraction of who he fully is, then how can our worship, even at its best, reflect the power and majesty of the heavenly worship we will experience once his full glory is revealed?  Truth be told, it can't, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

Scripture gives us glimpses of heavenly worship in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4.  In both of these accounts angels are singing, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty."  We sing this on Sunday mornings to join the angels, but also the cloud of witnesses who have sung it for countless generations before us.  To say that God is holy is to set him apart, to believe he has a uniqueness that is beyond our understanding; he is separate from this broken world.  To worship this transcendent God brings a mixture of awe, wonder and joy, but it is a mixture that Christian public worship cannot fully offer.  If we begin to comprehend the risen Christ in all his glory or softly hear the angels' song, or imagine what life in the presence of the Lord will look like, we will never again be satisfied with earthly worship as usual.  Our weak attempts, no matter how gracious or splendid, will always be fit for this world and not for that one.[1] 

               And yet, many of us have experienced a moment during worship where we felt the Lord's presence, where we felt it lifting us out of our everyday cares, where we were filled with adoration and praise.  These moments transform a standard service into a transcendent meeting with the living God, inspired by a vision of the risen Christ in glory. Without them we become restless in sterile, spiritless services, so worship leaders endlessly try to enable the perfect setting for members to have these glimpses.  But coming into God's presence in his sanctuary begins with coming into his presence spiritually.[2]  The responsibility is on us as worshipers.  Are we showing up on Sunday morning answering a personal invitation to meet with God Almighty?  Are we expecting the sanctuary thresholds to shake as in Isaiah?  Are we consciously aware of the supernatural power of the one we are addressing?  Are we open to some shaking of our own personal thresholds of life? 

               Isaiah and Revelation show us what heavenly worship will be.  They remind us that no matter how our earthly cares weigh us down, if we fix our eyes on what is eternal, then in the process we, too, shall be transformed.  This transformation begins with a realignment of our priorities and continues to completion with Christ's final victory over the world when all the promises will be fulfilled.  It is imperative for Christian worship to reflect this eschatological hope in each service as much as possible.  For without fixing our eyes on the eternal victory, our lives here on earth can become oppressive, and coming to praise an incomprehensible God without the hope of final glory will not overcome it.[3]

               One of the marks of any effective person, project or organization, is that they made clear goals at the start: they began with the end in mind.  As believers we gather to worship a God who has revealed himself and redeemed us all, but we cannot forget that his promises do not end in his past deeds.    We come to worship a God who has made his end goal known to us all: full victory!

               We can catch glimpses of his presence in our lives when we meet together and share ways that the Lord has been faithful.  We can provide each other with testaments as to how the Lord has provided, comforted, assured and loved us.  These glimpses become a joyful celebration of the supernatural power of the God we love, who first loved us, enabling us to run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  These glimpses shine light on the final hope of glory, the coming of the kingdom, the fulfillment of his promises, the presence of a living God.  Without them, why persevere in worship at all?  With them, when worship becomes a true celebration of all that God has done, is doing and will continue to do through to the final victory, then people might answer a personal invitation with insatiable excitement to join the angels in praise of their transcendent God, each Sunday morning and for all eternity.

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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.