The Crucial First Post: What is Worship and Why Does This Blog Matter

photo by Michael Lubienieki

It's 7:30 p.m. on a Wednesday.  One hundred college students stream into the auditorium for service to begin. There is music playing as you take your seats, all arranged in rows facing towards a well manicured stage, armed to the teeth with shiny instruments and soft lights. Behind the instruments is a large screen, spanning most of the stage, and on it is a moving countdown timer, indicating only 10 seconds remain. As it clicks down to one, six musicians walk up to their gear, the music fades to silence, the lights slowly fade to black, spotlights come up...




If you're reading this blog, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. This is the ever-popular western culture church worship service. It is the standard for christian sub-culture, and many churches find themselves striving after it. To many, church worship is defined as:

• songs we sing
• music style
• set or stage design
• church series
• lighting
• church programming

But is this worship? Are songs, lights, videos, and props worship?


My name is Adrian Gibbs, and I am a young worship leader. I have worked as a church musician for eight years, and a worship leader for six years. I have played in many different churches, spanning a host of denominations, and have had the privilege of worshipping Jesus alongside people that are passionate about Him. This is what this blog is about. Jesus is who this blog is about. 


The question that we must address first is this: What is worship and why does it matter?


Pastor Mark Driscoll, who leads a Seattle-based church of over 15,000 people, says this on his website The Resurgence:

"Indeed, worship is not merely an aspect of our being, but the essence of our being as God’s image-bearers. As a result, all of life is ceaseless worship. Practically, this means that while worship does include corporate church meetings, singing songs, and liturgical forms, it is not limited by these things, defined solely as these things, or expressed only in these things because worship never stops."

This blog is for worship leaders who are, like me, navigating through waters of pop christianese culture to what it means to be a worshipper the Father seeks. Worship leaders and church musicians who would like to see what is going on in the local church around South Florida (where I live), the nation, and the world. The scope is pretty ambitious, but so are the stakes. Unless we know what worship is, we risk the danger of giving undue glory to the wrong thing.


If you are still reading this blog, it is likely that you are interested in knowing what the Bible has to say about worship. It should be impossible to separate a church worship leader blog from the word of the God that we worship.

Romans 12:1 (ESV) ¹ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

In this passage, Paul implies that worship is not a tangible, measurable product, but rather a steady aim and lifestyle choice. Therefore, the ultimate goal of this blog must be to direct every reader to a knowledge and relationship with Jesus, which manifests itself into a life led by Him and for His glory. That Jesus, God in human flesh, made Himself like us in order to bridge the gap that we could not cross between us and God- the gap that we brought on ourselves because of sin. 


This blog will seek to be as unbiased towards things like music style, genre, church denomination. However, it will seek to stay rooted in the underlying cause of church music- the cornerstone itself, which is Jesus. 


If you are still reading, I appreciate it deeply. I hope that we can link arms and move towards worship together.


-Adrian

STUFF TO SEE:
Pastor Mark Driscoll: What is Worship?