Worship Essential 2: Knowledge – Worship Centered on Christ

Knowing who it is we worship is the second essential for real worship. We cannot have a relationship with a God we don’t know.

Christian worship focuses on the life-giving active Word of God—Jesus Christ. Worship which focuses on the God of Hebrew Scriptures or the action of the Holy Spirit while skipping over the revelation of God in Christ misses the point of Christian worship. This is an issue of the content of our worship. We can in fact plan a service that is moving and educational, but if it doesn’t point toward God as revealed in Christ then we’ve failed.

This is challenging because much of what passes for worship doesn’t meet this test. In fact, Morgenthaller says: “It is the ultimate irony that there is so little of Jesus Christ and the Gospel in evangelical worship today.” She points to trends toward “cookbook Christianity” where the worship service is a way of presenting 4 steps to a disciplined life or 5 ways to make your marriage work or other such step-by-step instructive sermons. While these are well-meaning and even grounded in Scripture what they often fail to do what Christian worship must do—point to Jesus Christ.

For worship planners, this is where she wants us to be careful in planning “thematic” worship. Is the theme of the worship is “how to handle conflict” (such as I recently preached) we need to make sure that the service does not stay so focused on good advice that it doesn’t proclaim what Jesus has done for us. The purpose of worship is not to teach us how to handle conflict but rather to place us in the presence of God and allow us to respond to God’s presence.

[New Testament worship was] a response to the gospel . . . the living, dying, and rising of Jesus; the forgiveness of sins that comes from the work of Christ; and the ultimate overthrow of evil that results from the Christ-event. – Robert Webber

She challenges us to remember that neither well-articulated sermons nor high quality music and drama or even sermon notes to take home and ponder give power for salvation. Rather it is on the Gospel (the living, dying and rising of Jesus) that has the power for salvation! If we lose focus on that simple fact, then we have lost it all.

Let me close with what I think is her most powerful paragraph in this section (and in the book so far):

Think for a moment about the service you are planning for this week. Will Melinda’s neighbor who has been abusing her kids be able to differentiate your God from the ones on the “Psychic Network” shows she watches? Will she know what to do with her self-hate and guilt after experiencing an hour of “possibility Christianity” and a message entitled “If You Can Think It, God Can Do It”? Or picture young Joey, the crack addict. Will he be motivated by this week’s riveting reiteration of pull-yourself-up-by-the bootstraps morality, “Developing Self-Control”? Consider Cheryl, caught up in a series of adulterous affairs. Will she intersect with God’s love for her and find the power to break free from her chain of self-destruction if all she connects with is a hot worship band and an impressive video? Finally, what about Don, grieving about last night’s fight with his son? Will he see any Christians doing a gut-level reality check with God, coming to the foot of the cross for help and mercy and hope? Will he hear the message, “It’s okay to be hurting, okay to have doubts, okay to cry out to God from the depths of your pain”? Or will he go away convinced that Christianity is only for people who have nice smiles and have somehow managed to get their act together?

As I read that paragraph, I saw faces—very real faces— of people that sit in our pews and seats every Sunday: some are struggling with drug addictions; some with guilt over an extramarital affair; some grieving the breakup of their family; some celebrating the end of a destructive relationship; some struggling with sexual identity; and other simply struggling to accept that someone—even God—could love them. There are single parents, sandwiched sons and daughters raising teenagers and caring for elderly parents, unwed pregnant women; couples ready to split and tearing each other apart in the meantime; teenagers trying to figure out who they are; adults trying to figure out who they are; couples looking for a place to marry where they won’t be judged; refugees from other Christian traditions where they never seemed to have it together enough to belong, and so many others sitting in our church on Sundays. And the question for us is: How can we offer them Christ?