Sunday Worship

As believers, our theology of worship is important. I use the word theology because what we believe about worship is what we live out. For example, do you say “I am going to a worship service!” or “We have a worship band that rocks it out!” or “I have an awesome worship leader at my church!” If you say that (and yes I am guilty) then you are identifying worship as an event held in a building or lead by a single individual. That is an Old Covenant view of worship. Music is part of worship, but not the whole. Music is no more important than preaching, serving, going to Target, purity in dating relationships and what is looked at on the computer. Worship is not 10:00-12:00 in a building on a certain day of the week.  

That is the point of John 4:24. When the Samaritan women encountered Jesus, she made a statement. John 4:19 reads, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” (ESV). In response Jesus makes a radical statement, “Women, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him” (ESV).

In the New Covenant era, we worship God in spirit and truth. Worship in spirit means our worship is not bound to a building, time, day or lead by a single individual. All believers worship -24/7. That is 1 Corinthians 10:31 lived out. Believers worship wherever they go. Buildings are not holy, God is. Buildings are not God’s house, Christians are. Believers can and do worship God on airplanes, driving in crazy traffic, in the grocery store, on the basketball court, in caves in Iran, and in house’s in Turkey.

In our evangelical culture we have a bad habit of using Old Covenant language incorrectly. I think we should (including myself) change the way we speak to bring honor to our Lord. It matters. Church is not a building, worship is not from 10:00 – 12:00, and everybody worships something all the time.