Is Worship a Lifestyle?
The motives are fine, it sounds good, but is lifestyle the main idea of worship in the Bible?
Everywhere we look in the church today, on the internet, on Amazon, we hear . . .
• “worship is a lifestyle,”
• “everything I do is an act of worship”
• “work is worship” or
• “worship is an attitude of the heart.”
Let’s have a look at these ideas and how they might affect our theological understanding and practical outworkings of worship
A.W. Tozer
- possibly the first to mention “worship as a lifestyle’
He may be one of the earliest to say that worship is a lifestyle (the earliest I can find). This is from his book “The Purpose of Man”
“Throughout this series, I have maintained that worship is not an event but a lifestyle. The more we treat worship as an event, the more it becomes a caricature of God's intention, and is unacceptable to Him. To maintain a lifestyle of worship, we must attend to it on a daily basis. If you regulate worship to a once-a-week event, you really do not understand it, and it will take a low priority in your life.
For worship to be a vital part of everyday life, it must be systematically and carefully nurtured.”
- https://www.evangelical-times.org/23756/personal-view-true-worship/
His version of a lifestyle of worship is that worship needs to be a habit, a regular “part” of your life, not just an act on Sunday. He then goes on to list events in our life that are for him, worship.
But somewhere along the line his thought was expanded to mean every activity could be considered worship if done with an attitude of giving glory to God.
In his book “The Pursuit of God” he pushes closer to everything is worship by saying . . .
“… it may be difficult for the average Christian to get hold of the idea that his daily labors can be performed as acts of worship acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
. . . We must offer all our acts to God and believe that He accepts them. Then hold firmly to that position and keep insisting that every act of every hour of the day and night be included in the transaction.”
What are people saying about worship as a lifestyle?
Theologians
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Bible Teachers
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Musicians
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Worship is Special
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Ideas do not usually appear out of nowhere, and so the idea of worship lifestyle has ancestors.
Being organic and fluid, ideas are not easily traced. Here are a couple of earlier sources that might explain the development of this popular theology.
Click on the arrow to expand the quote.
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Spurgeon rightly emphasized the importance of an honest, genuine inward attitude in worship. But in focusing on heart attitude, he pointed away from the outward expression, concluding worship is wholly mental. This inevitably led him to conclude all of life is worship if lived in this right attitude. Therefore, worship is an attitude.
“We who worship God under the Christian dispensation are no longer to fancy that bodily exercise in worship profits anything, that bended knees and contortions are of any value, but that acceptable worship is wholly mental, inward, and spiritual.
“It is a worship which is not outward, but of the inner man, and occupies not hand, eye, and foot, but heart and soul and spirit: and it is a worship which is not professional and formal, but real, hearty, earnest, and so acceptable before God.
The whole of the Christian’s life, consisting as it must do of dealings with the invisible God through Jesus Christ by his heart, is a life of worship,
– “The Axe at the Root” Sermon #695 - June 17, 1866
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She, like Spurgeon, emphasizes the importance of inward attitude and the danger of relying on mere outward expression of worship:
“There is a sense in which we may think of the whole life of the Universe, seen and unseen, conscious and unconscious, as an act of worship, glorifying its Origin, Sustainer, and End.
If we rest in any outward form, though God prescribes it, we must have a very gross and carnal idea of God indeed, . . . what God wants is the heart, the soul, the love, the trust, the confidence of rational, intelligent beings—not the going through of certain forms.”
But she balances this with the necessity of outward form . . .
“And next, if human worship be essentially theocentric, . . . it must have embodiment, concrete expression.
. . . in every human society which has reached even a rudimentary religious consciousness, worship is given its concrete expression in institutions and ritual acts . . .”
Underhill warns that to reduce worship to merely attitude will reduce its richness and power.
“. . . when this costly and explicit embodiment is lacking, or is rejected where once possessed, and the Godward life of the community is not given some sensible and institutional expression within the social complex, worship seldom develops its full richness and power. It remains thin, abstract, and notional: a tendency, an attitude, a general aspiration, moving alongside human life, rather than in it. . .” - from “Worship” - originally published in 1929.
From these early thoughts on worship, many teachers and theologians picked up the “everything is worship” idea. It is interesting to note that both Calvin and Luther always talked about worship as the “church service” and never taught that worship was inward only. But purity of heart was still important to them, so much so that Calvin wanted to remove distractions from worshipers by reducing the use of both musical instruments and ornate artwork in the worship sanctuary.