Is Worship a Lifestyle?

“Not everything we do is worship.”

There… I said it.

Over the past 20 years, I would say the idea of worship-as-a-lifestyle has become a fundamental assumption in the American evangelical church. In recent years I’ve heard the phrase less often, but my feeling is that’s because church leaders feel that the point has been made.

A decade and a half ago it seemed any discussion on worship referenced this idea. When Rick Warren’s best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, came out in 2002, “worship is a lifestyle” was the punchline of his chapter on worship. Referencing Benedictine monk, Brother Lawrence, Warren helped cement the idea in the minds of American churchgoers.

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If worship is everything then worship is nothing. We are always meant to be in a posture of worship through all we do, say, and think. But, is everything a “special” expression of that worship? When we come to the table and partake in communion, that surely is more than when I sit and have coffee with another person. Indeed, having coffee can still be a “sacramental” moment between your friends and God even though that the venue is other than the communion table. To separate something as holy does not mean the other is not spiritual! It just means that it is not sacred. We can find and connect to our Creator in any setting. We can worship at any time and place because of the Holy Spirit in us. Sacred and secular are a both-and way of living. We learn to worship in both a time and place only for God and live out that worship everywhere else. The two are connected because we are in both places. In other words, let’s not erase a line that is useful. Just like some acts are only for marriage, should not some times, places, and acts only be for God?

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“Holy” actions, gatherings, words, and places are set apart from the ordinary flow of daily living for the use and glory of God. In fact, such actions will usually serve no purpose other than the glory of God. There may be an appearance of logic in suggesting that identifying the gathering of believers to break bread as worship in a unique way leads to disjointed lives (saint on Sunday, devil on Monday). The reality is that the “worship is everything” idea has only served to hasten the rapid secularization of an increasingly secular American church.

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“Everything we do is worship.”

That sounds admirable. And, to be honest, we are faced with a problem of vocabulary. The meaning of whatever people mean by “worship” can be pretty fluid.

But, at least in the sense the word might have been used in reference to the temple sacrifices or the praises of the synagogue, the statement is an absurdity—a self contradiction. . . .

The reality is the “worship is everything” idea has only served to hasten the rapid secularization of an increasingly secular American church. . .

Yes, in one sense, all of Christian living may be seen as a grace-response to the love of God in Christ. Believing the assembly is worship does not eliminate that call to do “everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” We must live in a way consistent with our faith at all times. The life of faith is a lifelong expression of praise and gratitude toward God. Those who see our “good works” may, indeed, be prompted to “glorify God.” We live as those whom God has called out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

The rhythm of the ordinary intersected with the extraordinary and holy has marked human worship and interaction with God from times of Abel to the visions of John on Patmos on “the Lord’s Day.”

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Is Everything Worship?

While reading an article in the December 1995 issue of Look Magazine, the article quoted HaKeem Olajuwon as saying that he considers the game of basketball, "an act of worship." Olajuwon is a Muslim with Allah as his god. Evidently there are a lot of people who think everything they do is worship from changing the baby to playing golf. Let's notice some things the Bible teaches about worship and then we can see whether or not everything we do is worship.

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Worship is Not a Lifestyle

Posted by Tom Kraeuter on September 3, 2013 in Worship

Tell Me Again, What Is Worship?

This is an attempt to articulate a huge shift in my thinking—and even my theology—that has occurred over the past few years. What I’m about to say might be controversial in some circles. My goal, though, is not so much to be controversial as it is to be biblical.

I’ll just say it straight out: I no longer believe that worship is a lifestyle. In fact, it is not even benevolent actions toward others. It is always, from a biblical perspective, an act directed toward God. Allow me a moment or two to explain.

Contrary to what many people in our culture would suggest, words have specific meanings. If we’re going to use words accurately, we must understand their meanings. Worship, as a primary issue of Christian theology, must be understood from a biblical perspective. It is imperative to recognize the actual meaning of the word, not an ideological intent that many—myself included—have attempted to superimpose onto the word.

In a recent article, James MacDonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago, said it this way:

“I’m not seeking to parse meanings with undue rigor, but we need to be precise in our definitions if we want to accurately embrace the very purpose for our existence. Worship is the actual act of ascribing worth directly to God. Worshipful actions earlier in the article he mentions things like acts of kindness and generosity toward others, for example may do this indirectly, but when the Bible commands and commends worship as our highest expression, it is not talking about anything other than direct, intentional, vertical outpouring of adoration. While that does not have to be put to music, it does have to be direct in order to rise above the ‘worshipful’ and actually attribute worth to God…”

In an article entitled, Why Worship Means Nothing,” popular blogger and worship leader Kim Gentes recently shared a similar conclusion.

“For a moment, let’s roll back the clock 40 years. If you were to ask a linguist, scholar and Bible translator what the word ‘worship’ meant, according to the Biblical usage of it, you would get something akin to ‘pointed acts and moments of submission, sacrifice and obeisance.’ But today, the worship word has become almost a euphemism for ‘everything.’ This has happened not because the Bible changed, but because we stopped using it as the central text to define the word. And with the popular worship movement of the last 30 years, we have co-opted the ‘worship’ term for almost everything and anything to which that movement was associated. I have done it, others have done, we’ve all done it. But we were wrong.”

Although they came at the subject from very different perspectives, I think both MacDonald’s and Gentes’ statements are right on target. Worship is directed toward God. If He isn’t the focus, then it can’t truly be called worship.

A few years ago, I had a conversation with Chuck Fromm, the publisher of Worship Leader magazine. During the conversation, Fromm made a statement that has stuck with me ever since. He said, “If worship is everything, then it is nothing.” In other words, if it is all-inclusive, then it has lost all meaning.

I am not suggesting it is wrong to do what James MacDonald calls worshipful acts. In fact, those are very good things. They’re just not worship in the true sense of that word from Scripture.

Worship, from a biblical perspective, has the focus directly on God. The scriptural examples are too numerous to include in this brief article. So, instead, I would challenge you to do a word study on your own. Use a concordance and look at all the times the word worship is used in the Bible. I’m pretty sure that you’ll come to the same conclusion.

Worship is not just words about God. It’s not even nice gestures toward His people or His creatures in general. Although those can be worthwhile and even godly things, they’re not truly worship. They may be actions that we as Christ-follower should be doing, but they’re not worship.

If we’re going to use the word worship biblically, then what we’re doing must be focused on the Lord God Almighty.

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For a moment, let's roll back the clock 40 years. If you were to ask a linguist, scholar and Bible translator what the word "worship" meant, according to the Biblical usage of it, you would get something akin to "pointed acts and moments of submission, sacrifice and obeisance". But today, the worship word has become almost a euphemism for "everything". This has happened not because the Bible changed, but because we stopped using it as the central text to define the word. And with the popular worship movement of the last 30 years, we have co-opted the "worship" term for almost everything and anything to which that movement was associated. I have done it, others have done, we've all done it. But we were wrong. . .

. . . using the "worship" word to define that life-style devotion has recast a specific word into an almost useless term. We all (all of us involved in the last 30 years), should have picked a term that meant "life lived in complete devotion, as a broader meta-narrative that we can see exampled in the specific activity of biblical worship". When we overloaded the "worship" term with this new definition we made it mean just about everything, and hence, just about nothing

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Perhaps you have heard this familiar mantra: "Life is worship!" The most recent occurrence in my life took place while reading Worship Leader (July/August 2014, 10) magazine. After quoting Colossians 3:17, Mark Roberts offers this conclusion:

“Here worship is not limited to the kinds of things we do when gathered as God’s people. It’s not only or mainly a matter of singing, teaching, and prayer. Rather, in verse 17, includes everything we do. Yes, everything.”

Roberts then links Colossians 3:23 with Romans 12:1 in this way: “As (Paul) writes to the Romans, we worship God by offering our bodies as a living sacrifice, glorifying him with all that we are and all that we do.”

Roberts’ interpretation of the cited biblical passages has become commonplace. He is far from the only contemporary Christian claiming that all of life is worship. I wonder, however, if we can hit the pause button to reflect on the premise that worship includes everything we do - yes, everything. . . .

But does the Bible teach that worship includes everything we do? That all of life is worship? . . .

Does it make sense to equate life with worship? If all of life is worship, worship is, in the end, ubiquitous and meaningless.

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