Jeff Ling

This article was triggered by a couple of things. First, Trevin Wax released a post on his blog entitled  “Steak on a Paper Plate: A Reflection on Worship”.  In it, Trevin questioned the forms of our worship and whether or not those forms (i.e. paper plates) were appropriate for celebrating and acknowledging the glory of God.  It was a great analogy and a fresh one for a discussion that has been going on for quite some time.  Content and form, style and substance. One statement by Trevin especially caught my eye:

But in worship today, there is a tendency toward casualness. The emphasis on feeling God’s closeness in worship may short-circuit the possibility of being transformed by a glimpse of the Transcendent One. There’s hardly any room for feeling awe in worship, and I can’t help but think that part of our problem is the form. (emphasis mine)

Reading Trevin’s article reminded me of some other things I had read in my studies, particularly arguments put forward by Marva J. Dawn, Michael Horton, Robert Webber and others. A work by Dr. Allen P. Ross is what I feature here and base my comments on.  In his book: Recalling the Hope of Glory, Dr. Ross discusses the danger of our worship becoming “imbalanced if not deformed.” How does that happen? By ignoring what he refers to as the “four basic senses of the human spirit as it responds to God.”

What are those four basic senses?

The Intellectual Sense. This relates to our fundamental need of understanding what we do and the reasons for it. We have a huge responsibility as worship leaders to prepare carefully and present with clarity. Dr. Ross suggests that the effect of understanding is two-fold:  First, it keeps the acts of worship safe from the stagnation of routine and or the infusion of superstition.  Secondly,  it helps to ensure that the worship experience does not come untethered from the everyday of living.

The Aesthetic Sense. We were created in the context of beauty and have the capacity for creating beautiful, although flawed, offerings. The wide variety of artistic expressions that exist should serve the purpose  not only of adding color to the world as a measure of common grace but extol and magnify the glory of God before the world. The fact is that there is very little creating that goes on in most worship settings. We often allot people the role of marginally involved observers who may sing a few songs (when not just watching the band) and little else. Ross points to the fact that worship is intended to be a dramatic reenactment of the gospel each week that invites people to participate by song, symbol, prayer, gestures, responses, etc..  This serves not only to draw the heart of the worshipper to God but into a deeper sense of community by shared acts of praise.

The Corporate Sense. Ross stresses that “ private worship or personal devotions, which are essential for the spiritual life, must lead into and find full expression in the assembly of the righteous, for private meditations must benefit others. “  In other words, our individual experience of worship is intended to fuel the worship of the community and help it take flight. It is a sad reality that multitudes of worship leaders look into the eyes of empty people each week; people who are relying on the band, the music, the charisma of the leader, to drag them from the grip of empty devotional lives into a momentary experience that caters more to the needs of people than magnifying the glory of God. Am I suggesting that our worship times should not bring comfort and encouragement to those attending? Certainly not. What I do mean to say is that if we help our people to understand the responsibility of bringing to the corporate worship a heart overflowing from private worship, we would see a greater depth of God-centered worship and less of a need to be pumped or propped up.

The Moral Sense. Frankly, I was disappointed that Dr. Ross used the word moral to describe this. I do understand his point: worship that is genuine should lead to transformed living. Our ethic should reflect the righteousness of the One whose face we behold. That said, I would have preferred the term the transcendent sense. My reason for this is that I firmly believe that our goal should not be to become more moral or ethical. I don’t believe that our goal in worship should be the transformation of people into a more virtuous morality. Where that has been emphasized, legalism tends to rule the day. Our deepest need is to be touched by the transcendent display of His holiness as we worship Him. When we worship “in the beauty of holiness” and behold “as in a mirror, the glory of God.” We find that the holiness we long for and the hatred of sin we experience is the genuine transformative work of the Spirit in our lives. Worship births love and love is the motivation we need to live out of.  I think Dr. Ross would agree with that and I certainly agree with his assessment of what happens when Holy God is not the focal point of our worship:

“Worship must develop this sense otherwise the intellectual sense will become arrogance, the aesthetic sense will be entertainment, and the corporate sense an unguided assembly.“

I don’t think any other statement captures so perfectly the dangers we face today if not humbled by God’s holiness. It is no secret that the reformed that have an emphasis on the intellectual sense are often found to be arrogant, that everyone from the seekers to the charismatics often fall head long into the lure of entertainment, and that emergents and house churches take the form of unguided assemblies in the name of community.

The question I face is the same one that Ralph Martin asks at the end of his masterful treatment of worship in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Edited by Geoffrey W. Bromiley):

“What is the pattern of worship that best conveys the richness of divine grace, faithfully interprets the gospel in our modern world and helpfully consolidates the body of Christ?”

Unless we are asking all of those questions then the warning of Dr. Ross concerning entertainment, arrogance and unguided assemblies is what we will contend with.