A question I can't answer.....

What is worship? Somehow I always get asked this question and I seriously hate answering that question.

*sigh*

I know, I know. I'm a worship leader and so I'm supposed to have this completely epic answer, but the truth is when I get asked that question I usually stand there with my mouth gaping open until some generic answer I heard at some conference or read in a book falls out of my mouth.


It's not that I'm going blank or I have no idea what worship is. It's more like this rush of ideas. It's like the answer to that question is so big I can't fit it into words.

There are so many great concepts and ideas out there about worship and so many of them are dead on- how can you pick just one? In dealing with some changes in my life I've been working extra hard at understanding exactly what this thing is that God has called us all to and how I can be an effective leader in it.

When I first started going to church I was 18 and the answer was simple: Worship was the music we sang at the beginning of church. Simple. End of story. That answer isn't totally wrong but it's not right either. As the years have passed, God has added to it and broadened my understanding of worship. Worship is no longer confined to music or Sunday morning, and really it was never designed to be.

If you let it, worship becomes your life. That's really how God designed it. This kind of worship goes far beyond the music we hear or the songs we lip sync in the car on the way to work. This is deep, it's living, it's Holy-Spirit driven. You don't have to sing or play anything to do it well.

If you wiki Christian Worship, you'll find that even Wikipedia knows that "Worship is the central act of Christian Identity" Which goes back to the original question: "What is worship?" If it's so important, why isn't there one good answer?

I'm no Richard Foster or St. Francis (both have great concepts on worship BTW), but here's what I got so far: Worship can be anything we do, say, think, or convey that is directed towards the Lord. Worship can be intentional (like on Sundays or Bible study) or accidental (like when we give a dude change or take time to help someone move something heavy). Worship can be loud action (like servant evangelism or baptisms) or it can be still quiet in quiet reflection. It has less to do with what we are actually doing and more to do with the condition of our hearts. The Heart of Worship isn't just a great Matt Redman song- it's an achievable goal, a standard that God calls every believer to rise to. If you let God develop it in you, he will, and from that Worship goes from some handclapping and off-key singing on Sunday to a force that moves in you and through you and connect us and even people around us, with the living, breathing God......... kinda intense, right? It's at this point my brain goes in to overdrive and I'm so clogged with random thought I have to stop typing to avoid sounding like some over-indulging hipster. Maybe I'll just stick with my "straight from a book" answers for now :)

Worship can mean a lot of things to different people, above is just what I've discovered so far or at least what I can actually put into words right now. I'll repost in another 10 years and see what comes from that!

How about you? How would you answer the question?