On Sunday, we spoke about vision—or perhaps, more accurately, our mission. It was our second ‘who are we and where are we going’ talk for the year. The first (back in February) was all about who we want to be—culture. This time, it was about where we’re going. In other words, what does TVC look like in 3-5 years?
In this talk we introduced a framework we use to think about what we’re supposed to be busy with as a church. It turns out putting on services isn’t the primary business of the church. Rather, we see it as four things: worshipping God, making disciples, engaging in mission, and doing it all in community. We discussed each briefly, but I promised that over the coming month, we’d be exploring them in a bit more depth here on the blog.
So welcome to a four-part ‘what we do’ series! Our first instalment is on…
Worship
When thinking about what the church is meant to actually do, worship is a very natural starting point. After all, it’s the very reason humanity exists! Allow me to explain.
If you read through the first few chapters of the bible, you’ll notice that God designed humanity with a very unique purpose in creation. We bear the ‘image’ of God: “so that they [we] may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26b). Ever wondered why God was so adamant that we don’t create images of our God like other religions do? It’s because he already made one. It’s us!
This ‘ruling’ business is interesting too. It’s not that God is no longer ruling over the other living creatures. It’s that we have a delegated authority over them.
If you put the two together, you discover we are (by design, anyway) what Peter would call a ‘royal priesthood’ (1 Peter 2:9). N.T. Wright describes this using the analogy of an angled mirror. We reflect the glory of God to creation, and the praises of creation back to God. As a priesthood, we play an intermediary position between God and his world.
Given God’s priestly intention for his people, it’s fair to say that worship is in our design. It’s not all of it. But when we recognise who God is, and who we are, our first inclination should be to give him glory and honour.
What worship isn’t
Unfortunately, we have cheapened the true meaning of worship in our modern Western church. Because we use the word to describe singing in church, we’ve started to conflate them. At worst, we can end up just seeing ‘worship’ as a warm up for the talk.
Let’s be clear—our time of worship at the beginning of each service is precious. Singing is a great way for most (not all, but most) people to praise God. Our corporate worship is more than the sum of it’s parts. There’s something special that happens when we sing together, which continues in a long historic tradition. But it’s not all that worship is.
What worship is
Tim Keller has a helpful definition for us:
“Worship is what we are meant to do all the time: it’s the response of the entire self to God’s greatness and grace.“
The pivotal word in this definition is response. Worship is what happens when we come into contact with the glory and goodness of God, and choose to respond. We might sing. We might dance. We might create beautiful art. We may be silent. We may go and serve the poor, be kind to the stranger, or pray for our enemies. If it’s our response to God, then it’s worship. And we’re supposed to do it all the time.
If you want to worship God, the first step is to notice him. This is easy to do when we intentionally carve out time to be with God, like at church or in a time of prayer. However, the truth is that God is present with us all the time, even in the most ordinary moments. There is a certain art and discipline to noticing God wherever we find ourselves.
When we notice God, then we respond. It transforms the way we carry ourselves in every area of our lives. I think this is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote: “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).
Then, when all God’s people begin to live this way, our ‘priestly vocation’ described earlier comes into focus. Imagine the whole of God’s church living lives of worship in this way. Wouldn’t it be breathtaking?
Worship at Toowoomba Vineyard Church
Let’s get practical—what do we want worship to be like for TVC in the coming years?
Firstly, Jen and I would love for our whole community (including us!) to capture this vision of whole-of-life worship. I’m not sure how to make this vision any more concrete, but it dovetails nicely with the idea of discipleship (more on that next week).
We would also love to see this more holistic picture of worship shape our corporate gatherings. We tend to focus on praise and intimacy when we sing together. However there are more expressions: lament, repentance, and contemplation… to name a few. We also feel that there is a new sound to be discovered for corporate worship. We love the songs we sing now, but what if we could discover a unique musical style that captures our unique time and place? Writing new worship songs would be a part of this, which could capture our own journey in a special way.
Lastly, it’s our desire to explore creative expressions beyond the musical, to further enrich our worship of God. In past ministry positions we’ve made space for art and dance, and found everyone benefits from a diversity of expression. With that said, we also appreciate some people might not engage with any of these. What if there was a way to involve those who love to be practical and work with their hands?
As we move forward, our goal is to embrace a holistic vision of worship that permeates every aspect of our lives. It would shape not just our personal devotion but also our corporate gatherings. As we grow and go deeper together, Jen and I pray that we would be a church defined by our deep love for God, and our heartfelt response to him in every part of our lives.
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Do you have thoughts on what this could look like? Feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments below. If you’d like to follow along with this blog series, you can subscribe to our ‘almost weekly’ email here.
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This post is part of a four-part series on our vision and mission. You can find the other posts here:
- Worship (this post)
- Discipleship
- Mission
- Community
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