How Big is Your Worship?

Many years ago, J. B. Phillips wrote a small book about a big subject. The title alone is still shocking to many people: Your God is Too Small. In the years since that book was written, the issues Phillips addressed remain as relevant as ever. When it comes to God, we often think too small. We put God in a box, we expect God to function the way we want him to and we focus most of our prayers on what we (think we) need and what we give us comfort.

That's especially true when it comes to worship. With the rise of the mislabeled genre called "worship music," many in American Christianity think of "worship" as the 15-20 minutes of music that begins many Protestant services. Depending on your perspective, this is a time that you either "endure" so that you can get to "the real stuff" (i.e., the sermon) or it's a time you think is never long enough and is only interrupted by the sermon (or worse, by the offering). I've been told (to my face) that we should just ditch the sermon "so we can worship." I've also been told (to my face) that the "rest of the service" is less important than the music time.

But worship is more than music. To reduce worship to mere music is to put a lot of pressure on a simple song. To be sure, music is a part of worship. For me, it's a huge part as music really speaks to me. But what if you're not a musical person? Are you unable, then, to "really worship"? Of course not, because worship is so much bigger than 15-20 minutes. It's bigger than the sermon. It's bigger than the offering. It's bigger than an hour or so on Sunday morning. While the church does offer "worship services" (i.e., specified times of corporate worship), worship is really a lifestyle.

If worship is "giving worth to someone or something" (the old English word was "worth-ship"), then everything we do in our lives is either honoring God (giving worth to his presence in our lives) or not honoring God (saying he doesn't matter in our lives). Worship is so much bigger. We should be worshipping with every moment of every day—whether we're singing or not.

So...how's your worship today?