A Call for God-Centered Worship
Amit Karthak
The primary function of the church is to honor God. The congregation of God’s people offering a praise sacrifice publicly before God on the Lord’s Day exemplifies the God-centeredness of Christian worship. This gathering of believers seeks to encounter the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and to know and glorify Him. True worship is referred to as “worth-ship,” which incorporates the New Testament idea of prostration. Other biblical terms for worship mean “to serve,” referring to dedicated availability for service to God (e.g., Rom. 12:1).
The Act of Worship today frequently has become either a seeker-sensitive, soul-winning endeavor, or, alternatively, what we know as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Firstly, let me summarize what “seeker-sensitive, soul-winning endeavor” implies. It is a bait-and-switch operation. A bait-and-switch strategy is one whereby a person obtains what they desire by coercing others. Their main agenda is to be sensitive to seekers and win souls. Even though being seeker sensitive is not wrong in itself, it can easily detract from the main focus of worship altogether. Secondly, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, depicts God as observing our actions on earth and longing for us to be decent, just, good people. The primary purpose of existence then, is for us to be happy and satisfied with ourselves; God’s involvement in a person’s existence is unnecessary and unwanted – unless He is required to solve a problem. Being a good, moral person is seen as central to living a good and happy existence. To quote: “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is about belief in a particular kind of God: one who exists, created the world and defines our general moral order, but not one who is particularly personally involved in one’s affairs— especially affairs in which one would prefer not to have God involved.” By what we have heard and said, we have successfully created our own gods whom we worship and seek to please. We may be failing to realize that we are worshipping our own conceptual gods while being deceived into believing that we are worshipping the true God.
Duncan states, “God’s Word itself must supply the principles and patterns and content of Christian worship. True Christian worship is by the book. It is according to Scripture. The Bible alone ultimately directs the form and content of Christian worship.” As scripture warns us: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Matthew 6:24). Terry L. Johnson writes:
When God draws near, he has special business with us. As in Isaiah’s case, he wants to remind us of his greatness and holiness. He wants us to acknowledge that greatness in our praises. He wants to convict us of sin, and he wants us to confess that sin and receive his forgiveness. He wants us to hear his word and obey it. He wants to hear our baptismal and membership vows, and to preside at the discipline of the church. He wants to fellowship with us in the Lord’s Supper. He wants to receive our gifts. He wants us to acknowledge our unity and love for one another as his body. For such purposes, God draws near.
We cannot seek to save souls or please people and at the same time worship one true God. The purpose of worship is not to gain souls or please people, but to glorify God. Our worship services should be ordered to express devotion to God, not to add numbers or to request from Him anything and everything that our hearts desire. We are to prioritise the edification of the believers through prayer, confession, singing, reading and preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments.
In the last few years, and especially after COVID-19 lockdowns, there has been some confusion about whether Christians must gather together for worship. I have met several individuals who do not think that corporate _ gathering is an essential part of their growth as the children of God. However, it is the place where we gather together as covenant people to worship God.
Merker states:
A church is a blood-bought people, devoted to the worship of the one true God. They’re set apart from the world. They’re committed to serving one another and loving their neighbors. And they do all this by assembling together in space and time…It gathers, then scatters, then gathers again. Its members continue to be part of the church throughout the week, as they serve and represent Christ in their homes, their workplaces, their neighborhoods. But a church is never less than a gathering.
Meeting together does not use up all of the church’s life. Even if a church isn’t meeting, it still exists in the way its members help each other and in the way they work together to do good in the world. However, in its purest form, the church does show itself in the act of gathering for worship, and this is what makes it a church. If rightly understood, it is the altar where we must come every time to offer our sacrifices of praise and receive sanctification by God’s Spirit and His Word. There is no substitute for congregational worship (Hebs 10:24, 25). The church gathers to worship God. Christians have gathered historically on the Lord’s Day for worship and have been empowered by His Spirit to carry out His commands. The focal point of worship is God and seeking His will for us, His people.
In the Reformed tradition, worship centers on God and consists of praising, confessing, imploring, and engaging with His Word. This emphasis is reflected (?exemplified) in the teachings of the Bible which exhort individuals to draw near to God, to glorify His name, kneel before him, sing joyful songs, and offer thanks to Him. Either worship is people-centered or God-centered, but not both. Congregational worship should consist of God-glorifying devotional activities. The Bible teaches us that public worship is greatly to be preferred over private spiritual exercises. Every grateful heart wants God’s name to be lifted up publicly—and the more public the better, as the Psalmist say, “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Psalms 96:3). Psalm 95 says:
Vs. 1-3
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
Vs. 6.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand. (NIV)
In this way worship is God-centered and God-directed, not man-centered. It is God-centered because, “We “draw near” to God in worship (James 4:8–10; Heb. 4:15–16; 10:19–23). We ascribe glory to His name (1 Chron. 16:29; Ps. 96:7; 29:2). It is before Him that we bow down and kneel (Ps. 95:6–7). We come before Him with joyful songs (Ps. 100:2). We sing for joy “to the Lord” (Ps. 95:1–2; 96:1–2). We “give thanks to the Lord” (Ps. 106:1). We praise Him, confess our sins to Him, and bring our prayers and petitions before Him. He speaks to us from the Bible, meets with us at His table, and we enjoy His fellowship. It is God-directed because, His Word is the final authority on our life and worship as His people. The true God set up the right way to worship Him, and His own revealed will makes it so that He can’t be worshipped in any way that isn’t in the Bible. So, if worship is to be about God, as it should be, it should be led by His Word.
To sum up, one of the most natural things for us to do as believers is gathering together so that we might worship God together. Worship therefore belongs primarily in the congregation and only secondarily to the individual. Sadly, much of our worship remains increasingly focused on the individual’s experience. Worship cannot credibly claim to be about God if the majority of this time is devoted to creating an evangelistic, educational, or emotive experience for its attendees. Worship focuses on both God’s glorification and His presence, drawing near to Him in order to glorify and know Him. True worshippers thirst for God and desire His “dwelling places” and domains, desiring to behold His magnificence, power, and compassion. As we pursue God – as opposed to simply having an experience with Him – we glorify and even enjoy Him. Christian worship requires biblical preaching, congregational singing, biblical readings, and covenantal sacramental practices, these services being conducted in the local languages.
Let us, approach the true and living God via His Word and Spirit and offer Him public praise, confession of sin, thanksgiving, and supplication in “spirit and truth” (John 4:7ff), and with “reverence and awe” (Hebrews 12:28). Incorporating biblical contents is the most important step towards advancing our worship services in a God-centered direction (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; John 17:17).