What does worship mean to you?

[Ajani]

Our church will be fasting from all music and song during our services for the month of August. We've come to equate music with worship, to the exclusion of all else. The two words have become interchangable, as though music is the only way to worship. Our pastor wants to change that notion, to help us to see that we can worship God in different ways, be it in our prayers and even in our tithing and offerings.

So, what does worship mean to you? How do you worship? What do you do that is apart from music, both in church and alone?

[Kyrie Eleison]

To me worship is praising God. It can include music, but it has nothing to do with music, specifically.

[Patty T]

I have looked up "worship" in the old and new testaments. The word worship means to bow down, or fall down prostrate, in reverence.

Praise is boasting of the Lord, laudatory discourse, singing:



Praise Strong's #134

1) to praise, extol, to sing praises in honour to God

2) to allow, recommend

3) to promise or vow

We are encouraged in scripture to worship and praise God. I'm not sure fasing from those are wise.

Music is a gift God gave His children as a way to praise Him. Are we doing ourselves a disservice when we "fast" from signing His praises?

[pillaroftruth]

the word "worship" means to give worth to something...it is making God high and making man low, it is giving God glory and humbling man.

When a man goes to seek treasure he is in a sense worsipping the treasure with his life because the treasure has a lot of worth and means a lot to him. For God's children, God is the only object of praise and adoration, therefore He is worthy, and much mre worthy than gold.

Think of worship as worthship..get it. :)

[Maria]

Worship: the way we do it in our church is to not stop worshipping and praising God when the music stops. A lot of people tend to stop worshiping when the music stops and this is hard at times to break... I am a worship leader at my church and if you see one of the threads here, some of us got deep into talking about experiences that occur while worshipping...

So, in our church, we start to praise and worship God with music, but when the song of worship is done, we continue with our voices and lifting our hands up high, proclaiming his name :clap We could continue like this for just a few seconds to a minutes to half an hour, depending on our the Holy Spirit guides us. At times, we have ended up in the floor worshipping, kneeling down and bowing down before God's presence, without music, just words of thanksgiving and worship... It can get really deep...

There are some books on worhsip that you might want to get to help you in reading and learning about others experiences in worship... Of course, let God lead you in the way that is best for you....and that you feel comfortable with at first... God may take you in a complete different direction than you expected... Take it slow and see what happens..

Two books that I am reading right now are: The Worship Warrior: Ascending in Worship, Descending in War by Churck D. Pierce. Also, I Want More! by Robert Jeffress

[Ajani]

We are encouraged in scripture to worship and praise God. I'm not sure fasing from those are wise.

Music is a gift God gave His children as a way to praise Him. Are we doing ourselves a disservice when we "fast" from signing His praises?

And therein is the point. We are not fasting from worship and praise. We're just fasting from using music and song to do it in church (we can certainly still sing and such at home). We've come to equate worship ONLY with music and song. This is a time for us to grow past that, to understand that we can worship God in other ways. I think that for where our church is right now, there is great wisdom in this. It will be a time of stretching and growth and learning. I'm excited about it.

[inretire]

Worship to me means a lot more than just going to church on Sunday and singing a few songs and listening to a sermon however intently you are listening or participating. To me it's more of how we conduct ourselves the rest of the week. I worship GOD by serving a meal to a homeless person on Thursday evening. I worship GOD by sitting down with someone who is sick or depressed or by visiting someone in the hospital or prison. I worship him by understanding that I cannot live my life separate from him and by surrending my life to him and by trusting him for all things. Worship is obeying him, reading his word and living his word. That's what it means to me anyway.

[Pooch]

What is a battleship called? A warship
What is on the front of a battleship? A Bow

Easiest way to remember, a bow precedes/leads a worship. When you humble yourself FIRST, He will raise you up so high that you can't help but praise.

Pooch

[BHiles]

Actually most worship in a believer's life should be personal worship. The entire book of Psalms is personal worship not corporate. We are admonished to be filled with the Spirit through personal worship not corporate. Corporate (church) worship is shown but it is very limited compared to the numerous scripture for personal worship. The church service which many churches called "worship Services" have changed from meetings to build the believer to praise and worship services that do little to build anything but a way to get your "feel good". The Church is should be structured to build a believer so that:

Their personal relationship with God grows,
Their personal worship is strengthened
Their personal faith is built on strong doctrine.
And their personal evangelism and witness is strengthened.

Many churches have weakened themselves doctinally in order to become more evangelistic but by using any means to achieve the outreach goals when in reality they were to build the saints so that they would become more evangelistic witnessing to others throughout the week and bringing them into the church to build them to then do the same.

Many churches are backwards and upside down as they take the rules from corporate America to build their churches and in reality our failing miserably at their God given charter. Sad to say that other than at church many will not take the praise and worship into their relationship with God and going to church becomes a performance rather than a pattern of ongoing relationship building with their God.

[SvdByGrace]

So, what does worship mean to you? How do you worship? What do you do that is apart from music, both in church and alone?

Worship is something that I do with my life. In everything we are to worship the Lord. (I have a long way to go in a lot of things in my life)


I know that you said that your church was not going to be using music or singing as a way of fasting during your church service for a time? (IMHO) I thought that fasting was to take something out of our lives that our flesh desires so that our spirit could become stronger. Worship is something that brings us into the presence of God. I personally wouldn't take that out of a church service. Worship is an important thing. Fasting doesn't have to be not eating, it can be other things like TV or computers, etc. I would pray about this and talk to your pastor. Look into fasting. What the bible says on it. There are other ways of focusing on worship without taking certain aspects of worship out. (This is just my opinion, not wanting to offend anyone) :):

[SvdByGrace]

I had to respond again to you. I am not wanting to offend you or anything, but this is something that was laid on my heart as I thought about it. I know that there are other forms of worship, just like there are other forms of day to day living. Fasting is something that you take away from your flesh so that you can humble yourself and focus more on the Lord. How can taking a type of worship out of a service bring you closer to the Lord? (it doesn't make sense) I know that you said that you can worship at home through song and music. Fasting is also a personal thing. I have never heard a pastor make a congregation do anything in the form of fasting. I have been asked to fast as a congregation, but it was a personal choice. It would be like taking prayer out of a service or the sermon. It is all part of a service. I, personally, look forward to praise and worship during a church service. It gets me going. It is a vital thing with me. Would disrupting this form of worship be wise? I would question this to the pastor? Talk to him personally. I would also get every scripture written on fasting and bring it to his attention. This may not effect you, but it may effect someone else in the church. It would disrupt flow. Again, just my opinion. =)

[Ajani]

We've been focusing on the music as the only way to draw near to God. It's become something that we've come to worship in its own right. We've elevated it to become something that it wasn't meant to be. So now, we're going without it in our service, once a week, so that we can focus on worshipping God in other ways. We are not going to halt any worship of God. We are just going to learn to do it without relying on the band to get us there. We're still free to use music in our homes to worship, of course. This is just for 45 minutes a week when we normally rely on the band to bring us in to Gods presence, rather than finding our own way. I'm looking forward to a very liberating learning experience, and a time of delving deeper into things like prayer, and Gods word.

[tractsforchrist]

As someone whom does not like music *yes there are people out there that do not enjoy music :): God made me too and my personality so before anyone suggests that I am missing out on something which some have told me before that I was :wacko*

There are many forms of worship that you can do corporately without singing, you just have to be creative and look to the bible :):

[Ajani]

As someone whom does not like music *yes there are people out there that do not enjoy music :): God made me too and my personality so before anyone suggests that I am missing out on something which some have told me before that I was :wacko*

There are many forms of worship that you can do corporately without singing, you just have to be creative and look to the bible :):

Thank you. That's entirely my point. There ARE many forms of worship that we can do corporately without singing. We just need to learn them. And if church isn't where we go to learn, where else can we go? Our pastor wants to help us understand worship, in all its forms. We've spent so many years referring to music as worship, that we've forgotten that it's not the be all and end all.

How can taking a type of worship out of a service bring you closer to the Lord?

By helping us learn to worship Him in other ways. By taking the responsibilty (which isn't theirs to begin with) off of the band to bring us into a place of worship. By making us each personally accountable for worshipping God ourselves, rather than being lead into it.

There are those for whom this is difficult. But they can still worship with music at home. This is just a time of learning about different styles of worship.

I'm not going to correct my pastor when he calls it a fast. Nor am I going to bring him scripture about what fasting is and such. He knows. Calling this a fast is a way of helping us to understand the concept that he's presenting. We're not going to pick apart his choice of words on it. We know what he means. Sorry if I haven't been clear enough.

[warbar]

This on Worship, by Dr. John D. Garr:

"For many centuries study has been at the very heart of the Jewish experience, so much so that much of Judaism has considered STUDY as the highest form of WORSHIP. Humbly submitting oneself to the wisdom of God revealed in the Tenach (Hebrew Scriptures) was viewed as worship, which literally meant 'prostrate oneself' before the Eternal. The Hebrew word for worship means to 'bow down or do obeisance to,' and it has the connotation of total submission to a superior (as the king). The Greek translation of this word is even more graphic, meaning to 'kiss as a dog licking its master's hand.'

The decision to study God's Word in order to do His Word is a meaningful act of submission and reverence - in short, IT IS WORSHIP. Study carried with this motive is the very essence of Jewish learning. This is not study in order to understand; it is study in order to do. Abraham Joshua Heschel encapsulated this Jewish approach to study by saying that the Greeks study in order to understand while the Hebrews study in order to revere. God's Word and ways are ineffable: only by doing them does one understand them.

Study of God's Word in order to mold one's lifestye to that Word is also worship in the truest sense of the English word worship, which means to 'ascribe worth to.' When we fully submit our lives to God's Word, when we study what he has said with complete devotion and intensity, we do, indeed, ascribe worth to him: we worship him.

With the understanding of rightly divided Holy Scripture, one can be taught, corrected, and instructed in righteousness, thereby becoming mature (perfect) and be completely equipped unto all good works. It is then that the light of God's Word can shine through him so that men may see his good works and glorify the Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

Study is indeed the highest form of worship, for it is our subjection of our human reason to a conscious act of our human will to believe what God has said that manifests the faith that is credited to us for righteousness. When we believe God and act of our faith, we receive the inputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. When we study God's Word with a view toward obeying it, we become wholly submissive to God and can then walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. In such a state, there is no condemnation to us, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed us from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1,2).

O that men everywhere would seek the Lord and worship before him in the beauty of his holiness, studying his Word and his ways!"

[overcomer]

Worship is, or should be, a lifestyle.

"And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through him to God the Father." - Col. 3:17