Christ Centered Worship

Who is worship for? Is it for us or is it for God?



This question is a tricky one. We were made to worship God but we as worshippers do get

something out of the process. When I attend a worship festival, I spend hours singing songs about God

and when I leave I feel upbeat and refreshed. But was I actually worshipping? Our purpose on this earth

is to worship the Lord and bring glory to his name. All that happens is designed to bring glory to God.

Just ask the Psalmist and you’ll see how important worshipping the Lord is.



The problem we often run into, and that has become more apparent in the advent of

Contemporary Christian Music, is where our center of focus is when worshipping. Worship has also

become more and more about what I am “feeling.” I’m having a bad day today so I’m going to listen to

this worship song to make myself “feel” better. I went to this worship conference and we sang some

awesome songs and now I “feel” so much better! This puts the focus on us and not on God.



I have recently been challenged to take a closer look at the Christian music I sing in regards to

worship. I was surprised to find that many songs I considered “worship” songs are actually not about

God at all, they are about me. The lyrics describe a bad situation and how “I” cried out to God or “I”

decided to trust God. I find this quite often in Contemporary Christian music. I will use one song in

particular as an example. I saw this used at a church once during the worship service (not Valley Chapel),

and I did think it helped focus the congregation on God. The song is “Hello, My Name Is” by Matthew

West. The song’s chorus goes like this:



Hello, my name is child of the one true King

I’ve been saved, I’ve been changed, I have been set free

"Amazing Grace" is the song I sing

Hello, my name is child of the one true King



Now, at first it seems like a Christ Centered song but look more closely at the lyrics. “I” is used in some

form 6 times in just the chorus. The focus of the song is not on God but on me and what is happening to

me. Yes, God was involved but ultimately I’m singing about myself.



Now, am I saying this is a bad song? Absolutely not! There is definitely truth in it! We are

children of God and He has saved us. Am I saying that all Contemporary Christian music is bad? Nope.

There are songs that I believe God has used to minister to me in rough times. Should we never sing

songs that use the word “I?” Definitely not. We are in relationship with God and so when we sing about

Him we are probably going to allude to ourselves. I am simply trying to draw our attention to where the

focus is. When we worship, our focus needs to be 100% on the Lord. When we are worshipping we will

absolutely get something out of it. We will become closer to Him and have joy from the experience, but

these should be secondary to the real goal of giving glory to God.



In his book Ancient-Future Time, Robert Webber says: “We are the disciples whom Christ has

called in the twenty-first century. . . . We are called to turn away from self-love and self-service, to

abandon a life lived for self-gratification or self-glory, and to serve God as an epiphany of the self-giving

service of Jesus. True spirituality longs for, seeks for, and wills this abandonment of self so that Christ

may become present through our work, our lives, and our relationships, manifesting his power.”

Where is our focus when we worship? On God? Or on ourselves? Take this week to pray and ask

God to reveal to you what areas of your worship (and life) you need to re-focus on Him so that you can

be drawn deeper into a relationship with the Almighty.

A Call to Worship

What do you think of when we think of Worship? Probably singing. Maybe lifting hands or closing our eyes? Perhaps you think of extended times of prayer with folded hands and bowed heads. All of these can be part of the act of worship, but it is sometimes difficult to figure out if we are actually worshipping. If I don’t lift my hands am I not worshipping? There are several Biblical essentials that should be included in our worship in order that have a full worship experience. In this post, we are going to look into the concept of Active Participation in Worship.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. You come to church and socialize before the service beings, you sing along to the all too familiar songs without really thinking about the words, you try to focus during the pastoral prayer but find yourself thinking about the work you have to do when you get home, and the sermon is about “How to be a Godly Parent”, but you have no children so you write it off as not applicable to your life. When you finally get to the car, you feel like you’ve been to church, but you haven’t experienced God. You haven’t worshipped.

What is missing is Active Participation. You can actually come to church and “participate” without actively participating. The difference is how involved you are in the service. This is a very difficult concept to master and is something I struggle with every week. In today’s culture, we are used to viewing everything as a performance. All information and entertainment comes to us. The only effort really required from us is a touch of our finger to the screen. Church requires the opposite of this. God does not ask for partial attention, he asked for everything. Isaiah 29:13 says The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” We do not get “religious points” for merely showing up to church, we actually have to mean what we are doing.

So, how can we actively worship? There are several things we can do to actively worship during the service. First of all, when we are singing, we need to contemplate the words we are singing. This is particularly difficult when we have sung a particular song 100 times. But, we can still worship even with these songs. When singing “Mighty to Save” for instance, concentrate on the power of God mentioned in the song. He can “move the mountains”, he “takes us as he finds us”. It is all about using your focus instead of going into “auto pilot.”

Another thing we can do is pray our own prayer during the pastoral prayer. This is a part of the service where I find my attention slipping, not because I don’t believe in what is being prayed, but because I am just sitting and listening. So next time the pastoral prayer happens, actively pray in your head for what the pastor is praying for or for your own prayers. Prayer is so powerful and when an entire congregation is praying, not just listening, great things can happen.

What areas of the service are you struggling to participate in? Are you leaving the service knowing you have not worshipped? Take this week to pray and ask God to show you how you can go deeper into worship on Sunday Morning and even during the week. God demands our everything. Let’s challenge ourselves as a congregation to draw closer to God and leave everything on the altar of worship.