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Jessi Barnes

Dr. Spencer

Foundations of Worship Arts - MUS 245

11 December 2023

Philosophy of Worship Paper

Worship is singing to the Lord along with the songs played by the worship team on

Sunday mornings…or so I thought. I used to think that worship could only take place in a church

setting, but since then the Lord has opened my eyes to see that everything we do can be seen as

an act of worship. In The Dangerous Act of Worship, Labberton defines worship as "the

dangerous act of waking up to God and to the purposes of God in the world, and then living lives

that actually show it" (Labberton 13). This looks like living lives that reflect God's character as

we pursue righteousness to bring glory to His name. I love the way that Labberon goes onto

describe worship: "Worship sets us free from ourselves to be free for God and God's purposes in

the world. The dangerous act of worshiping in God in Jesus Christ necessarily draws us into the

heart of God and sends us out to embody it...." (Labberton 14). This is somewhat my own

definition as I always believed worship to be an outpouring of affection, devotion, and adoration

unto the Lord. Worship is not only an outpouring of what is in our own hearts, but also taking on

the heart of God that what breaks His heart would break ours. This heart posture would provoke

action to love and fight for the least of these as we are called to do. A heart posture like this

comes from a heart that is planted deep in the love of God and the perspective that our goal is

communing with Him in all we do. All of our daily duties and everyday tasks we should see as a
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means of working in the presence of God, for God. Continuing on with the idea of worship as a

call-to-action to love and fight against injustice, we must see how worship and power relate.

Labberton argues that worship defines power in that “worship acknowledges and bows, explores

and confesses, seeks and depends upon God's power" (Labberton 109). Christian worship

confronts power abuse. In the act of worship, we place our lives before the Lord, trusting in His

faithfulness and power, and in this we are opposing acts of unjust power. God is the ultimate

power and authority who realigns power. I agree with this because having a heart posture of

worship is knowing our place before the Lord. This entails humbling ourselves before Him, and

acknowledging all that He is--the all-powerful and ultimate authority that is Jesus Christ our

Lord--the only one worthy of our praise.

Scripture has influenced how I view worship in that it is an outpouring of admiration and

adoration unto our King for all He has done, though it cannot amount to what He deserves

(Psalm 29:2). Also seeing worship as done in BOTH spirit and in truth as the Lord desires (John

4:23-24). The Biblical call to worship is outlined in Scripture, but can be categorized into 4

means of worship. We worship with our heads, hearts, hands, and spirit. We worship with our

heads by submitting our minds and thoughts to the Lord that they would be pleasing and

honoring to Him. In doing so, He can speak to us, free us from distraction, and lead us into

deeper intimacy with Him. In order to experience this and His presence, our minds must be fully

present with Him. In Discovering Lectio Divina, we learn that “presence lies underneath speech

and mental activities” (Wilhoit & Howard 116). We worship with our hearts by pouring out our

affection to the Lord and to His people. He calls to worship by loving our neighbors (John

15:12-13), and loving the least of these (Matthew 25:40). We are to worship Him, drawing our
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hearts closer to Him (Mathew 15:8), and in this our hearts may align with His. We worship with

our hands by using them to further the kingdom of Christ and serve others as we are called to do

to be agents of His affection. To do so, we are to offer our earthly bodies and lives as a living

sacrifice to the Lord (Romans 12:1) that He may use us and our lives as in His will. As well as,

completing all our work for the glory of God (Colossians 3:23-24). We worship with our spirit by

acknowledging that “true worship only requires you and the presence of God” (clintonnc.com).

The presence of the Holy Spirit is the reason for the existence of our spirits, making them alive.

John Piper writes in Desiring God that, “True worship comes only from spirits made alive and

sensitive by the quickening of the Spirit of God” (Piper 82).

Worship should be guided by these 5 key principles: worship is Spirit-empowered,

worship is unashamed, worship is getting low, worship is Word-based, and worship is life in

exile. First, worship is Spirit-empowered, meaning that worship must be led by the Holy Spirit.

We are to come before the Lord in prayer asking what He wants out of our worship, and telling

Him that we are here and ready for His divine intervention. Being open and attune to the Spirit’s

leading, we must be aware to not quench the Spirit and simply let go and allow Him to work in

and through us. A prime example of Spirit-led worship was when I got to attend the Asbury

Revival at Asbury University. “The revival was sparked by students spontaneously staying in

Hughes Auditorium following a regularly scheduled chapel service on February 8, 2023”

(Wikipedia). This revival is a testament of what can take place when we listen to the Spirit and

allow Him to lead us. Those students felt as if they should stay, and they stayed, along with

50,000-70,000 people all over the world who came over the course of a few weeks. The Spirit
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was truly at work here with people getting saved, freed, and healed. This was possible because

there was room for the Spirit to move and empower worshippers.

Second, worship is unashamed, meaning that the fear of the Lord is greater than the fear

of man. When this is true, we will not care what other people think or how they see us when we

worship, we will just be focused on pleasing Him and moving His heart. Being truly unashamed

to worship is something I’ve struggled with my whole life and I know everyone else has to some

degree. As human beings, we care what people think of us, but the beauty in serving Jesus is that

He calls us to drop that at the foot of His cross and fear Him instead. I learned a lot about what

unashamed worship looks like from serving with the Met By Love ministry. I have never

witnessed such undignified worship in my life–dancing, screaming, taking off shoes, truly

coming before Him like children. This worship was a glimpse of what the true freedom of

knowing Christ looks like, and it was beautiful.

Third, worship is getting low, meaning that we must come in a posture of humility before

the Lord. This is knowing our place before the Lord, that we are undeserving, unworthy, filthy,

broken sinners. And He–a perfect God–loved us so much that He wanted us, died for us, and

saved us. He is worthy of all of our praise, the king of the universe, the creator of all things, the

victor of every battle, the true definition of beauty, the healer and restorer of all things, and the

savior of our souls. When we see Him for who He is, we can’t help put fall at His feet and pour

out all we have and all we are to Him. This is seen in Luke 7:36-50 when the sinful woman

poured out her oil, wet His feet with her tears, and kissed Him. She saw Him for who He is, even

when others didn’t, and He forgave her sins. God responds and delights in us when we fall at His

feet in worship to Him, acknowledging Him for all that He is.

Fourth, worship is Word-based, meaning that our worship must be focused on the Christ

that we know from Scripture. We worship Him because we know Him, we know of His power

and wrath, we know of His life on earth, we know of His heart for the least of these, we know He

gave His life for us on the cross, and we know what He promises to us. We know all this because

of His Word. We worship the same God of the Israelites in Egypt that we worship today. We

worship Him in remembrance of His sacrifice, grace, and love that He has shown to those in

Biblical times all the way to now in the 20th century. Scripture is the breathing Word of God

which is why there is so much power in including it in our worship to Him. We can sing His

Word, pray His Word, meditate on His Word, put His Word to action in our lives all as an act of

worship.

Fifth, worship is life in exile, meaning that we are called to worship by being lights in a

world of darkness. As a church we are living in exodus, but called to exile. We are much like the

Israelites as they fixed their eyes on the promised land and ignored the least of these right in

front of them. We oftentimes live in our comfortable christianity fixing our eyes on the promise

of Heaven and our own salvation, while neglecting the least of these in our world and how we

can serve those around us. However, in exile, the Israelites lived in a foreign land and were

challenged with remaining faithful to the Lord and serving Him in the midst of that. We today

are called to this as we live in a world that is not our eternal home, but still are challenged to be

lights in the darkness, reflect the character of God, and serve the least of these. “We are not just

the object of His affection, but the agent of His affection” was a line that stuck with me from the

Asbury Revival.
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Christian worship has greatly shaped my life. My first experience with worship that I can

recall is memorizing Ephesians 2 through song at Honeyrock camp when I was in 4th grade. To

this day I have this passage of Scripture hidden in my heart, which was my first exposure to the

power of worship in song. Moving onto Sunday school growing up, worship felt awkward and

embarrassing because I either did not know the words, did not know what was going on, or did

not know why I was even singing. As I started attending “big church” or the main service, we

sang mostly hymns at my church which I did not appreciate enough because as if they had no

impact. I did not understand worship, because I did not fully know the God I was worshiping to.

Towards the tail end of high school, the Lord opened my eyes in a new youth group to

contemporary worship which I really connected with and that seed of curiosity which was

planted in my heart, just grew at an extreme. Worship music became the only music I listened to,

and drew me to read my Bible more to learn about this God who is so worthy of our praise and

adoration. The summer after my senior year, I went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic

with my youth group, and the Lord encountered me through worship like never before. It was

during the Sunday morning church service when the worship team led us in singing “The

Blessing” in Spanish and I completely lost it and could not stop crying. The Lord revealed to me

in that moment his heart, who He was, and His love for me. My first exposure to bilingual

worship was incredibly beautiful and transformational because that is exactly what it is going to

be like in Heaven–people from every tribe and tongue worshiping the same God. From there, I

rededicated my life to Christ, later got baptized, and my love for worship grew. Going onto

Taylor University, I joined a chapel band, now lead a chapel band, and started a campus ministry

where I help lead worship every Monday night. Worship is my love language to the Lord.
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However, my view of worship continues to change and mature as I realize that worship is more

than song, but a lifestyle of submission to the one true King.

Works Cited

Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. Holy Bible NIV: New International Version, 2017.

Labberton, Mark. Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God’s Call to Justice. Intervarsity Press,

2013.

Piper, John. Desiring God. Multinomah Books, 1996.

Sampson Independent. “Rule 1: We Must Worship God in Spirit.” Sampson Independent, 21

Mar. 2019,

www.clintonnc.com/news/38234/rule-1-we-must-worship-god-in-spirit#:~:text=True%20

worship%20can%20take%20place%20without%20music%2C%20without%20a%20choi

r,in%20you%2C%20so%20does%20God.

“2023 Asbury Revival.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 July 2023,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Asbury_revival.

Wilhoit, Jim, and Evan B. Howard. Discovering Lectio Divina: Bringing Scripture into Ordinary

Life. Formatio/IVP Books, 2012.