Day 1: Worship Is Out Of The Box

You're ready to get started with your 5 Day Worship Theology Tune-Up. Today you have 2 videos to watch, the Introduction & Day 1, and you will have the most reading of all your sessions. Many words are in bold for emphasis and memory (this has been shown to be a helpful device in visual learning). It all gets easier after we hit a few important things this first day. Let's get started.

Total video time: 8:06

Reading time (est.): 15:00 Day 1 Total Time: 23:06

.

INTRODUCTION: Worship Is Out Of The Box

Worship Is Out of the Box

. What big ideas about God, people, and worship both anchor us in the Scriptures, and help us understand what it means to worship in our generation? We want to catch a glimpse of God's vision for worship – taking us far beyond our own.

"Worship is all about God." If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. But then, after I've made that statement in conferences and seminars for years, I've typically followed up with a phrase I no longer believe to be biblically accurate. "Therefore," I would say, "worship is not about us." Once when I said this in front of a group of about 500, I pounded on the plexiglass podium for emphasis. A large glass of cold water spilled from the inner shelf of the podium as I did it, and tipped right onto my pants. From my belt to my toes, my pants were soaked. The place went wild with laughter, and I could only go with the moment. "See," I declared, "It's not about how we look, or how we sing, or how we look our best. It's about Jesus!" Years later, I've come to think that moment may have been instigated by God's quirky sense of humor. Perhaps He wanted to flag that moment in my memory, so that I would revisit it again and again to think about what I had said. Yes, worship is about God. He is the focus of worship. But to say without conditions, "Therefore, it's not about us," does not ring biblically true. Worship is indeed for God alone and not for us, but we have something to do with worship happening (in fact, human-divine worship doesn't happen without us), and are integral to the activity. As well, something seems to matter in the heart of God, according to the Scriptures (Rom. 12:1-2), when He sees we are engaged with Him in the life-to-life exchange that is worship.

Yes, worship is all about God. Yet God, in turn, makes worship also about us.

Theology Takes God Out of the Box

Before we unpack that big idea, let's say a few things about our contemporary visions of worship (and by extension, our visions of God). Sometimes, truth be told, we make worship in our own image. In other words, we attempt to put it in a box and keep it there so it doesn't surprise us. We make worship about the music, about the service, about the song, about the worship leader, about the seminar or conference, so it doesn't rock our world the way Jesus does. However, every time we attempt to keep worship in a box, we are attempting to keep God in a box. Most of us know, from experience, that He doesn't stay there long – if he even visits there in the first place. In a strange twist of Genesis 2, we, by extension, tend to then make God in our own image, taming the one who Mr. Beaver in the Chronicles of Narnia series suggested was not "safe," but was "good." In the same way, worship theology may not be safe, but it is good.

My Way or the Highway

It's important to say at the outset of a worship theology experience that churches are deeply married to their theology of worship, and what they think happens or should happen in worship. I was once told offstage, just after a worship set I had led in a church in another country, that I wasn't leading worship "right." They then proceeded to show me the next session what "right" meant to them. All I will say is that I got out of there as fast as I could! Sometimes we justify everything we do in worship as the most biblically and theologically right way to do it. There is only one problem. Estimates tell us there are somewhere between 20,000–30,000 denominations in the world, that all worship differently! So, who is 'right' when it comes to worship practices? We might come to the conclusion that everyone is right, or everyone except you and I are wrong (I like that one). There is probably, however, a middle ground there somewhere. I would suggest that the diversity of practical and theological approaches to worship simply means that we should speak with some humility when we talk about who we understand God to be, as revealed in Jesus (the One we worship), who human beings are (the worshippers), and what worship (the activity) is all about. Humility. That's a good posture for us to have as we explore theology, and how it impacts our view of worship.

Why Every Worship Ministry Leader Should Care about Worship Theology

Let's take the time to get honest as we begin. Many worship leaders, musicians, and creative artists I have spoken to throughout the years have asked me a hard question:

Dan, honestly, why should I even care about theology? My theology is Jesus. Don't I know enough about God and what He has done through Jesus to get me through a lifetime? Why invest my time in it? I can just play songs that are about Jesus, the Church loves it, and I'm all good.

My answer is usually simple and straightforward, and it surprises them. "You shouldn't care about theology," I say. "I shouldn't care about theology?" they ask, quizzically. "No," I say, "you shouldn't care about theology if you don't care about your congregation becoming like Jesus." They respond, "Of course I care about that!" "Then," I say, "you had better care about the theology that people are carrying around with them every day – and that you are delivering to them with every worship set." Everybody has a theology we carry around with us like a piece of luggage, and we draw from it every moment of every day. That theology is either killing us or making us more like Jesus. The worship leader has a part to play in helping our congregation become more like Jesus – even in helping us think better, broader, and more lovingly of who the God is that we worship.

What if we knew that studying theology could make us more full of wonder at who God is? What if we knew He would blow the doors off of who we have known Him to be, as He revealed to us new aspects of Who He truly is? What if we, referencing our own small world of sermons and conferences, what our Grandma told us, or what our personal experience tells us when we read the Bible, have actually put God in an invisible box of our own making and don't even know it?

What if, when we pray on a Sunday morning, it lacks depth because we are really only mashing together Christian clichés about God (like "God, we just really, really love you, God, and, well, we just really do; You are the Trinity... and we really, really love you")?

What if people are coming in to our church with "bad" theology, thinking God is disappointed with them, moved by anger toward them rather than abounding grace and lavish love, or that He is making all the bad things in their lives happen to them?

What if they are primarily seeing God through the lens of a painful relationship with their earthly father? What if we are training everyone else to see God in a limited way, because we're not willing to push the limits on our own way of seeing and talking about God?

What if the people in our congregation are getting more of their understanding about God, and His world, from the songs we lead than from any sermon they hear? What if what we're feeding them is not enough to help them be discerning as they immerse themselves in the glitzy and romanticized views of God they see in movies, hear in music, or need to believe so they can justify their hidden actions? What if they can't talk about God well at work with their atheist or Buddhist friend because we're not helping them understand what they believe?

What if we are (by influence) one of the head theologians in our church, and whatever music we plan for our community each Sunday is possibly the real theological meal they are eating (while the sermon is dessert)?

Are we feeding them our best thoughts, full of wonder, beauty, and mystery, thoughts that can help us all understand just how and why God deals with us the way He does? Or are we just giving our congregation what we feel like giving them?

What if, just if, our desire to avoid theology is not because it seems dry and boring, or because we just want to focus on God's love – but because our avoidance actually springs from spiritual laziness as a leader of God's people?

Theology, Mystery, Beauty, and Wonder

I see myself in some of the statements above, and each arises from my own experience as a growing worship leader. Some of those reasons addressed in the words above are why a basic understand of worship theology is so important for everyone involved in worship.

Theology is about expanding our sense of beauty, mystery, and wonder at the Person of God.

Theology is about helping people live in a world charged with Grace because a God of Love is at the center of the universe, who Self-revealed His passionate heart for us in Christ Jesus.

Theology is about making our hearts and minds dance with the complexity and majesty of a God who threw the supernovas into space, sparked the atom into being, put the innocence into a baby's eyes, and loves each one of us back to life.

Many people live, even believers, in a world full of self-hatred, self-criticism, fear, cynicism, and pride because they imagine God to be someone who He is not and never will be. Theology matters. It really, really matters.

Put On Your Safari Hat

We're about to go on a journey of discovery. To that end, the Bible will be our guide, and our constant companion. Worship is a celebration of the God who makes all things new, and is an invitation to discover the wonders of this mystery with a Name – the creating Father, the living Son, and the relentless Holy Spirit. The Lord God, King of the Universe and Keeper of our Hearts is His Name. He is the reason studying theology is worth our while.

---

DAY 1: YOU HAVE A THEOLOGY OF WORSHIP

.You Have A Theology Of Worship

"Gradually ... we discover that the voice whose echoes we began to listen for ... becomes recognizable, as we reflect on the creator God who longs to put his world to rights; on the human being called Jesus who announced God's kingdom, died on a cross, and rose again; and on the Spirit, who blows like a powerful wind through the world and through human lives."

N.T. Wright, Surprised By Hope

Lifting The Veil On Theology

Let's talk about theology. The word comes from the Greek word theos, the word for God, and - logy, the Greek suffix meaning "the study of." Theology, therefore, is the study of God. In our time, theology has been defined more practically as "faith seeking understanding," a beautiful way to think about how learning can expand the joy and awe we experience in our relationship with God. As we are always seeking understanding our day to day lives, fueled by our faith, we can confidently say that theology has everything to do with our daily life.

You've Chosen a Noble Task

Proverbs 25:2 says,

"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings."

In other words, discovery is a sacred privilege, and those who seek understanding, often find. Worship, in so many ways, is a quest to comprehend with the soul the Sound behind the texture of music, the Rhythm behind the beating heart, the Vision behind all physical sight, the Colors behind the radiant spectrum, and the Life behind all forms of life. There is a knowing that is a knowing of facts (empirical), and there is a knowing that is a knowing of Love and Beauty (relational and experiential). In Christ, both forms of knowing come together as the worshipping heart turns both thought and feeling toward the ultimate goal of knowing God as we are known by Him.

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

1 Cor. 13:12

How The Arts Carry Theology

When Jodie Foster's character was propelled into the stunning vastness of space in the 1997 movie Contact, she stuttered, upon seeing the cosmos as she had never seen it, "They should have sent a poet." In other words, often an expression of art (such as a song) can convey meanings in sounds, words, or phrases that simple verbal descriptions from a pulpit cannot. Songs, music, and liturgies can provide doorways, portals to a fresh encounter full of relational and experiential knowing. In fact, songs and liturgies can be a place we go to meet with God; non-locational spaces (Phyllis Tickle) that create a spiritual environment for intimacy between the unseen God and waiting spirit. Our gathered worship experiences, whether we lead them primarily though music, liturgy, visuals, sound, architecture, or other arts, are vital in exposing the average Christian to the nature of God and the individual's place in His unfolding story.

The God Who Self-Reveals

The Bible is our guide to the nature of God, the nature of human beings made "in His image," and the nature of worship. In the following days, we will look at all 3 of these areas, welcoming the Spirit to reveal the heart of the Father and the love of the Son to us along the way. To our great benefit, and in contrast to what the voices of the new atheism may say, Christians believe in a God who has not remained hidden. He doesn't play games with humanity, thrusting us into this strange, undulating cosmos, to then dispense with offering any description of why we might be here. Love doesn't play games that go nowhere; love however does disclose some truths, while retaining others, for good reason. For who are Christians, we believe that God has indeed revealed Himself, and has revealed Himself once and for all, in the Person of Jesus (Heb. 1:3; John 1:1, 14, 8:28, 14:9, 15:5–6). Because of Jesus, we aren't left to our own opinions about who God is, even if we want to be. Just because someone doesn't claim Christ, does not mean that He has withdrawn His claim on their life! Christ reveals the nature of God to us. In Colossians 3:18–19 we read,

"And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him...."

Jesus is the revelation of God to us, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the God of every human being who has ever lived. We are not left alone to our own religious concoctions. Despite what politicians, pundits, and Twitter celebrities say, it is not every man for himself when it comes to who God is! God has not, nor ever will, conform His majestic Person to even our most pious descriptions. The beginning of theology, and worship theology, sits in this simple idea:

God has made Himself known.

This is the greatest act of love one can show, to reveal oneself – vulnerably, with self-sacrifice, and with a complete emptying of one's own agenda (the term kenosis in the Scriptures, ex. Phil. 2:6-7). And this idea, that we are not in charge of what God is like, is terrifying to the person who has not yet encountered His confounding grace and irrepressible love. The God we worship as Christians is a God who, in love, self-reveals. He invites us into revelation and meaning by not remaining hidden, not remaining distant. This is a God who suffers with, suffers for, and suffers among His children. This is a God who takes on flesh and blood, and who incarnates to make His point. And what is His point? That we are loved, that we are pursued, that we belong to the Father. This is Jesus, the self-revealing of God. And this is the beginning of good theology.

The Scriptures Guide Us To Who God Is

We are given a guide, the Scriptures, to lead us forward as Christian communities welcoming the Spirit's leadership. Despite our diverse understandings of the Bible's authoritative letters, histories, songs, prophecies, and stories, we are rooted by the Bible in a vision of God offered across time through a single tribe in our ancient human family – the Jews. If we have enough imagination to recognize that this is indeed what God has done to self-reveal – He has particularly selected a tribe through which to speak His Story into the world – then we are ready to start unpacking our theology about God and His world.

Our Categories for Talking about Worship Theology

Here are our three categories of discovery, which form a trinity of ideas that tumble over one another and bring us back again and again to the Scriptures and a rich, vibrant theology of worship. Our theology of worship should first tell us who we believe that God has revealed Himself to be. On Day 2 we will look at:

1. God as Creator (the God who creates)
2. God as King (the God who reigns)
3. God as Trinity (the God who relates)
4. God as Savior (the God who saves)

Our theology of worship should then tell us who we believe that human beings are revealed to be. On Day 3 we will look at:

1. Human beings as Sub-Creators (people who make and share)
2. Human beings as Image Bearers (people who reign and steward)
3. Human beings as Community Builders (people who relate and reveal)
4. Human beings as Salvation Storytellers (people who act and tell)

Our theology of worship should then tell us what worship is revealed to be in the Scriptures. On Day 4 we will look at:

1. Worship as a Creative Act (to worship is to make and to share the gifts of that making)
2. Worship as a Royal Act (to worship is to benevolently reign within, and to steward, creation)
3. Worship as a Relational Act (to worship is to relate rightly to God, ourselves, other people, and the creation (including the whole community of living and non-living things))
4. Worship as a Narrative Act (to worship is to tell and retell a story that provides the optimal context for the universe, and to act in accord with that story)

Good Theology & Bad Theology

In laying a foundation for the days ahead, it's important we address one more thing here on Day 1. We said earlier that every person you will ever meet, including yourself, has a theology. In other words, they have ideas about who God is (or who God is not), and they will live out those beliefs whether they want to or not. Theology shows itself over time in the way we live, the way we relate, the way we communicate, and in the way we worship. Some theology we might see as "good." Other theology we might see as "bad." Have you ever been in a church worship gathering, and something felt very right or very wrong? Our theology shows up, often when we least expect it. We simply feel something when we experience someone else's theology guiding a worship gathering. Let's look at some examples of bad and good theology for moment.

1. Bad Theology

We begin to understand that theology is important when we see the results of bad theology. In Waco, TX, many years ago, 76 people (including 21 pregnant women and children) died in a fire after a standoff with a government agency over their stockpile of firearms. Led by David Koresh, the "Branch Davidians" had a theology to which they held tightly. In the aftermath of this tragedy, many in popular culture began to ask the question, "Is this really what the Bible says about God?" How could a group of people believe such strange things about God – using the Bible – that would lead to the death of innocent children?" Most of us would say, "Now that's an extreme example of some seriously bad theology. We don't have anything like that going on in 'normal' churches today." Maybe. But there are some churches in which I have led worship that view God as a divine judge wanting people to get it right all of the time and who brings judgment if someone steps even a bit out of line. How do I know this? Not because they told me (in most cases), "This is our theology." Rather, I know it because I see the way the worship leader exhaustingly cheerleads us through a series of religious gymnastics and hyped-up songs about only happy things, and a negative view of the human person seems to ooze out of the messages from the pastor. As another example, how about the theology, or view of God, that regards God's primary mission as being completely focused on my personal life and happiness, to the exclusion of others? In many brands of western Christianity, this view of God shows itself in the self-actualizing and consumeristic messages of many churches on a Sunday morning. We worship the God we need to believe in – a God who orients His life around us and our desires. The unspoken understanding is, "If you just give your life to Jesus, then His job is to fulfill your dreams and make you happy." This may be a god of someone's choosing on their spiritual playlist, but it is not the God of the cosmos that we see depicted in the pages of the Old and New Testaments.

2. Good Theology

Now, on the one hand, the stories mentioned above may seem to be a cartoon, a caricature, of what really happens out there. Don't most groups have it somewhat right? Why would so many people be involved in something if its theology was bad? I learned something about crowds from a friend many years ago. He said, "Just because an idea is embraced by a large group of people, does not mean it is either healthy or right. Following this logic, New York City would be one of the most "healthy and right" cities on the planet – and we all know that can't be true!" Large crowds, great music, and persuasive personalities do not baptize theology and make it right. We must be, as the apostle Paul admonished his listeners, like the Bereans who searched the Word of God to see if what Paul was saying was indeed true. True to what? True to Jesus' teaching.

"If you love me," Jesus said, "Keep my commands."

John 14:15

We might say that good theology would be theology that enlarges our view of God and enlarges our view of humanity, rather than shrinking our view of God and shrinking our view of humanity. Someone else might suggest that good theology is biblical, i.e., there is strong Scriptural support for the way that we view God, how He interacts with humanity and how we interact with Him. This is true, but we must again remember that those 20K - 30K protestant denominations apparently see the Scriptures supporting some very different ideas! Good theology may mean for us, "Any way of viewing God that leads us to recognize that His love is unfailing, His truth is enduring, and His actions are always just." For our purposes, let's bring all of these ideas together for a working definition of good theology, at least for the length of this study:

Good theology is that which draws us near to the God of the Scriptures (James 4:8), strengthens love in our hearts for Him and the people of this world (John 3:16), and equips us to live the Jesus life as those who obey his loving commands (John 14:15).

Embedded Theology and Deliberative Theology

It was Anselm of Canterbury (the Archbishop of Rome in the 1000s) who said, "Theology is faith seeking understanding." In other words, we can know what the Bible says, but theology is about what the Bible means. Theology is about the questions that we have about the Scriptures and our faith.

Who is God? What is He like? Why are alive and on planet earth? Who is Jesus? What is worship all about? Who am I?

All of these are questions that theology seeks to provide real answers for, and are questions that are bubble up often in our worship leadership and creative activities. In their excellent and simple book, How to Think Theologically, Howard Stone and James Duke suggest that there are two types of theology at work in the world.

1. Embedded Theology: "I Grew Up Believing This"

The first is called embedded theology. I like to call this 'folk theology.' This is the theology, or way of viewing God and the world, that you learned from your family, from your church (or non-church) upbringing, from the music you listen to, from your unstudied interpretation of the Bible, etc.. It is the simple theology that most of us live from every day. A variety of emotions, beliefs, feelings, experiences, values, hopes, and dreams make up that theology, and most people are pretty sure those unspoken ideas they hold are correct. My own grandmother used to say, "Well, if it happens, it's God's will." I loved my grandma, but I've come to understand that this simple phrase topples 94% of the entire biblical view of sin, human choice, and the mission of the Church! Embedded theology, Stone and Duke say, is what "rushes to the frontline in every battle over the moral and social issues of the day." Some of our embedded theology may be good, and some of it may be bad. Just as I suggested there is good theology and bad theology in the world, so too, there is good theology and bad theology inside of us. In most of the hymns, contemporary worship songs, and Christian music we lead, listen to, and participate in today (and all forms of music) there is some degree of helpful biblical theology, usually mixed with some degree of unhelpful biblical theology. Oh, what are we to do?

2. Deliberative Theology: "I've Reflected And I Choose to Believe This"

Deliberative theology is "the understanding of faith that emerges from a process of carefully reflecting upon embedded theological convictions.... Deliberative theological reflection also carries us forward when our embedded theology proves inadequate." The word deliberate, meaning "by choice," is in the phrase above. In this case, we are intentionally choosing to reflect on our beliefs, the story they describe, and their general helpfulness on the journey of following God. In many ways, choosing to do this study is an act of deliberative theology on your part. We are made to be people on a quest, on a journey, with God. Because a true quest often involves questions coming to the front of the line, many Christians shy away from it. Historically, this was not true of the Church through most of its lifetime. Rather than shying away from challenging questions – questions might even change some of their embedded and popular theologies of their day – early Christians ran headfirst into the most difficult questions of their age! This is how we must approach theology, and how we must approach the kind of study we are in – with courage.

Concluding Day 1: God Is The Subject Of The Sentence

As a final thought, go back in your imagination to one of your favorite school grammar classes (if you have one!). Remember subjects, verbs, and objects in a sentence structure? Remember diagramming sentences on the chalk board? It is God who is the Subject of the worship sentence. We are the Objects of the worship sentence, toward which the Subject of the sentence acts through the Verb of Love (for more on this, read the late Robert Webber's article "God: The Object Or Subject Of Worship?"). If our worship theology begins with God as the Subject of the worship sentence, acting toward us in love, then we are the Objects of His love. According to 1 John 4:19, we then "love Him," because "He first loved us." Worship is our response to God's actions of love toward us.

We are the pursued; God is the primary Pursuer.

Let's let this truth inform our study this week. Our worship theology will get off to a shaky start if we believe that we are the Subject of the worship sentence, acting on God with our worship activity, and God is simply the Object and recipient. This simple mix-up in worship theology may cause more damage in the Body of Christ then you and I will ever know. Amos 5:23, the famous passage where God calls music "noise" because it isn't flowing from a heart of love and justice, reminds us that if we are the focus of the worship experience we will always, always go wrong. Embrace the journey of becoming an "in the trenches" theologian, and expect God to expand your horizons as you being to look for theology at work – everywhere. :: A Note from Dan Congratulations! You just finished with Day 1 – and that, I promise, will be the longest of all the days ahead. Tomorrow, get ready for Day 2, one of the most intriquing days in our whole tune-up, as we focus on the question: "Who is the God we worship?" I'm excited to explore that biggest of ideas with you. Blessings, Dan