Developing a Biblical Theology of Worship

Introduction

At Worship Collective, we’re all about helping people develop a theology of worship. We believe this is done in two ways. First, it is done Biblically and second, it is done historically. In this post, we’ll deal with developing a Biblical theology of worship. We will deal with developing it from a historical perspective in a future post. Here’s the definition we’ve developed for our ministry:

Biblical Christian worship is the corporate act of God’s gathered people actively remembering His story through Word, relationship, and Sacrament.

This definition lays out three essential actions of Christian worship: Word, relationship, and Sacrament.

According to the above definition, these actions share three essential characteristics. They are meant to be done actively, corporately and as a way of remembrance.

Methodology

There is a human tendency to worship in a way that is individualistic and self-focused.[1] Sometimes when approached this way, worship can become something we watch rather than do. The Bible casts a vision for worship that is far more engaging and enriching than one can experience on their own. But before understanding the characteristics of worship, one must understand the actions that make up worship. The definition at the beginning tells us the three essential actions of Christian worship are Word, relationship, and Sacrament.

The Essential Actions of the Worshiping Life

The Word being defined as action means we are not merely talking about the content of Scripture. That would be the Word as a noun. Rather, one should think of the Word in action. This leads us to consider the way we interact with Scripture as God’s people. The Word in action is the Word read aloud, taught, and discussed amongst a community. The corporate aspect of a community engaging God’s Word together is essential to Christian living, which leads us to the next essential action of worship: relationship.

Relationship must be listed amongst the actions of a worshiping community. God designed humanity for relationship. Worship is therefore not only about humanity’s relationship with God, but also humanity’s relationship with one another. The actions surrounding Word and Sacrament are not meant to be done alone.

Sacraments are the sacred actions that uniquely mark the Christian community. The two prominent Sacraments practiced across all Christian denominations are Eucharist and baptism. These two are agreed upon across traditions because they are the only Sacraments directly mandated by Jesus Himself.[2] While the Word could be received passively, these Sacraments demand our active and full-bodied participation, which is essential because the Christian faith is an embodied faith. The Sacraments of Eucharist and baptism can be traced all the way back to the old covenant and are essential practices of Christian worship in the new covenant as well.

The Essential Characteristics of the Actions of Worship

Next, we must consider the three shared essential characteristics of the above-mentioned actions: that worship must be done actively, corporately, and as a way of remembrance. While all Christians engage the essential actions of worship in one way or another, certain expressions of Christianity do not apply these characteristics as well as others. However, if these characteristics are truly biblical, then all Christians ought to strive for them.

The idea that any actions must be done actively seems redundant, but in many modern worship settings it is possible to participate passively. One can passively watch others actively participate in the actions of the worshiping life, but they will not encounter God this way. We are to intentionally engage our hearts, minds, and bodies in what is happening. It is why we must not reduce the Christian gathering to merely singing and preaching. Sacraments require our full bodied, physical participation in a way other elements of worship do not. Scripture shows us that both ancient Jewish and early Christian worship require active participation.

The essential actions of Christian worship are meant to be done corporately. There is not a scenario in Scripture where Eucharist, baptism or their old covenant equivalents are done as an individual exercise. C. F. D. Moule speaks to the relational dynamics of the Eucharist in his book “Worship in the New Testament” saying, “It actually unites the worshippers with Christ – and with one another: the single loaf broken up and shared is a means of joint participation of the many members in the life of the single body.”[3]  Even the Word of God is meant to be worked out on in community with other people.[4] In an increasingly individualistic society it is important to remember that God designed us for relationship with Him and with one another.

Finally, the essential actions of Christian worship are designed to help us remember the redemptive story of God at work in humanity and our place in it. As we actively engage the Word and Sacraments in community with God’s people, we are remembering and even reenacting God’s story, as Dr. Robert Webber would say.[5] The narrative of Scripture reminds us of the cycles of God’s redeeming work throughout human history. Eucharist reminds us of the sacrifice demanded by our sin and how Christ offered Himself to fulfill this demand. Baptism reminds us that we are invited to identify with Christ in both His death and resurrection.

Worship is Participatory

Worship is not something that we are meant to watch passively. It demands our active participation. This is best demonstrated by the Sacraments. Sacraments are the sacred actions unique to the Christian faith, that in some mysterious way connect the physical life to the divine. While some Christian traditions recognize other Sacraments, the two that are agreed upon across all traditions are baptism and Eucharist. The reason these two get significant attention is because they are the only two Sacraments ordained by Jesus Himself. Before getting into the specifics of the participatory nature of Eucharist and baptism, one must establish the participatory nature of worship in general.

The Active and Full-Bodied Nature of Worship

The Bible shows us that worship is not only a spiritual, but also a full-bodied physical experience. It requires the intentional and active use of our whole bodies. While some traditions or eras of the church lean towards a more passive view of worship, where the congregants simply observe others engage in the sacred actions of worship, Scripture advocates for something far more active.

The clearest example of this is found in the very meaning of the word worship itself. There are several different Hebrew words that are translated “worship” or “praise” in the English language, one of the most common ones literally meaning to lay prostrate.[6] From kneeling, shouting, singing, clapping, raising our hands, playing an instrument, and dancing, Scripture makes it clear that our whole body ought to be actively involved in the worship experience. None of these definitions of worship allow for the worshipper to be idle or passive.

The Participatory Nature of the Eucharist

It is striking that a central Sacrament to the Christian faith such as the Eucharist, while being inherently mysterious and spiritual, also appeals to the most basic human physical needs: food and drink. We see examples throughout the book of Acts and the Pauline epistles that the Lord’s Supper was recognized when the early church would gather for a communal meal. This built a time into the natural human rhythm to remember Christ and His sacrifice. However, as time went on, it was separated from the meal for practical reasons.[7] This does not lessen the tangible affect that physically consuming food and drink has in our spiritual practice. The act of eating and drinking is necessary to survive. To connect this physical reality to the mystery of Christ’s sacrifice is to embed in our hearts and minds the need to be nourished spiritually as well as physically.

The Participatory Nature of Baptism

Baptism, like Eucharist, can be traced back to old covenant worship practices. Ritual cleansings were a regular part of Jewish worship, to prepare people for worship. Baptism is distinct from ancient Israelite ritual cleansings in that it was only done once to identify oneself with the Christian community.[8] Also, similarly to Eucharist, while this act carries mysterious spiritual significance, it is also a physical act rooted in a tangible human need. Everyone gets dirty and needs to be washed in water to become clean again. Tying this physical reality to our spiritual need to be cleansed connects us to the mystery of salvation in a new and meaningful way.

Additionally, Scripture associates the movement of baptism, going down into the water and rising back up, with the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Apostle Paul speaks to this in Romans 6:4 when he says, “Therefore we have been buried with Him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”[9] When one is baptized, they are in a way, reenacting the Christ event that made salvation possible for us in the first place. This takes an essential spiritual truth and helps us connect it to our bodies.

Worship is Corporate

The second essential attribute of Biblical worship is that worship is corporate. It is not merely an individual exercise, but something that is meant to be engaged with in community. The corporate nature of worship is evident in both the Old Testament and New Testament. This characteristic of worship plays out in both how Israel and the early church worshipped God as communities.

The Corporate Nature of Worship in the Old Testament

Israel as a Worshiping Community

The Old Testament tells us the story of God’s relationship to His chosen people, the nation of Israel. When God gives Moses the law, it includes stipulations for how He is to be worshipped. These guidelines for worship are not designed for individuals. They are clearly for Israel as a community. The tendency to view things through such an individualistic lens is a very modern and western one. The ancient eastern context of Israel saw everything through the lens of a community, and therefore God’s people related to God as a group. The Hebrew words used to refer to the Israelite worshipper means assembly or congregation, referring to the whole worshiping community.[10]

A striking example of this is the way Israel viewed sin. Where a modern western perspective might view sin as strictly the responsibility of the individual, the entire community of Israel would suffer the consequences of the sin of one member of the community. Additionally, there was a clear understanding of sin being passed down from generation to generation. In Deuteronomy 5:9 God says, “I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me.” The covenant between God and Israel was not a covenant between God and individuals, but a covenant between God and a nation.

A Corporate Approach to the Word

In a world full of widespread literacy, devotionals and study tools, our modern western understanding of engaging the Word of God leans towards an individualistic approach. However, throughout Scripture we see examples of the Word being engaged in community. God always relates to the Israelites in relational ways.[11] For ancient Israel, engaging God’s Word was never merely an intellectual exercise. It was about deepening relationship. One example in the Old Testament is the Law being read aloud to the community of Israel frequently. Deuteronomy 4, Joshua 8, and Nehemiah 8 are just a few examples of the Word being read aloud to the community. The public reading of Scripture allowed for the community to regularly reengage God’s redemptive story and renew their commitment to Him.[12] In Deuteronomy 6:6 it is written “talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.” This is in reference to the Law and demonstrates an ancient Hebrew understanding of engaging the Word in community.

The Corporate Nature of Worship in the New Testament

New Testament Community

The corporate nature of worship continues into the new covenant and manifests itself in new and different ways. The new covenant is not between God and a singular nation, but rather between God and a diverse group of people from many different backgrounds. Much of the New Testament deals with the challenges that come with bringing people from such different cultures together into one community. The unity of the early church does not mean sameness. Biblical community is not about emotions or feelings, but a deliberate commitment to one another in spite of differences.[13] The early church is described in the book of Acts as intimately interconnected. Acts chapter 2 is often used as an example of how the early church shared meals and resources and took care of each other.

Even in the early church, there was a human inclination to focus on the self in worship. Paul challenges this in 1st Corinthians 14 when addressing the use of spiritual gifts, teaching the church to focus on spiritual gifts that benefit all who are present, not just the individual using them. Biblical scholar David G. Peterson expounds on this in his book Engaging with God, writing that the Apostle Paul “envisages that believers will come together for the benefit of one another, drawing on the resources of Christ for spiritual growth by the giving and receiving of Spirit-inspired ministries.”[14]

The Corporate Nature of the Eucharist

This corporate approach to worship manifests itself in the practice of the Eucharist too. The gathering of a diverse group of people at one table, sharing one cup, signified the unity that they were to have with one another. Eucharist served not only to unite believers with Christ, but also with one another. At this table there is no thought of class or status. Only our oneness with Christ. In uniting at the table, we proclaim to the rest of the world that Christ has overcome death.[15]

Worship is Remembering

The remembering that Christians engage in during worship is more than merely an intellectual exercise. It is a sacred kind of remembering that call us to action, helps us to actively participate in God’s story and forms us spiritually. In his book “For All God’s Worth”, New Testament Scholar N. T. Wright wrote, “Our remembering often turns into nostalgia or recrimination; God’s remembering turns into action”.[16] It is this kind of remembering that we strive after when we gather to worship.

How the Word helps us Remember God’s story

Of all the sacred actions of worship, our engagement with the Word seems to be the most obvious way in which we remember God’s story. In the same way the law was read aloud repeatedly to the ancient Israelites and the pastoral epistles would’ve been circulated and read aloud to the early church, we still remember God’s story today through the reading and teaching of His Word. Each time we come back to this story we have an opportunity to learn more about God and ourselves. We are reminded of God’s promises and encouraged not to repeat the mistakes of those who came before us. We are even reminded of the stories that inform the two primary Sacraments of the church: Eucharist and baptism.

Eucharist as an Act of Remembering

Before Eucharist is established in the new covenant, the precedent for remembering God’s redemptive story is set in the old covenant through the Passover meal. Every year God’s people would remember how He delivered them from Egypt through a communal meal where different elements of the meal carried symbolic meaning to remind them of the significant events in the story. This repetitive act enabled the community of Israel to pass the story of their redemption from generation to generation.[17]

Baptism as an Act of Remembering

While baptism serves as a physical act for the new believer to identify with Christ and His bride the church, it also serves as a reminder for the rest of God’s gathered people who witness it. Baptism is a testimony, reminding each of us of our new lives in Christ. Every time we see a new believer baptized, we are reminded of our own baptism and the coming resurrection that is promised to us. The worshiping community is also meant to celebrate with the new believers and welcome them into the community.

Conclusion

In search of a biblically rooted definition of Christian worship, one finds a compelling case for the corporate and participatory nature of worship. While not comprehensive, the actions of worship can be summarized in Word, relationship, and Sacrament. Some may be surprised to find a definition of worship that does not directly include music or prayer and other important sacred Christian practices. However, upon further thought one can recognize that music is a tool for teaching the Word and prayer is a part of relationship. In other words, this definition offers broad categories for something that is multifaceted and complex. Ultimately, worship is a profound act of remembering, a sacred communal journey through God’s redeeming story.

Bibliography (Click on the links of any of the books to order your own copy)

[1] Ron Anderson, E. Byron. “Individualism and Community within Worship Practices,” in Theological Foundations of Worship: Biblical, Systematic, and Practical Perspectives, ed. Khalia J. Williams and Mark A. Lamport, Worship Foundations: How Theology, History, and Culture Inform Our Worship Practice. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group. 2021), 219.

[2] Daniel I. Block For the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2014), 141.

[3] C. F. D. Moule, Worship in the New Testament (Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1961), 30.

 [4] William A. Dyrness, A Primer on Christian Worship. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 3.

[5] Robert E. Webber, Worship Old and New (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 2009), LOGOS Ch. 7.

[6] Robert E. Webber, The Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship 1st ed. Vol. 1. The Complete Library of Christian Worship. (Nashville, TN: Star Song Pub. Group, 1993), 3.

[7] Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy 2nd Ed. (Westminster: Dacre Press, 1945), 98.

[8] Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2006), 419.

[9] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (Washington, DC: National Council of Churches of Christ, 1993)

[10] Webber, The Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship, 4.

[11] Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2008), 126.

[12] Andrew E. Hill, Enter His Courts with Praise! (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 118.

[13] Marva J. Dawn, A Royal “Waste” of Time: The Splendor of Worshiping God and Being Church for the World (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 179.

[14] David Peterson, Engaging with God: A Biblical Theology of Worship. (Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2002), 212.

[15] Vernon Whaley, Called to Worship: The Biblical Foundations of Our Response to God’s Call (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2013), LOGOS, Ch. 17.

[16] Tom Wright, For All God’s Worth (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1997), 73.

[17] Dinelle Frankland, What the Bible Says about Worship: His Story, Our Response. What the Bible Says Series (Joplin, MO: College Press Publishing Company, 2008), 70.