Worship Formation

A Call to Embrace Christian Growth in Each Element of the Worship Service

Steven D. Brooks

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781532696343, 9781532696350
• eBook ISBN: 9781532696367
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Rituals & Practice

Worship Formation provides a thoughtful perspective on Christian worship and addresses how each element within a worship service spiritually forms the worshiper. Brooks challenges the reader toward an understanding that worshiping through music, prayer, Scripture reading, Communion, sermon, stillness, giving, and baptism engages the worshiper in spiritual formation. Worship Formation encourages the worshiper to not just go through the motions when they gather for worship, but to realize that they are being formed through each element of worship, and challenges those in leadership to be thoughtful in their approach to planning and leading worship services.

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Worship Formation

And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”

—Exodus 33:17–18

It happened again. I was having lunch with a friend and he said the words I have been hearing a great deal lately. “The worship service feels more like a concert than a worship service.” In recent years, this statement has become a common refrain of those attending current worship services. When we get to the place where a concert and a church worship service are indistinguishable, we are of the world and not just in it.16 Now, before you close this book never to return, let me explain.

I enjoy concerts. I like the energy and the high quality of musicianship which emanates from the platform. I respect the time, effort, and expertise that goes into creating a quality performance for the audience to enjoy. I appreciate the environment of like-minded individuals gathering together taking in a performance of an artist that they like well enough to pay money to see and hear perform. Sometimes, the content of such a concert is both Christian- and worship-based. But we should not be mistaken. Just because the content is about God and may foster thoughts or actions of worship does not mean that the event is a worship service. You see, at a concert, the focus is on the performing artist and the production being offered. When you arrive at the concert, the name on the marquee, doors, tickets, and merchandise, is that of the performer. The staging, lighting, video cameras, and jumbo screens all point to the artist as the focus of the event. Even when the event is filled with Christian/worship material, the concert setting is intentionally platform- and artist-based.

In my book Worship Quest: An Exploration of Worship Leadership,17 I detail the differences between a congregational worship gathering and a festival worship gathering. In festival worship, an artist performs worship-based material in order to encourage individuals in the audience in their acknowledgement of God through personal worship (me and God). In a worship service, a worship leader leads the congregation in their collective response to God’s revelation by means of corporate worship (us and God).

Festival worship gatherings can be exhilarating. They are designed to encourage attenders to consider God and to offer him worship. But, as mentioned, the festival worship gathering is artist- and platform-based. The artist performs for an audience who has come to see and hear the performance of the artist. On the other hand, the worship service, or the congregational worship gathering, is congregation-based. The members of the congregation are the performers while God is the audience.

In festival worship, value is placed upon the high production quality of the event; while in congregational worship, participation of the congregation is the highest value.

In festival worship, the artist is the primary voice in the gathering; while in congregational worship, the congregation’s voice is most important.

In festival worship, specialized audio, lights, and cameras are central to the overall production; while in congregational worship, providing the congregation an opportunity to respond to the ways in which God reveals himself is central.

In festival worship, participation of those in the audience is optional; while in congregational worship, participation of the congregation is expected, and dare I say, required.

In festival worship, interaction with those around us in the audience is an added benefit, but not essential to the overall experience; while in congregational worship, interaction with those around us in the congregation is vital to a healthy time of corporate worship.

In festival worship, the gathering is based upon a specific demographic (age, gender, occupation, etc.); while in congregational worship, the gathering is made up of the family of God, regardless of the demographics.

Much of what I am discussing here comes down to expectations—expectations of those attending as well as those planning the worship gathering. Establishing appropriate expectations in regard to the worship gathering is vitally important. Being in worship ministry most of my life has provided me many incredible memories and experiences, as well as times of conflict and concern. I have received my share of Monday-morning comment cards, phone calls, and requests for appointments expressing concern about a worship service, most of the time, having to do with the musical portions of the service: “The drums are too loud”; “The electric guitar wasn’t loud enough”; “The songs are too high”; “The songs are too low”; “my wife’s vocals were not loud enough”—(yes, I’ve heard all of these and more). I have also been on the receiving end of comments from staff in church leadership who desired that the worship service look and feel more like a festival gathering.

I believe these concerns are a matter of expectation more than anything else. Do people come to the worship service expecting to be changed or do they come expecting to be entertained? Do members of the congregation come with the expectation that they are meeting with an Almighty God who has the power to transform lives by the power of the Holy Spirit or do they come with the attitude of “impress me”?

A worship service ought to consist of elements that flow together to guide the worshiper into an encounter with the living God. The worship leader’s responsibility is to assist the congregation in its journey toward that encounter with each element of worship within the service serving to reveal God’s presence to the congregation, resulting in lives that are forever changed.

* * *

In our worship, we declare and enact God’s story. The grand narrative of God’s actions throughout history includes: Creation—God created all that is seen and unseen, and it was good. Humanity, however, messed things up and welcomed sin into the world, making it not so good; Incarnation—God sent his one and only Son, into flesh (Latin incarno), to redeem his fallen creation; and Re-Creation—the story is not yet over for there will come a time when God will make all things new. This is the story of God, from Genesis to Revelation, beginning to end, and it is within this story that we live.

A friend, who is also a worship leader, wrote a song which his congregation loves to sing. A part of it has the following line, “As we rehearse redemption’s story show us the wonders of your glory.”18 As the people of God gather together for a worship service, the songs, prayers, Scripture readings, communion, and everything else within the service tells forth the vision of God for this world. As we worship, we are rehearsing the story of God. For those that plan and lead worship services, this is the challenge. And it is imperative to rethink the way in which we plan congregational worship. If worship is, as Webber says, remembrance (anamnesis—the Greek word for remembrance or a present experience recollection), and anticipation (prolepsis—the Greek word for anticipation, or the representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished), then our worship services should be planned and executed with that on the forefront of our minds. Do our worship services remember what God has done for us (creation and incarnation) and look ahead to what he will do (re-creation)? When the answer to that question is yes, we will feel the freedom of worshiping God in the fullness of his story.

Our constant emersion into God’s story forms and shapes everything about us; “Worship that reveals Christ forms me by making me aware that Jesus is my spirituality and that worship is to form my spiritual life into the pattern of living in the de...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword by Zac Hicks
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 | Worship Formation
• 2 | Music as an Act of Worship
• 3 | Prayer as an Act of Worship
• 4 | Scripture Reading as an Act of Worship
• 5 | Communion as an Act of Worship
• 6 | Sermon as an Act of Worship
• 7 | Stillness as an Act of Worship
• 8 | Giving as an Act of Worship
• 9 | Baptism as an Act of Worship
• 10 | Other Acts of Worship
• 11 | Sacred Space and Worship Formation
• 12 | Sacred Time and Worship Formation
• Conclusion
• Bibliography