"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Note: Restoration Young Adult group has begun a summer series called: "Virtual Conversations" Each week I will post the previous night’s video with a blog. Feel free post this video on your facebook or other social media and start your own virtual conversation. Check the Restoration Group Calendar for next week’s location.

What is worship?

When someone says to you: "that was a really good worship service!" They may be referring to a completely different set of criteria that you are when you process what they are saying. What makes worship good? Excellent and engaging music? Does "worship" mean music? Culturally informed messages? Must worship include a "message"? Touched all my "theological bases"? How many bases are there and why do you need yours touched?

When you leave a worship service and say: "That wasn't very good worship." Would you say that you are primarily expressing suspicion of people's motives? Critique of poor artistry and lack of preparation? A lack of welcome from a closed community? A preference for drums and choruses over strings and choirs or organs and hymns or harmonicas and knee slapping?

A scientist once reflected on Albert Einstein's attitude about church with these words:
"The design of the universe...is very magnificent and shouldn't be taken for granted. In fact, I believe this is why Albert Einstein had so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as a basically religious man. He must have looked at what preachers said about God and felt they were blaspheming. He had seen so much more majesty than they had ever imagined, and they were just not talking about the real thing...my guess is that he simply felt that the religions that he'd run across did not have the proper respect for the author of the universe." (First Things, Charles Misner)

A few things to think about:

While every theological and denominational tradition has its own approach to planning a worship service, and some even produce a Book of Common Worship, or a worship source book or a WOW worship DVD, there is no explicit "book of worship" in the scripture. However, if our worship services and our definition of worship are not defined by the scriptures...what is it that we are doing? The Psalms are known as the song book of the Bible. Leviticus has much to say about the holiness of God and the precarious position we are in as we approach a holy God with blood on our hands and lust in our hearts. Isaiah (6) and the Apostle John (Revelation 4) share visions of worship in the throne room of Almighty God. Paul has plenty of instruction about the abuse of worship and purpose of our time together as a worshiping community (1 Corinthians 12-14).

Q: What is the purpose and highest goal of human existence?
A: The purpose of humanity and its highest capability is to glorify God (Romans 11:36) and to enjoy him fully forever.

That's what my tradition has to say about worship...it is what we were created for.

One author writes: "Worship...the white-hot enjoyment of God's glory...If the pursuit of God's glory is not ordered above the pursuit of man's good in the affections of the heart and the priorities of the church, man will not be well served and God will not be dully honored." (Let the Nations be Glad, John Piper)

Our ultimate purpose is to find ourselves in God's design, to find our fulfillment in his glory and to find our hope in his grace. Is that what you mean when you say "That wasn't very good worship," ? Are you saying: "I didn't enjoy it because I don't think it was really about God's glory. I think today was about me. I think today was about being correct. I think today was about being popular. I think today was about designer shirts and expensive coffee."