In Art Katz’s book, Apostolic Foundations, it says the following concerning the word Apostolic. “It is a word that needs to be resuscitated, rather than to be thought of merely as a denominational identification. Like every great biblical word, we need to be apprehended by the essence of what that word represents”. Apostolic Foundation-page 8. I have been greatly impacted by his writings and have had the fortune of knowing him personally.
As a worship leader, I have always felt that, like the word “apostolic”, the word “worship’ has lost it’s true place and it’s true meaning. What is the true essence of true worship? How is it distinct from praise? Nowadays, worship means one thing to most believers, music and praise. The distinction is lost, much to the hurt of the modern church. True worship is rarely spoken of.
The meaning of the word “worship” has changed in the last 50 or 60 years. If we lose the original meaning of worship, what word will we use to describe what biblical worship is? Genesis 22 is the first place in the Bible where the word “worship” is mentioned. It was when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, out of obedience and love toward God. We need to look at Abraham’s love, obedience and sacrifice to get a clear understanding of “worship”. In both the old and new testaments, worship mostly refers to someone “bowing down in reverence, prostrating oneself in humility and reverence”. There are many passages in both testaments, too numerous to mention.
I have friends who are missionaries in China, and they have meetings in their apartment, but they can’t lift their voices to the Lord in singing or playing instruments. If they were heard, they might be arrested and thrown in jail. Someone in America might say, “Oh those poor Christians, they can’t worship the Lord”. It is a ludicrous statement to make since in reality, they are true worshipers of the God. They are living their lives in faith, risking imprisonment! I am sure they would love to be able to praise the Lord with loud singing and instruments, but they can’t. But their faith is real and vibrant, trusting the Lord day to day. Walking by the Spirit in humble dependence on the Lord.
In the American church, we have elevated praise above worship. We have been calling praise and music “worship”, and neglected the weightier requirement of what true worship is. We love the singing and the great praise teams. We love the latest music coming out of the mega churches, many of whose music is produced by corporations. It is now a multi-billion dollar industry. That is cause for concern.
What is the condition of our churches? When He returns, will He find faith in the earth? God seeks those will worship Him in Spirit and in truth. The new testament says very little about music, yet it takes center stage in many churches.
We need to start hearing about true worship again, we need to restore it to it’s primary position in our Christian faith.
Niels Prip - Blog 
Amen and Amen!
I would like to hear you elaborate future on what true worship would look like though!
OK! I will say this, we allow our modern culture to dictate what we call worship and not the Bible. We must never lose the biblical meaning. When I lead praise and worship on a Sunday morning, I more think of it as obeying God’s word that we are to praise HIm and lift up His name. Then He will draw all men to Himself. But worship is part of it as well. But we can worship God without music, but music is a great help in praise. The great biblical examples of worship, like Abraham and Isaac, happened without music.
And so it’s all about full surrender to God out of our love for Jesus.
Yep!!
Deeply touching, Niels. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Pat!