A Primer on Christian Worship: Worship and Theology

We are beginning our readings of A Primer on Christian Worship by William A. Dyrness for our Theology of Worship course. The introduction gives the basis of what worship is, the theological weight it carries, and its relationship to the Christian context and outside culture. 

He began explaining how, as we have often read, worship is not an introspective, individual experience, but rather is a response to the invitation God gives to his people. Because of this, how we respond to God, in a corporate setting or even personal, explains what we believe about God. So, it is important as worship leaders to understand that most, if not all, of what people believe about God comes from their actions of prayer and praise. Worship is how their theology is practiced. Theology is not a statement of faith, but how your faith is demonstrated. What you believe about God will inform how you pray and how you worship. This is what Dyrness is communicating when he says that worship is theological. What do you believe about the Trinity? You explain in worship. What do you believe about God and miracles? You explain in worship. That is why it is just as important for the worship leader to consider theological teachings in their portion of the service as it is for the preacher. 

The second this Dyrness expresses in this introduction is how worship is affected by culture. He explained that culture is not necessarily harmful for worship, but in fact he says worship needs to speak “the language of the day and its genuine spiritual longings.” I think I see this at play when worship music begins to sound more like pop music. I see worship becoming like the culture when the songs being sung are addressing the issues and longings of my generation. I think these are great things, to have worship give theological language to what is going on around us presently. I think it becomes dangerous when worship follows the individualistic ideology of our culture. I have seen groups like SEU worship or Antioch Music write songs for today’s church well, they are beautiful and intercession and speak to the character of God in our midst. But I have also seen social media sometimes distort these songs or videos of worship to become entertainment or “self-help” resources. That just feels like a tricky aspect of social media culture now, that what we present or offer is open for anyone to use however they see fit. But for the Christian, we can and should use worship that speaks to present culture, but not conform to it. 

The same can be said about other forms of pop culture; movies, TV shows, the music industry, fashion, etc. In these forms of media, there is so much room for deep thought and reflection. There is room to see God and have your theology grow. But, what Dyrness pointed out is that this pop-entertainment industry is one based on quick access and immediate response. But worship, he says, “encourages slow practices that feed the deep hunger of our hearts.” So, I think there is room for worship to be expressed and even utilized in churches through movies, but like any kind of leadership, there needs to be pastoring and guiding of the members in order to develop their theology well.