How much of our worldview is shaped by our worship? Or, how much of our worship is shaped by our worldview? Either way, one influences the other. Whether that is our beliefs shaping our worship or our worship leading to our beliefs. For class, we read a chapter of Desiring the Kingdom, by James K. A. Smith. In this chapter, chapter four, Smith explains how the early Church practiced worship before their doctrine was fully established. Meaning, they had a way of doing worship before they had a fixed worldview. They based their worldview on what they were doing, how they were meeting, how they were serving, how they prayed. Then Smith goes on to explain the benefits of this, how it is natural human tendencies, and how the Church today strays from this approach of worship. He states that, "Lived worship is the fount from which a worldview springs, rather than being the expression or application of some cognitive set of beliefs already in place." He clarifies what worship is because so often our worship becomes a reflection of our worldview, rather than the other way around.
I think a really interesting takeaway from this chapter is how practical Smith makes worship. How he discusses worship in a material, "earthy," way. That every physical or material aspect of this world can be or is utalized by God for worship. That our identity of being worshipers was embeded in creation from the beginning. Smith explains it, "So, too, worship is not some odd, extravagant, extra-human thing we do as an add-on to our earthly, physical, material nature; rather, 'worship is the epiphany of the world.' Worship is the ordering and reordering of our material being to the end for which it was meant." Worship is not some special thing that happens outside of creation. It is a purposful, intentional design of creation. We should not have the mindset that worship is only a special, supernatural, spiritual experience. Worship should be the worldview we maintain as we live out our days on earth, and in future glory.
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