Our Purposes: Upreaching Worship

Why Worship?

Worship is defined as telling of the worth of something. When you describe why something is valuable to you, you are (to at least some extent) worshipping that thing. No one is saying it is wrong to tell people why you like your car, but in some way it is worship... worth-ship... telling of its worth. What are we doing when we say we worship God? We are telling of His value, worth, esteem.

So why do we tell of God's value? We wandered away from God to do anything and everything that we wanted, knowing that God hates those activities. Yet despite our total rebelliousness, God still loves us. He showed us His love in sending His Son Jesus to take the consequences of our sin upon Himself, and He died in our sins. Why tell of God's worth? Because He loves us with an immense, indescribable love. His work of saving us is not the only reason for honoring Him, but it is the foundation for all our heart's response in worship.

How We Worship?

God tells us to "love the LORD our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength" (Deut 6:5). This obviously applies to all of life. In private worship and in public worship, we should love the LORD in these ways. Heart speaks to an emotional expression of our love and commitment to God. Soul speaks to our connection with God as well as an evaluation of our will. Mind speaks to an intellectual expression of the truth. An intellectual declaration without emotion or an emotional declaration without intellect is a worthless and non-worshipful one. Finally strength: this speaks to our body, what is our body doing in response to God's worth during corporate worship?

At Camden, we have historically worshipped via the singing of hymns. Our current hymnal is posted online here. We are moving towards a blended style of worship. The modern style of worship has a lot benefits and a lot of drawbacks as does the traditional style of worship. What we are electing to do as a church is to blend the benefits of both styles. Sometimes we do this well, sometimes not so well. But there is joy in the journey and God is honored when we step out of comfortable and easy into something that will highlight the greatness and complexity of our awesome God.