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.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” - Ephesians 2:8-9