Every congregation should be a true worshipping church, and this must be the highest aim of all church planters, pastors and leaders. The language of worship pervades all the epistles of Paul, and in 1 Corinthians 14 the apostle provides the clearest picture of God’s people at worship to be found in the New Testament, together with vital practical instructions. We must build worshipping churches. But what is worship? Never have there been so many ‘forms’ of worship within Bible-believing churches as there are today. First, there is pleasurable worship, which puts the believer’s enjoyment in the chief place, whereas it is God’s pleasure that comes first. Secondly, there is worldly-idiom worship, which borrows and adapts the current musical tastes of the secular world, with its rhythms, instruments, actions, and showbiz presentation, whereas the Lord says that whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Thirdly, there is informal worship, in which casual, relaxed, often jokey, trivia-injecting worship leaders turn churches into sitting rooms, whereas God demands dignity, order, reverence, grandeur and glory in his Temple. Fourthly, there is aesthetic worship, which imagines that music, instrumentation, dancing, vocal rendition (and even craftsmanship) are all valid expressions of worship in themselves, so that God is worshipped by and through these things, whereas the Saviour said that ‘God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.’ Fifthly, there is ecstatic worship, in which people work themselves into highly emotional and semi-hypnotic states, as though worship consisted of achieving an out-of-this-world, mystical connection with God, whereas Scripture says we must pray and sing with the understanding (1 Corinthians 14.15). Sixthly, there is shallow worship, which reduces the hymns to choruses containing just a few elementary ideas, whereas the Psalms – the model for hymns of worship – deal with solid themes to the glory of God.

These distortions and perversions of worship have swept in over the last fifty to sixty years. They ruin churches and dishonour the Lord, and we should want to train our people to love worship which is grand and glorious in character. True worship is words, a fact that was bedrock knowledge to all Protestants until a few years ago! The Saviour’s term ‘in truth’ means that correct worship must consist of intelligent sentiments flowing from a rational and sincere mind. ‘In spirit’ means that worship should have no physical rites, ceremonies or bodily actions. Much of what has today become so common in worship fails this great definition and standard laid down by the Lord. It is not true worship, but a mixture of entertainment and emotional self-indulgence. Worship is words, whether said, sung or thought. It is intelligent. It is certainly not the experiencing of strange ecstasies with the rational mind switched off.

Ministers who lead true worship must be careful to ensure that all the biblical aspects of worship are included in services – in prayer, song and preaching. These are awe, reverence, adoration, thanksgiving, rejoicing, repentance, affirmation of Truth, learning, intercession, and obedient dedication. Ministers must say, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease,’ putting away vain self-projection, exhibitionism, superfluous interjections, and levity. They must have a worthy sense of occasion, and behave as though the King of kings is present. The ideal service must be a time of privilege, awe, and wonder. Joy will most certainly be a major feature, but joy not put in a context of awe and not accompanied by times of serious repentance, with earnest submission and supplication, becomes inappropriate joy. If the one who leads in worship is a chatty, flippant, wisecracking person, any sense of the awesome presence of God will be inhibited and even forfeited. Worshippers, too, must avoid chatter, and trivialised domestic notices should find no place in the service, only a sincere greeting and simple announcement of main meetings for adults and children. Lightweight informality has its place in human relationships, but not in the worship of the ever-glorious, almighty Lord.

If we can build thoughtful, worshipping churches, the people will deepen in outlook, increase in spiritual enjoyment, and be greatly strengthened in humility. It is a fact that informality in worship produces unhumbled, unawed, proud Christians. So does aesthetic worship (in which any offering of, for example, instrumentalism is like Cain’s offering – something the worshipper has done, and can be proud of). Ecstatic worship produces pride in imagined spiritual accomplishment, and pleasurable worship induces selfishness and self-importance, as the worshipper (the ‘customer’) gets what he wants to enjoy. True worship is what God enjoys; what he commands; what he is entitled to. At the same time it produces humble, unselfish Christians who are wholly submitted to God in deep appreciation and trust. In other words, true worship sanctifies, whereas false, phoney and shallow worship is hostile to all that we long to see in Christian lives and in churches. May the aim of every pastor and leader be to build a truly worshipping church.