Approaching God in Worship has one purpose: to help people connect with God through worship. It is not a textbook teaching seminarians how to plan and prepare worship services. It is not a book on the theology and practice of Christian worship. It is not a history of Christian worship. It is not a promotion of traditional worship, contemporary worship, charismatic worship, blended worship, emerging worship or any other kind of worship. And it is not a devotional book advancing a person’s spiritual growth. Although Approaching God in Worship may brush up against all of these different genres of books; its one purpose is to help people use worship to encounter, recognize, experience, connect with and enjoy God. The problem is that too many life-long Christians, with years and years of faithful church attendance, have never encountered God in their church’s worship services.
The problem is even worse for many of those with less experience in Christian worship. Too many eyes do not see. Too many ears do not hear. Too many hearts and minds do not perceive the One they desire the most to know. This course of study intends to open eyes and ears, and to point them to the One who has been there all the time. This book works to introduce hearts and minds to their Creator and the greatest Lover to ever exist.
Christian worship should be full of excitement and intimacy, joy and power, wonder and love, and even a bit of fear. And all these things will happen when worshipers perceive the One presence they long for the most. Our churches will become the places where we most want to be, and worship will become our favorite way to spend our time. Jesus has promised to be with us whenever two or three gather in his name, and we will long to be present every time he keeps this promise. On Pentecost God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the church, and we will ache to feel that Spirit working in us and in our church. Our Creator, Father and Source of all love, still speaks, and we will set our hearts on hearing and keeping every word of what God says to us. Helping worshipers connect with God is the task that Approaching God in Worship undertakes, and we pray that it will move the church a little closer to making these things reality.
It should also be pointed out that Approaching God in Worship is not a Bible study, in the proper sense of the word. But this study is solidly based on the Bible, and a Bible will be necessary to answer the biblical questions found throughout this study. The New Revised Standard Version was the Bible translation used to form the questions posed in this book. Using this translation will make it easy to fill in the blanks found throughout the following chapters. Other translations will work, but it will not be a word-for-word type of answer. Using paraphrase Bibles, such as The Good News Bible, The Living Bible, or The Message, will make filling in the blanks much more difficult.
In addition to the Bible, the author uses various quotations to expose the reader to the many voices of people working in and writing about the worship life of the Christian people. Do not make the mistake of skipping over these quotations when reading the book. Some of the best insights offered by this book are contained in the quotes. They are also an integral part of the text. Skipping them will cause the reader to lose the thread of the discussion.
The author has chosen to change how some scriptures are cited in the quotations. This is done for the purpose of standardizing the citations, and thus reducing confusion for the reader.
Except for scripture citations, the author has retained the original language of those who are quoted. The obsolete grammar of older writings is retained, as well as the British spelling of some words. The original language is also preserved when it bumps into the current issues of inclusive language. For example, when Evelyn Underhill writes, “When man enters the world of worship, he enters a world which has many of the characteristics of an artistic creation,”[1] she is using the accepted standards of her day. It is clear that by the word, “man,” that she intends the reader to understand that both men and women are included in this statement. The author could have updated the language, but chose not to in order to retain Evelyn Underhill’s voice just as it was in her original text. The author also chose not to apply the rude practice of adding “(sic)” after every non-inclusive word or instance of obsolete grammar. For example, the above sentence could have been written, “When man (sic) enters the world of worship, he (sic) enters a world which has many of the characteristics of an artistic creation.” This practice not only distracts the reader from the content of what is being said in the quotation, but it also serves no purpose other than to demonstrate how accomplished the more contemporary author is at spotting older language that fails our current tests for inclusiveness. Instead, the author trusts the readers to translate the original voices where necessary, and allows that the inclusive-language inspectors and grammar detectives will use a red pen to add their own “(sic)” wherever they feel it is needed.
Another way to tackle this study, is to read one lesson each week. Then it would take the readers seventy weeks (less than a year and a half) to complete the lesson, but lesson-free weeks could be inserted during the summer or other times during the year to provide a break once-in-a-while. This longer alternative could take up to two years to complete, but the pace would be much more leisurely.
[1] Evelyn Underhill, Worship (Guildford, Surrey: Eagle, 1991), p. 22.
