Worship Wednesdays: What is Worship? (Part 1)

So Wednesdays are going to be dedicated to Worship. I thought this would be the day that I share my experiences and insights from being a Worship Leader. I want to keep the posts centered around biblical principles of Worship and how those apply not just to our worship services but in our lives in general. I'll also highlight some great online resources for worship.

So our first question is What is Worship?

Well in a study our worship team did last year we took a look at what worship actually is. What we discovered may surprise you. Most people associate the idea of worship with the music portion of our services and while that is true, it is not the full picture. To truly understand what worship is we need to go back to the actual word in The Word.


In the Old Testament the word for worship is abodah. It means “service” rendered to God. The word happens to have the same root as the term “slave” ebed. Notice there is no mention of music in this definition. So what does this tell us about our worship? To quote from Matt Redman's Heart of Worship "I'll bring You more than a song, for a song in itself is not what You have required. You search much deeper within through the ways things appear, You're looking into my heart"

It's deeper than just the songs we sing on Sunday mornings it encompasses all of our service to God. That includes the ushers, the Sunday School teachers, the sound techs, and even the custodian. If they are all doing their jobs as service unto God then they are worshiping.

Every Sunday morning we gather right before service starts to pray as a Worship Team. Most times it is just the singers and musicians along with the Senior Pastor but recently we have tried to include other individuals who are serving that morning. I wish I could include everyone but that's tough to do when they are actively serving or worshiping during our prayer time, but I do pray that God uses them and their worship to point others to Him.