What is worship?

I have been working on my own definition of worship for a few weeks now, mostly because of being on the Worship Team, and figuring out what that looks like to me. I've read websites and articles to see what other people think and weighing what I've read to decide if their definition is true for me or not. I don't think there is one and only one definition of worship. The word itself is derived from "worth-ship" which means to give something (or someone) its worth, and since the kind of worship I'm talking about is worshipping God, does that mean we are to give God back His worth? How is that possible? I've heard that worship is surrendering all of who you are to God, which could translate into giving Him back His worth, at least as far as we are capable. I've also heard it described as leading the congregation into the presence of God, or as an expression of our love to Him. I've heard people talk about (figuratively) kneeling or sitting at God's feet in worship. And then you hear the word thrown around in talking about other things and it's hard to separate real worship from the corporate worship experience we've come to associate it with. (Bad blogger, ending a sentence with "with"!) Over and over I read about how worship is a lifestyle and not just that Sunday morning service. Does this mean we're supposed to go around singing worship songs all day long?

Here's what I've got so far: if worship means surrendering all of yourself to God, shouldn't you be doing that daily anyway? I mean, we are supposed to follow His way and let Him be in control. Isn't that surrendering yourself? That certainly fits into the "worship is a lifestyle" pattern. Before I even crawl out of bed in the morning, I need to surrender that day to the Lord. That's worship. When I get up in front of the congregation on Sunday morning, I should have already surrendered anew my life to the Lord that day BUT I should also take the time to pray and surrender my efforts to Him because that's all I've got. I have to do my best and let Him be in charge of the result. So what does that look like? At this point, I think that means that I surrender my life to God's control on a daily basis. I pray all week for the service on Sunday and everyone who takes part in it in any way, but especially the pastoral leadership, that they will hear God's voice and lead us in the right direction. I commit my thoughts and actions to God, put my heart and my best effort into my singing and trust Him to take care of the rest. This may change as I read more about worship.

The pastors have talked about how they (and we, the congregation) need to stay "close and clean". We need to draw close to God and keep ourselves clean, which I think means avoiding sin. Anyone in any kind of leadership position at a church needs to do the same. When you are before the congregation you are to be an example. Now, none of us is perfect and we're not expected to be. But we need to be doing the best we can to stay close to God and stay clean. I know that I need to work on the "close" part and the "clean" will follow. I do a pretty good job of praying in short bursts but I find that when I get a long period of time for personal prayer (like Larry had us do after rehearsal this morning) I don't seem to run out of things to say to God. It makes me think I need to make more time to pray. I definitely need to make more time for Bible study and I'm working on it. Self-awareness is the first step.

As LifeSong grows (and it will continue to grow by leaps and bounds) the warfare will intensify. It will take dedicated prayer on the part of our LifeSong family to withstand the attacks. I used to wish I was one of those people considered to be a "Prayer Warrior." Sadly, according to multiple spiritual gift inventories, that's not my gift. But that doesn't mean I can't pray like crazy anyway.