Worship
While reading Marva Dawns book, “Reaching Out without Dumbing Down” I found a great definition of worship:
“Worship is the unique praise of God by the countercultural community that equips the community with a sufficiently deep sense of itself in relation to God that it can go from its worship into the world to effect social change.”
Now, many of you know that I don’t like to limit the definition of worship simply to the gathering of the “countercultural community.” But, I definitely appreciate her emphasis on the idea that our worship should help us understand our relationship with God and give us a passion to go into the world and make a difference.
That’s a big piece that is missing in many churches today…going out “into the world to effect social change.” Many of the churches I’ve been associated with write checks and occassionally participate in events that support social change. However, I have yet to be in a church that actually actively and passionately participates in bringing about change in our world…we may talk about it, but I’ve yet to see it actually happen.
Many church goers get excited about the idea of social change, but do very little to actually bring it about…And, I’m guilty here too!
So, what needs to happen within the life of the church that people will fall so in love with God that they will want to help make this world a better place?