The weekend worship service is most-often the tentpole of a church’s spiritual communion with its people. For those of us who’ve grown up in the church, and now serve as ministry leaders in it, the how of what we do in worship is a well-worn track. We know when to sit down, stand up, raise our voices, and repeat our prayers and creeds. But what is the why behind our worship? That seems like an obvious question, but it’s not if you pause long enough to consider its depth.
Recently, at a gathering of ministry leaders who are participants in our new Raising Faithful Kids Project(made possible by a Lilly Endowment grant), I organized a kind of “speed dating” cycle of quick conversations, asking people to connect with a new set of conversation partners in five-minute segments. I asked the rotating sets of ministry leaders to answer a “why” question about six areas of worship, changing partners and the worship topic every five minutes. We call these the “six pillars of worship”—they include: Worship, Rest, Gather, Story, Love, and Peace.
After each rotation, we stopped to debrief their conversations, and I recorded their insights on a flip chart. As a moment-in-time collection of wisdom from a very experienced room of ministry leaders (many who said they’d never really paused to consider these “why’s of worship”), I think these are interesting takeaways. The reason this is important is that your people most likely have never (or rarely) considered why they do with they do in your worship service. And it you don’t understand the why of something you’re doing, then the doing itself is more fragile than you think. Anything we do that is divorced from its why is in danger of becoming irrelevant in our daily life.
So, here are the collections of perceptions from these ministry leaders, condensed into short descriptions and collected under the six pillars of worship…
Why worship? We said:
- To embrace mystery.
- To respond to God’s love.
- To fill our cups and to be sent forth.
- To be with/become community.
- To experience Word and Sacrament.
- To express gratitude.
- Because worship unites us.
- Because it’s who we are… how we’re created.
Why rest? We said:
- To create space for God and others (and ourselves)
- Space to listen, to move closer to God.
- To experience regeneration/renewal (rest and return to activity, like Jesus did).
- Because we recognize the importance of silence as opposed to busy-ness (it’s countercultural).
- Because it’s not about just being productive, it’s about just
- To sit with the questions, rest is that bridge—the space between before and what comes next.
Why gather? We said:
- To experience belonging.
- To feel truly known/truly seen.
- Because we are wired for relationship—meant to be in community with others, not alone or isolated.
- Because it is our natural craving in tragedy, in trauma, as well as in celebration—we come together in those moments that mark our lives.
- When we struggle, connections inspire hope.
Why integrate story in worship? We said:
- Because story forms us.
- Because there’s an intimacy and a vulnerability that comes from sharing stories.
- To grow closer, feel more connected because of story.
- Because the Word became flesh…
- Repeated story becomes a part of our narrative.
- “Next to actually living, telling stories is probably our most important activity… stories tell us who we are and why we are” (Alice Camille, Listening to God).
Why talk about love in worship? We said:
- Because God is love.
- “Love one another, as I have loved you” (Jesus).
- As a reminder that we are all beloved, we are all children of God, made in God’s image.
- Because to love another is to see the face of God.
- Because we experience God’s forgiveness in that love—we experience communion.
- Where else can we go where the expectation is love, to love one another?
Why highlight peace in worship? We said:
- For the good of the community.
- We only experience the fullness of who God created us to be in peace with one another.
- Peace and love are so connected—who we share peace with, we also share love with.
- When we receive the peace of Christ, we open ourselves.
- It is not without struggle—we experience God’s peace in the midst of discomfort.
- It is an intrusion to discord.
- It reminds us God is with us in all.
As we journey together over the next year, we’ll keep you updated on the insights, takeaways, and strategic learnings we collect in this project. We’re working right now to add a description of this project onto the Projects page on our website, so visit in the next weeks to learn more about Raising Faithful Kids. Our website: vibrantfaith.org.
Rick Lawrence is Executive Director of Vibrant Faith—he created the new curriculum Following Jesus. He’s editor of the Jesus-Centered Bible and author of 40 books, including his new release Editing Jesus: Confronting the Distorted Faith of the American Church, The Suicide Solution, The Jesus-Centered Life and Jesus-Centered Daily. He hosts the podcast Paying Ridiculous Attention to Jesus.