Reflections on Worship, 2: To Celebrate and to Encounter

Posted by
Morgan Faleolo, Bethel Worship
In the musical form of corporate worship, many traditional songs are composed of descriptions of God and of the faith experience. In these, the worshipper celebrates God, the nature of God, the works of God, the goodness of God toward God's people, along with celebrations of various theological truths about God and the church. In recent decades, worship leaders have increasingly incorporated more relational language that expresses worship as crying out directly to God.
Are you singing about God, or singing to God?
 To God Be The Glory is a favorite hymn written by Fanny Crosby in the 1870s.

To God be the glory, great things He hath done. 
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son, 
who yielded His life an atonement for sin, 
and opened the life-gate that all may go in.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice! 
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice!
Oh come to the Father, through Jesus the Son, 
and give Him the glory, great things He has done.


Our most beloved worship hymns are beautiful and truly serve to take the worhipper to heights of connecting with God. The above hymn is an example of descriptive adoration, singing about God.

The tradition of church hymns is filled with beautiful and inspiring songs, and in many cases these are rightly described as singing to God rather than about God. Examples would include Holy, Holy, Holy, Great is Thy Faithfulness, Be Thou My Vision, and in fact, portions of these songs are frequently integrated into more contemporary compositions. Also, many are timeless and irreplaceable, and will likely be sung to the end of time.


Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace; 
streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. 

Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. 
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.


This is a beautiful and beloved hymn written by Pastor Robert Robertson in 1758. In this three verse hymn, there is no chorus, and a total of about 150 words with no repetition, so the worshipper essentially reads the song until it becomes familiar.

The form and content of a typical "praise and worship" song of the recent decades, sometimes called contemporary worship, is characterized by singing directly to God, with shorter and simpler verses easily remembered, and repetition. Typically, there is one verse, one chorus, and an alternate chorus or "bridge." (see video link below)

Verse
You give life, You are love, You bring light to the darkness
You give hope, You restore, every heart that is broken.

Chorus
It's Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise
It's Your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise to you only.

Bridge
And all the earth will shout Your praise
Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing, Great are You Lord. (1)

The entire song is 55 words long, in three repetitive parts. Part of the power of the simplicity and repetition is the profundity that can be captured in one phrase, and the experience of the song gives the worshipper an opportunity to meditate on the power of a simple truth.

It's your breath in our lungs..

Take a moment to consider the phrase. It affirms Acts 17:18, "for in Him we live and move and exist," or Colossians 1:17, "in Him all things hold together." It expresses and confesses a profound dependence on God, in essence, a very similar meaning to "come thou fount of every blessing." Something about the simplicity and repetition multiples the effect on the mind, emotions and spirit.

Preference in worship style is subjective. If the content is false, irrelevant, or unhelpful, then we have a problem. But assuming the content is appropriate within the context of the congregation, the style that we respond to is very personal. As an "older" worshipper, I have to recognize that as part of a congregation, it is not "my" preferred style that is important, but the form and style that can reach the participants. This should include not only the existing family of worshippers who may be well familiar with the traditional forms, but, understanding the outreach aspect of our worship gatherings, should include priority on connecting with the outsider, the visitor, and I would argue, the younger participants.

My goal in this meditation is to encourage the greatest opportunity for an ongoing personal encounter with God, for each of us, and for the greatest possible reach to others that might be invited into this encounter.

Great Are You Lord / Bethel / Morgan Faleolo / 2018

Great Are You Lord / Bethel / Amanda Lindsey Cook / 2014

(1) Great Are You Lord is written by David Leonard, Jason Ingram, and Leslie Jordan. Leonard and Jordan are members of the group All Sons and Daughters. Great Are You Lord is currently #3 on the CCLI Top 100.  (Source: https://hymnary.org/hymn/CCLI2017/3)