Kyle is fresh out of college and recently, Sara, his friend and long time
church attender, has asked Kyle to join her for church on Sunday. Kyle wasn't brought up in a Christin home and hasn't been familiar with any
sort of Christian culture. Considering that Kyle is new to the scene,
he hesitantly texts Sara, "I'm not religious or anything but I guess
going to church couldn't hurt anything."
Sara is also fresh out of college be she has been raised in a loving
Christian family who saturated themselves in church culture. More so, she has always heard the pastor and music leader encourage the
congregation to "invite people to worship." More so, because of the
language used within his church, she's come to refer to Sunday mornings
as "worship" among her family and other church attendees.
The Sunday Kyle visited church with Sara, Sara was trying to be as
calm and hospitable as she knew how - even though she was incredibly
excited inside. Regardless, Sara held her emotion and didn't bring it
up that day. Being unable to contain
herself any longer, the following Monday morning, Sara decided to follow
up with an iMessage to Kyle and asked, "What did you think of worship
yesterday?"
Kyle was curious; the following Sunday provided Sara with a tangible answer as Kyle decided to join she and her family for
church again. That morning, the pastor and the music leader referred to
the church gathering as "worship" several times. More so, Kyle was
greeted many times with, "Thanks for being at worship
with us today." That afternoon, Kyle joined Sara's family for lunch.
The language used around the dinner table seemed to center around the
phrase, "Worship was so powerful today!"
Is Kyle being "equipped for works of service (Eph. 4:12)" or is he
being "equipped to come back for the next service?" Although the loose
use of "worship" is a simple issue of semantics, is it being used and
taught appropriately to nurture the growth of Kyle's faith? When
"worship" is used in this way, how may it affect the spiritual formation
of a new, non-, or long-time believer? And although these questions are interesting in
light of this scenario, there's a deeper question to ask:
Is it a worthy pursuit to encourage Christian leaders and educators, who use "worship" to reference an event, service, or gathering, and who teach others the same, to examine the Biblical use and understanding of "worship" and compare it with their own?
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