Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Welcome to the creative team talks podcast for Hillsong Creative hi, my name is Katie Dodson and I'm one of the team at the Hills campus in Sydney, Australia. I've been asked to share around the question, why do you need a theology of worship? I don't know if you've been part of our team for a few months, a few years, or maybe a few decades, but we need to have a theology of worship. It's imperative that those who lead the church in worship have a theology of worship so that we can lead our congregations thoughtfully, intentionally, but above all scripturally.
[00:00:56] Here's a few reasons why we need a theology of worship. The first one is because what we believe about God shapes how we worship him on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday Saturday. What we believe of God's nature and character informs how we worship him corporately and how we worship him individually in our everyday.
[00:01:25] It's actually true in any relationship.
[00:01:27] What you believe about a person, whether it's true or false, will shape your interactions with that person. What you believe about their motives, what you believe about that person will inform how you interpret their actions, how you interpret their words. And it's the same for us. When we think about how we worship God. It's really cool. I teach worship subjects at Hillsong College and year after year I hear stories of how students had encountered with God, had encounter with God whether they were young or just a few months ago or even that week, and it was an encounter in a worship service, or maybe while they were listening to a sermon in their own time and through a lyric or through a scripture, they were changed. They had a God encounter and it changed how they viewed God and it changed how they worshipped God. Their theology changed and therefore how they worshipped him changed also.
[00:02:30] What is a theology? Well, theology is the study and nature of God.
[00:02:37] And it's important that we as the worshippers, we as the creative team have a theology of worship because worshipping God without a theology of God from scripture is like a builder building a house without a level just one degree off over a short distance can cause some serious problems structurally.
[00:03:00] In the book christian worship, its theology and practice.
[00:03:04] The authors say that we need theology and we need theology of worship because worship without theology is sentimental and weak. Theology without worship is cold and dead.
[00:03:22] Worship without theology is sentimental and weak. It's based on our emotions. It's based on how the events are going that week. It's based on encounter that we had with people around us. It's fickle. It can change one moment to the next. And theology without worship is cold in dead. It reduces God the father to a theology to study, a method to master, not a supreme being who desires to have communion with us.
[00:03:54] We must build a theology of worship that's based on who God has revealed himself to us, not as we think he is, based on our human knowledge and our human sense or experience.
[00:04:07] Biblical worship is worship that is based on a theology of who God is revealed to us through scripture.
[00:04:22] So why do we need a theology of worship? Because what we believe about God shapes how we worship him. And secondly, there is acceptable worship and there is unacceptable worship and we need to know the difference. So the Bible is clear that there are expectations on how we are to worship him. That's a whole nother topic for another podcast. So we need a theology of worship because what we believe about God shapes how we worship him. We need a theology of worship because there is acceptable and unacceptable forms of worship. And thirdly, we need a biblical theology of worship because how we worship God, how you and I lead our congregations in worship, will eventually teach them about God.
[00:05:17] The songs we choose, our mannerisms, how we pray, what we demonstrate in our own relationship of God to our congregations will teach our people about God, is what our congregations are learning about God from us. Is it true to what the Bible says of God?
[00:05:39] How we worship God goes far beyond musical style and it actually is spiritual formation for our community.
[00:05:48] Bottom line, what you and what I believe about God will be reflected in how we lead the community of God in worship. You know, what I love, as challenging as this is, is that God has not left us guessing or left us to our own devices to figure it all out. He's giving us everything that we need to worship him. He has revealed himself through scripture and he has empowered us by his spirit to worship him in spirit and in truth.
[00:06:22] So in this final moment, I just want to end and say and ask this question, where have I shaped my beliefs about God? Where have you shaped your beliefs about God? Sometimes we have beliefs about God that have come from our childhood, from our perceptions, from our experiences, from our disappointments.
[00:06:44] An example for me is I grew up in a very strict religious background and I grew up believing that God was angry because of how God was portrayed to me in that community, through how we worshipped, through the preaching. And it wasn't until coming into another community of faith that God showed himself to me as a God of love, a God of kindness. Yes, a holy God. But it's amazing the influence that we have as lead worshippers in our congregations in shaping their theology of God by how we worship God.
[00:07:24] So, hillsong creative team, whether you sing, play, whether you produce, whether you dance, whether you create art, no matter what you do, may it be informed by a theology of worship that arises from scripture, how God has revealed himself to us through his redemptive work of Jesus, and let's continue to grow in our knowledge of him. Let's continue to build a biblical theology of worship to lead the community of God in a way that is true of our God.
