This book is written for church-going people, written to have a conversation about worship. It's written to remind us of just one thing: Worship is about God. It isn't about selling God. It isn't about being inspired by God-referencing programs. It's not even about "experiencing" God. Worship is about God. Period. It takes only four words to state this. For many readers this assertion will be easy to affirm-it seems so obvious. But, as is frequently the case, the obvious isn't always clear. Specifically, just what does this statement of the obvious mean? If we say that worship is "about" God, in what way or ways is it "about" God? For that matter, what does the word "about" actually mean? And how might one tell if a worship service is really "about" God or "about" something else? If it is "about" God, does this mean that the worshipers themselves are irrelevant? That their needs, their culture, their longings don't matter? Indeed, what would a worship service that's truly "about" God look like? In the course of the book I hope to offer clarifying, credible, and hope-creating answers to questions like these. Arising from within that discussion will actually be a conception of worship that is different from many typical evangelical understandings. However, I'm not so foolish or vain as to imagine that mine is the final word on this subject-my desires are much more modest. What I hope is that these words will be persuasive enough that you'll understand why our evangelical worship must be reconceived and made less about us and more about God.
This book is written for church-going people, written to have a conversation about worship. It's written to remind us of just one thing: Worship is about God. It isn't about selling God. It isn't about being inspired by God-referencing programs. It's not even about "experiencing" God. Worship is about God. Period. It takes only four words to state this. For many readers this assertion will be easy to affirm-it seems so obvious. But, as is frequently the case, the obvious isn't always clear. Specifically, just what does this statement of the obvious mean? If we say that worship is "about" God, in what way or ways is it "about" God? For that matter, what does the word "about" actually mean? And how might one tell if a worship service is really "about" God or "about" something else? If it is "about" God, does this mean that the worshipers themselves are irrelevant? That their needs, their culture, their longings don't matter? Indeed, what would a worship service that's truly "about" God look like? In the course of the book I hope to offer clarifying, credible, and hope-creating answers to questions like these. Arising from within that discussion will actually be a conception of worship that is different from many typical evangelical understandings. However, I'm not so foolish or vain as to imagine that mine is the final word on this subject-my desires are much more modest. What I hope is that these words will be persuasive enough that you'll understand why our evangelical worship must be reconceived and made less about us and more about God.
