(Note: This long speech was originally presented in May 2002 at a special conference

for the people who lead singing/worship at the Shanghai International Church .)

Worship is Weird

Why Christians Sometimes do Things that Look Weird

(by Michael Krigline, Shanghai, May 2002)

Do you ever feel uncomfortable when you are up front, leading worship? I do. Sometimes—usually—I feel very uncomfortable. I don’t feel worthy. I don’t feel qualified. I don’t feel like I’m sufficiently trained to lead others in worship. Leading worship makes me sound funny, feel funny, look funny, act funny. And I know that many people feel this way. It is one reason why it is so hard to attract people to take part in the worship teams.

As I thought about this, I figured out why leading worship makes me so uncomfortable. It’s because worship is weird.

Really. Technically, worship should not even be possible for people like us.

If you do not think worship is weird, then stand up and shout "Praise the Lord" the next time you are on a public bus! Normal people do not do things like that, normally.

How, you might wonder, is worship "impossible"? There are six ways that we will consider:

	Heavenly activity done on earth
	Mostly invisible activity done in the visible realm
	Holy activity performed by fallen mortals
	Divine/royal activity done by common men & women/laypeople
	Biblical worship is full of extremes that people find it impossible to balance
	Private/personal activity done in public (others are bound to see it as strange)

Worship is weird because it is a…

(1) Heavenly activity done on earth (unnatural)

What else do you worship? Nothing! So worship is an unnatural activity for us. But it is not unnatural in Heaven.

Rev 4:8 The four living creatures worship continually. They…

"do not rest day or night, saying:

"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!"

^{9Whenever the living
creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne,
who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down
before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and
ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
^{11 "You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, And by
Your will they exist and were created."
Rev 7:9 (Song of the
Nations)
^{9After these things I
looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all
nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and
before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their
hands, ¹⁰and crying out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation
belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" ¹¹All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four
living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped
God, ¹²saying:
"Amen! Blessing and glory and
wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God
forever and ever. Amen."
No wonder worship is "weird" here on earth; it is a
heavenly activity and we are on foreign soil.
But there are two sides to every coin, aren't there? For
each truth that explains why worship is weird or all-but-impossible, comes
with an equally important reverse side—some redeeming quality that makes
worship make sense!
Yes, worship looks weird because it is unnatural on earth,
but the other side of that coin is that worship gives us a taste of
Heaven. As a worship leader, that is one part of your job—God is using you
to give others a taste of Heaven!

Worship is also unnatural because it is a…

(2) Mostly invisible activity done in the visible
realm
Why is it unnatural? For one thing, our audience is
unseen; so to worship one must admit that unseen things are important.
We don’t normally talk to or about unseen things. If you
told someone that your best friend was Harvey, a six-foot tall invisible
rabbit...well they might try to put you in a room where you can't hurt
yourself!
But in reality we all know that unseen things ARE
important, and often that what is unseen is more important or
consequential than what is seen. Consider these two words: iceberb,
Titanic.
According to 2 Cor 4:18 (CEV) ¹⁸"Things that
are seen don’t last forever, but things that are not seen are eternal.
That’s why we keep our minds on the things that cannot be seen."
Not only does a worshiper admit that unseen things are
important, but in worship we invade the unseen realm of the Spirit. In
worship we do REAL work and bring REAL force to bear in a different realm
(not unlike a soldier in one country who pushes a button and an explosion
soon takes place in a different country).
Admittedly, the UNSEEN nature of worship has long given
people difficulty. Let's consider an example from Jesus' life: the story
of the Woman at the Well (John 4:5). Watch the conflict between the
reality of what is SEEN and what is UNSEEN.

John 4:5So He
came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground
that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶Now Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It
was about the sixth hour. ⁷A woman of Samaria came to draw
water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." ⁸For His disciples
had gone away into the city to buy food. ⁹Then the woman of
Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from
me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. ¹⁰Jesus
answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who
says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would
have given you living water." (UNSEEN) ¹¹The
woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep. (SEEN) Where then do You get that living water? ¹²"Are
You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it
himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?" ¹³Jesus
answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
¹⁴"but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will
never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a
fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (UNSEEN)
¹⁵The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may
not thirst, nor come here to draw." (SEEN) ¹⁶Jesus said
to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." ¹⁷The woman
answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well
said, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸"for you have had five husbands,
and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke
truly." (SEEN—TO SHOW THAT HE CAN SEE THE UNSEEN) ¹⁹The
woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. (RECOGNIZES
UNSEEN) ²⁰"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain
(SEEN), and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place
(SEEN) where one ought to worship." ²¹Jesus said to her,
"Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this
mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father (UNSEEN). ²²"You
worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of
the Jews. ²³"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true
worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the
Father is seeking such to worship Him. ²⁴"God is Spirit, and
those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." ²⁵The
woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ).
"When He comes, He will tell us all things." ²⁶Jesus said to
her, "I who speak to you am He." The Holy Bible, New
King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.

COMMENT: The woman had tried unsuccessfully to find
fulfillment in the world of SEEN relationships (that is, with VISIBLE
MEN), but Jesus was seeking to show her the poverty or limitations of that
realm. What she really needed (just like us) was a RELATIONSHIP with the
UNSEEN FATHER. Such a relationship is UNNATURAL, and is only developed
through SPIRIT-LED WORSHIP.
But the GOOD NEWS is that the Eternal yet invisible
God desires this kind of satisfying, personal RELATIONSHIP with each of
us.

To review:

Worship is weird, and should be impossible because it is
a…}}}

	Heavenly activity done on earth
	Mostly invisible activity done in the visible realm

Thirdly, it borders on the impossible because worship is a…

(3) Holy activity done by fallen mortals

Let’s face it. When we worship, we are out of our league.

God is HOLY. God is PERFECT. And God demands no less of those who approach Him. Do you FEEL up to His Standard? No? How dare you approach God?! King of Kings, Lord of Lords…

(The OT is full of examples of the permanent consequences of getting too close to God. Sinai. Ground opens up. Touch the Ark of the Covenant. NT: lie to HS [Ananius])

FALLEN, SINFUL PEOPLE DO NOT GET CLOSE TO GOD!

BUT I have good news this morning! .

^{22 In my mind, I am happy
with God’s law.²³But I see another law working in my body,
which makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law
working in my body is the law of sin, and it makes me its prisoner.²⁴What a miserable man I am! Who will save me from this body that
brings me death?²⁵I thank God for saving me through Jesus
Christ our Lord! (Romans 7 The New Century Version)

FALLEN PEOPLE can’t worship the living God, but SAVED
PEOPLE CAN!
When we worship, we must never forget that we are ONLY
able to do so because of the Blood of Jesus Christ. ONLY.

Not only is Worship a Holy Activity and Heavenly
Activity for which humans are not naturally suited, it is also a (4)
ROYAL activity unsuited for untrained, common men & women/laypeople.

What did the OT "professionals" have to go through in
order to worship God?
(change clothes, wash, sprinkle, incense/sensors,
training, Judah’s "blood line"...)
Even today, many think that worship is only for the
theologically trained, and to some extent they are correct. The BLOOD
gives us access, but we must not trample that grace underfoot in an
unworthy manner. Thus the role of a worshiper (especially one who leads
worship) must not be taken for granted. I tremble when I must stand before
people as God’s spokesman—a little of this awe and fear is a healthy thing
for you too!
You don’t just waltz into a king’s presence or the
audience with a President—unless, perhaps, he is your daddy . . . and
there lies the key to this aspect of the impossibility of worship! The
Holy Spirit invites us to worship the Father, and even to call him
"Abba/Daddy." But even a child knows it is best to wash his hands before
going to see his Daddy the King.
1 Tim 2:8 ⁸I desire
therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without
wrath and doubting; ⁹in like manner also, that the women adorn
themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with
braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, ¹⁰but, which
is proper for women professing godliness, with good works. NKJV
So, since worship is a "royal" activity, only suited for
professionals, it is important that we enter God’s presence in the way HE
expects—with clean hands and a clean heart, realizing that this is our
Daddy who bids us to come, but also realizing that He is our GOD.
Biblical worship is also easy to describe as "weird"
(5) because it envelops so many EXTREMES. What looks perfectly
Biblical and uplifting to me, may look pagan (or worse) to you. And people
are not very good at balancing such diverse forms of expression. As the
President of CBCS, Robertson McQuilkin, liked to say: it is always easier
to embrace one extreme or the other, than to stay in the center of
Biblical tension. (Types of worship extremes: loud/soft; slow/fast;
repentant prostration/ exuberant dancing; …)
Let me read you an example from the Spirit Filled Life
Bible: (note in Ps 63) "Praise, shabach: means to commend, praise; to
adore; to glory in something; to still, quiet, or pacify someone. Shabach
goes in two directions, 'praising' and 'calming.' The verb occurs 11 times
in the OT, 8 of these having to do with speaking words of praise. The
other 3 references speak either about calming the tumultuous sea or about
hushing up things within one’s heart. There appears to be a connection
between 'praising with words' and 'soothing with words,' as any aggrieved
individual, offered words of honor, can testify."
It is always easier to embrace one extreme or the other,
than to stay in the center of Biblical tension.
Worship is weird because it envelops diverse extremes. Mix
in traditions and temperaments, and the result is a lot of "tension" in
the Church. No wonder leading worship is so difficult—if not impossible.
No matter what your worship looks like, someone is going to see it as
being weird.
So, again, worship is weird because it is a…}

	Heavenly activity done on earth
	Mostly invisible activity done in the visible realm
	Holy activity performed by fallen mortals
	Divine/royal activity done by common men & women/laypeople
	Biblical worship is full of extremes that people find it impossible to balance
	Private/personal activity done in public (others are bound to see it as strange)

And finally, others are bound to see your expression of worship as strange because (6) worship is fundamentally a private/personal activity, but it often must be done in front of other people—that is, in public.

The best way to illustrate this point is to look at how some of the people in the Bible worshiped God. Now maybe you are used to these stories and understand the worshipper’s intentions, but think about them from the point of view of those around at the time. Friends, these actions are weird!

Let’s start with the OT sacrifices. Let’s say you are a new convert to Judaism and you want to know how to worship God. We can get an answer from a number of scriptures, but let’s look at

^{Exod 29: 38 "Now this is
what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs of the first year, day by day
continually. ³⁹"One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and
the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. ⁴⁰"With the one
lamb shall be one-tenth of an ephah of flour mixed with one-fourth of a
hin of pressed oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine as a
drink offering. ⁴¹"And the other lamb you shall offer at
twilight; and you shall offer with it the grain offering and the drink
offering, as in the morning, for a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire
to the Lord. ⁴²"This shall be a continual burnt offering
throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of meeting
before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak with you."
I guarantee, that to a Greek intellectual or a northern
European slave, this would sound weird! Didn’t your mother ever tell you
not to play with or waste food?
Now, I admit that sometimes I envy the OT priests. At
least they KNEW how to worship God, because God had very specifically told
them! But how much more precious is New Testament worship—full of the
variety and personal expression that we enjoy!
Yet, whatever it’s limitations, OT worship demonstrated
the COST involved in worship, and it met the need/desire to show God one’s
love. When you brought the choicest part of your flock or wine or harvest,
it was like saying:
"Here, God. Here is meat for you to eat, wine for you
to drink. I could have kept these for myself, but I give them to you.
See how I love you."
Next, let’s look at David. Turn to 2 Samuel 23:14.
David is well known for his musical worship, but this is an interesting
story of a different form of worship.
^{2 Sam 23: 14David was then
in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in
Bethlehem. ¹⁵And David said with longing, "Oh, that someone
would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem, which is by
the gate!" ¹⁶So the three mighty men broke through the camp of
the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the
gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink
it, but poured it out to the Lord. ¹⁷And he said, "Far be it
from me, O Lord, that I should do this! Is this not the blood of the men
who went in jeopardy of their lives?" Therefore he would not drink it.
Think of how you would have felt if you were one of those
soldiers. You’ve just risked your life to get the general a cup of water
from his hometown, and when you give it to him, he pours it on the ground.
Friends, that is weird! "Hey, David, drink it—you said you wanted
it! Don’t waste it! Don’t just throw it out!"
But David wasn’t throwing it out. He was giving it to God.
"Here, Lord. Here’s water, from the place closest to my heart. It
represents the faith and love of my men, and thus my own love as well. I
pour it out to you. Here’s water from my heart—I pour it out unto You."
David poured himself out in a different way in 2
Samuel 6. A special chest called The Ark of the Covenant had been in enemy
hands, and then it had been in some guy’s barn, and now David wanted it
back in the Tabernacle. So he had quite a parade for the holy box! They
sacrificed animals every few meters, and David danced around like a wild
man.
^{2 Sam 6: 14 He was dancing for the Lord with all his might,
but he wore only a linen cloth. ¹⁵He and everyone else were
celebrating by shouting and blowing horns while the chest was being
carried along.
^{16 Saul’s daughter [and David’s wife] Michal looked out
her window and watched the chest being brought into David’s City. But when
she saw David jumping and dancing for the Lord, she was disgusted.
^{17 They put the chest inside a tent that David had set up for
it. David worshiped the Lord by sacrificing animals and burning them on an
altar, ¹⁸then he blessed the people in the name of the Lord
All-Powerful. ¹⁹He gave all the men and women in the crowd a
small loaf of bread, some meat, and a handful of raisins, and everyone
went home. [NOTICE that David’s worship also has a practical side that
blesses others.]

^{20 David went home so he could ask the Lord to bless his family.
But Saul’s daughter Michal went out and started yelling at him. "You were
really great today!" she said. "You acted like a dirty old man, dancing
around half-naked in front of your servants’ slave-girls."
^{21 David told her, "The Lord didn’t choose your father or anyone
else in your family to be the leader of his people. The Lord chose me, and
I was celebrating in honor of him. ²²I’ll show you just how
great I can be! I’ll even be disgusting to myself. But those slave-girls
you talked about will still honor me!" (The Contemporary
English Version)

To David, this jumping and dancing was a way to take
worship to a higher level, but to his wife it looked weird—even
disgusting. So don’t be surprised if people misunderstand your intentions
when you lead worship.
Should David have toned down to suit his wife’s opinions?
He didn’t and gave no indication that he planned to do so. Sometimes we do
have to compromise for the sake of our brothers and sisters, but the point
is: worship is an intensely personal expression, directed toward God. So
long as the Father, your PRIMARY audience, is pleased with what you are
doing, you don’t need to be overly concerned about how weird you look or
sound to the physical "audience" that happens to be in the same room.

Finally, let’s see the weird ways a New Testament lady
chose to worship her Lord.

Look at Luke 7:36.
Imagine that you are having dinner with a city council
member, and a local pastor has also been invited. In fact, this pastor has
become rather popular and you are interested in meeting him. As you are
talking and eating a fine meal, a woman with a bad reputation—perhaps
dressed in a provocative way, or all coated with makeup; a "known
sinner"—comes in and starts polishing the pastor’s shoes and crying like a
baby. Then she sees that she has missed a spot and wipes it with her hair.
Friends—this is weird! But this is how a woman chose to worship the
Lord Jesus.
John 7:36 ³⁶Then one of
the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s
house, and sat down to eat. ³⁷And behold, a woman in the city
who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the
Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, ³⁸and
stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with
her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His
feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
This woman was not a professional worshipper. Perhaps she
didn’t know the OT codes about what to offer in terms of sacrifice. She
wasn’t likely a religious person. But she had somehow come to love Jesus
and to find faith in Him, and this led to an intensely personal and
unquestionably weird form of expression. And ever since it has served
as a model of worship. Oil upon His feet. Tears to wash off the dust, and
her own hair to wipe them dry.
In John Chapter 11 we learn that this woman is Mary, whose
sister and brother were Martha and Lazarus. Then, in John 12 we find Mary
once again at the feet of Jesus in worship.
^{John 12: 1Then, six days
before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been
dead, whom He had raised from the dead. ²There they made Him a
supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the
table with Him. ³Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of
spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.
And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. ⁴Then
one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray
Him, said, ["Why this waste? "Mt 26:8] ⁵"Why was this fragrant
oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?" ⁶This
he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and
had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it. ⁷But
Jesus said, "Let her alone; she has kept this for
the day of My burial. ⁸"For the poor you have with you always,
but Me you do not have always."

Once again, Mary did an intensely personal thing. Again it
was misunderstood by those who watched. It was a great sacrifice—it cost
her a lot. But she was determined to fill Jesus’ life with her praise,
even as the costly oil filled the air with it’s rich perfume.

So yes, worship is weird—or at least it is sometimes bound
to be seen as weird by others. Yes, worship is unnatural for natural
humans, because it is a…
Heavenly activity done on earth
Mostly invisible activity done in the visible realm

Holy activity performed by fallen mortals
& a Divine/royal activity done by common laypeople
Biblical worship is full of Extremes people find it
impossible to balance, and it is a personal activity done in
public. No wonder you feel weird when you lead worship!
But it is equally true that worship gives the worshipper a
taste of heaven. To be a worshipper you must acknowledge that the unseen
realm is even more significant than the realm we can see and touch, and
you must also acknowledge that it is ONLY by the blood of Jesus Christ
that you can perform this holy act. To be an effective worshipper you must
be committed to learning more and more about the way God wants you to
worship—you should seek to become a "trained professional" worshipper,
even while you understand that your Daddy is the one who calls you into
worship and into relationship with Him. Because of the variety in the Body
of Christ, the worship leader must strive for that dynamic place in the
center of Biblical tension, not at either extreme, while also realizing
that "what people think" about your worship is never as important as the
opinion and directions of your real Audience.
Worship is a personal activity, expressed in the Bible
with images like wild dancing and penitent sobbing. It is expressed as the
pouring out of oil upon Jesus feet, water poured out that was dear to
David’s heart, and perfume that pours out to fill the house with its
costly sacrificial fragrance.
How does one express, in words or actions, the fullness of
this relationship we have with a God who is so far beyond words? Can any
words—any form of worship—be enough? Of course not. But aren’t you glad
that God has given the precious gift of worship—so that we can at least
try to express the depth of our love?

(I closed this session by singing a the
song that inspired the message. It is from Philips, Craig, and Dean,
called "Pour My Love on You.")

© 2002 Michael Krigline. As far as I am concerned, people are allowed to print
or copy
this article, or link to it, for personal or classroom use.

(see Website Standards and Use Policy)

Scriptures quoted are primarily from The Holy Bible, New King James
Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.

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