On this Race, I’ve learned so many things. One of the most amazing things I have learned is that no matter where you are, who you’re with, or what you’re doing, God always stays the same. When you’re in different cultures, eating different foods, speaking different languages, God remains the same through it all. However, the way people go about honoring God looks different everywhere. Sometimes church is in a big building, and sometimes it’s on someone’s back porch. Sometimes we sing hymns and sometimes we sing out our own heart songs.
This year I’ve had the honor of serving as one of the squad’s worship coordinators. I have always been passionate about worship, and I believe my calling in life is to worship God and lead other people into worshipping Him, too. I had done a lot of worship before this trip. I lead worship at my church, in college, and at summer camps, but this year has taught me so much about what true worship is, and what the heart of it really is.
Just like everything else, worship looked different around the world. In South America, worship was about declaring the power of God over our lives. In Colombia, we worked with Ciudad de Refugio, and they were a homeless shelter and rehabilitation program for people in Medellin. They had worship services every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, and no matter what day of the week it was or how many people were in the congregation, they just cried out to the Lord. The knew the power of God, and had seen His love work firsthand in their lives, and they declared that over their lives with every breath they had. It didn’t matter if they knew he words or were singing on key, the power of God’s work in their lives was just too good to keep inside, and they had no shame in singing that out as loud as they could.
In India, worship was about community. Since Christianity is still a minority religion in India, most of the churches are small home churches. Some of the newer churches were small open pavilions, but they were usually about 20-30 people, but they had a strong sense of community. For worship, they would pass around a songbooks, microphones, and various percussion instruments, and everyone would get a chance to participate in worship. We would usually sit on the ground together and just sing or play or do whatever we could to worship the Lord in the moment. No one was excluded from singing praises to the Lord.
In Africa, worship was about freedom. People would often walk around, dance around, sometimes even run around the church, just completely uninhibited and open to how the Spirit was moving. Their worship was powerful and once you got in it, you just had to go with the flow. Once everyone in the congregation was jumping and dancing, you could not help but jump and dance, too, and just feel like a joyful child in the presence of the Lord.
In Europe, worship was about the words we were singing. In Romania, they would sing traditional songs and hymns that declared the simple truths of the gospel, and we would meditate on the words we were singing and on the weight of truth written in all of those words.
So, of all of those ways to worship, which way is right? At my church at home, our worship is a lot more like Romania. We stand up and sing our hymns, sometimes we sing a contemporary song, but we pretty much just sing the songs. Should we be worshipping more like in Africa? Should we be jumping up and down for an hour or praise songs? Or should we be shouting our the praises of the Lord as loud as we can? Or should we just sit in a circle and take turns leading songs as a community of believers? Is there a right way to worship? What should we do?
I John 4, Jesus is speaking to a Samaritan woman, and she asks Him a question very similar to this. In verse 20, she seeks to clarify some confusion about where it is right to worship the Lord. She asks if she should worship on the mountain of her ancestors, or if she should worship in Jerusalem, which is where the Jews said to worship. Then Jesus responds in the next verses saying “Woman… believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem… Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.”
Jesus says that the only requirement for being a true worshipper of the Lord is to worship in Spirit and in truth. But what does that mean? That’s pretty vague, dude. I’m gonna need a little more direction than that. Can I raise my hands? Can I sing Hillsong? Do I have to stand? Well, I believe there is a reason He is vague, because it doesn’t matter so much what you do physically, but where your heart is. So this is how you can check your heart in worship:
Am I worshipping in Spirit?
- Am I present in this moment of worship? Or am I distracted by my surroundings or my own thoughts?
- Am I in tune with what God is doing? Am I crying out to the Father, or am I just singing along to the words?
- Am I seeking the presence of God? Or am I guarding myself from what God wants to do in my heart?
Am I worshipping in Truth?
- Do I believe the words that are being sung? Or do I just like the sound of the music?
- Are the words I’m singing biblical? Or does it just sound like a nice story?
There’s ways to go right and wrong in worship no matter what you are doing. For some people, dancing around the church is worshipping in Spirit and Truth. They believe in what they are worshipping and are fully present in what God is doing. For someone else, simply sitting and meditating may be how they worship in Spirit and Truth. They are reflecting on the truth of the songs being sung around them and are praying and seeking the Lord through that meditation. There are so many ways to worship in Spirit and in Truth, and no one way is correct, but only you know your heart in worship, and you can’t judge anyone else’s worship based on how your own preferences.
In Ethiopia, my parents got to visit me on the field, and I lead a worship night with the group, and they got to be a part of that. Most of the racers stood up, had their hands up, and were singing at the top of their lungs. Some of the parents did that, too, but some were just sitting in their chairs. Some were singing along if they knew the songs, some were on their knees praying, and some just sat in their seats and watched us, taking everything in. While worshiping, I saw my parents sitting down and singing along. In my mind, I was wondering if they liked the songs or even liked the worship if they were sitting down. To me, that looked like they were checked out and weren’t fully engaged in the worship. But, after worship that night, I was talking to my dad and asked him what he thought about worship, and he said out of all of the worship services he had been to in his life, it was the first time he felt so overwhelmed by the Spirit that he just had to sit there and weep.
To me, it looked like he was checked out, but he was worshipping in Spirit and Truth.
Everyone has their own way of worshipping God, and that’s totally okay. Your heart is the most important thing when you worship, and as long as your heart is in the right place, whether that’s laying on the floor or running around the church, God delights in all of it, and that’s what’s important. That’s why we worship. God has given us EVERYTHING and He is worthy of ALL of the praises ALWAYS! He doesn’t care if we raise our hands. He just cares that He’s getting credit for His masterpiece. It doesn’t matter the language, the instruments you use or the genre of music. As long as you are praising God with your whole heart and your whole spirit, You’re giving Him what He deserves.
