Worship Music

There are several categories of worship (choose one below) and praise music in these pages. The links to the right lead to pages of each category.

Personal Worship Philosophy

Worship is not just the formal event that we most commonly refer to.  A specific time-frame in a specific church with my friends and family, to worship in an organized and formal way, corporately, would be the usual definition.  We can talk about that in the next section, as corporate worship.

Although I subscribe to, and even encourage involvement in group or corporate worship, and I have been a worship leader for 30 plus years - my "personal worship philosophy" is a lot simpler. 

I am simply and completely grateful.  The longer I live the simpler it becomes.  All the complexities fade away.  The needs are changing faster than I can keep up with.  All the things that used to matter don’t seem to matter quite as much, and the things I have been blessed with are the things that I notice more and more.
So, I am grateful.  To God, and I want to express it somehow.  With my words.  With my song.  With my breathing.  With my eyes that settle on an unbelievably beautiful sunset, that I wouldn’t have noticed before because I was so busy.  For family that I have neglected far more times than I would like to admit, for children I have sometimes missed the growth periods and change as they progress towards being adults.
Grateful to God for all the things I have taken for granted.  Grateful for the chance to stop and notice.

So I stop and notice.  Worship for me, involves stopping and noticing and taking it in, and voicing my gratitude.  Praying, singing, sighing, breathing, moaning, celebrating . . . noticing. There is another ingrediant - living. Living my life. Everything we do, when done with an attitude of worship, is [part of our worship.

So worship can be formal, with prayer and singing hymns songs, whatever, or it can be that moment where I just notice something that God has done. That God is incredible, and He has done this thing I just noticed, and I loved it, and I want Him to know that I noticed and am grateful.

I know it’s simple, and straight forward, but it’s what I have.

Corporate Worship Philosophy

So now, corporate worship. That should start with a bunch of stuff about theology, The Holy Trinity, Three in One God, like the famous oil, God's Sovereignty, God’s Holiness, and perfectness and the Lordship of Jesus Christ or Christology. That and a lot of other things, but I think there are plenty of more qualified people to discuss all of the theological aspects of valid worship, I think I will just talk about what I know to be true, and leave the negotiable things that I’m not so clear on to the experts.

As the thief on the cross knew (and it was enough for him to be saved): Jesus is who he said He was.

So, here is the theological part for me . . .

1. Jesus is Lord
2. God is God
3. I’m His
4. I’ll have to trust Him for the rest.

So corporate worship for now, can also be quite simple. You can join churches that will make it as complicated as you like but for me this is it. Worship is for God, about God, in God’s presence, needs to please God, glorify God, reflect God, amplify God, show God how we love, think, and care about Him.

Worship, as a side benefit, should also be so contagious that it both instructs others as to these very things about God, and inspires others to join us in this celebration of God.

Beyond that the rest can wait.