Theses on Worship: Part II

Here are three more of Jim Jordan's Theses for the Reformation of Worship.

1. Worship is a command performance.
"Worship is service rendered to God.  It is a public, ritual affirmation of the primacy of God.  We are the dancers and He is the audience. The world of unbeliever is not the audience, and their opinions of what we are doing should not carry the slightest weight...Since worship is a command performance, it is done at His command. We have been summoned by the King of kings.  To stay away from worship without good reason is to spit in the face of God...Since worship is a command performance, it is to be done under God's rules."

2. Worship is family time.
"Worship is when God's family draw near to Him...since (ideally) unbelievers should not be in the meeting at all, there should never, ever be a 'word to the lost'...Exhortations in worship should be addressed only to believers...The Church should host other occasions for evangelism and open fellowship, but worship is not one of those times...What unbelievers think about our music, our dance, our culture, etc. should play absolutely no part whatsoever in our worship culture.  Their opinions count for nothing."

3.  Worship should be beautiful.
"We are called together to glorify and honor God.  Glory in the Bible is always associated with beauty...Glorifying God means offering our best to Him, not the easiest and not the most familiar...We should first use the resources of Christian tradition in God's worship, not the latest fads of popular heathen culture.  The Spirit has guided the Church for 2000 years. The tradition is not absolute, but it is our heritage all the same...The tradition of the Church is the believer's first culture and his national culture is secondary."