"Worship: Noun or Verb?"

"Worship:  Noun or Verb?"

By:  KC Knippa

“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 worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”  John 4:23-24

In the next few weeks and months, I will be writing a series of articles on the topic of worship.  These upcoming articles are more for me, the writer, than it will be for you the reader… a way for me to dive more deeply and wrestle with the thoughts of what worship truly is (and for that matter, what it isn’t!).  As I take this journey, I encourage you to join me in this dialog and conversation on worship; learning not only what God says though scripture, but also learning from one another.

I think it is only appropriate that we begin with the question, “What is worship?”  If you look in a variety of sources, one thing becomes clear; worship can be summed up in two ways… as a noun (a place or time of devoted service) or as a verb (an action).  But, which form of worship is right?

Let’s stop right here.  If we are already asking ourselves this question, it is doing us a disservice.  Because of our western thinking and culture, we want to immediately see things as either/or, right/wrong, or black/white.  But the answer is that both forms of worship are important and needed… but, one form does take precedence over the other.

If we look in scripture we see that in the hundreds of times that the word ‘worship’ is used, one thing becomes clear;  worship is overwhelmingly used as a verb.  In fact, worship is only used as a noun a handful of times.  But, what is the difference?  What does it really mean to view worship as either a verb or noun?

The way I like to see it is based on our focus.  Worship is based on an action, an experience… it is meant to be active.  Worship is where man and God meet and lives are transformed.  Worship is not accomplished by great pastors, good music, or even a well decorated space… it starts with the Spirit working through us to give praise and adoration to the One who is worthy.  Truth is, worship begins long before we ever enter our worship space.  However, this worship (verb) can happen when we come to worship (noun), but it does not stop there.  One of my favorite verses (Romans 12:1) puts it like this;

“…Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship.”

This means that true worship must go beyond the noun.  Worship is what we do through our very lives; living and praising God in all that we do.  It is only when we get the verb of worship right that the noun of worship even begins to matter.

Simply put, we need to get worship (verb) right in order to get worship (noun) right… not the other way around.

- KC