The great pastor, A.W.Tozer wrote in his book “Whatever Happened to Worship” the following. “We are brought to God and to faith and to salvation that we might worship and adore Him…Yes, worship of the loving God is man’s whole reason for existence. That is why we are born and that is why we are born again from above. That is why we were created and that is why we have been recreated. That is why there is a genesis at the beginning, and that is why there is a regenesis, called regeneration. That is also why there is a church. The Christian church exists to worship God first of all. Everything else must come second or third or fourth or fifth.” If we believe as Tozer said, that the church exists to worship God first of all, then we better give our corporate worship a serious look as we think about what it means to be a healthy church.

So I thought it would be fun to bring together a group of 3 pastors and worship leaders to talk about this critical issue. Jordan Herrera is worship and group life pastor at Grace River church in St. Louis Missouri. Michelle Albrecht is worship director at Northbridge church in Antioch IL, where her husband Mark is pastor. And Abram Delgado is pastor of Casa De Oracion in Round Lake IL. All three of these leaders understand worship and lead their congregations into God’s presence in ways that bring Him honor and glory.

• What is worship? What isn’t worship? Definition
• Years ago, when someone said that worship was great, they were talking about how good the message was. Today, when someone says worship is great, they are most often talking about music. I’m pretty sure neither of those statements are correct. How do you push against the “Music IS worship” fallacy at your church?
• John 4 speaks of worship as spirit (engaging our whole selves) and truth (based on scripture). That doesn’t give a whole lot of specific direction as to format. How do you agressively seek God’s presence in worship without getting into performance mode, or emotionalism, etc.? How do you keep yourselves from falling into these types of traps?