"Christian worship speaks, sings, prays, and enacts the source of all created enjoyment in the divine life. What’s more, vital worship grants us a gift of our own life transformed in the promises of God. The mystery of our life hid with Christ in God is sounded and offered back to us in the praying, the singing, the elements of bread and wine, the water, the oil, and the laying on of hands." Don E. Saliers, Worship Come to Its Senses (1).

Motivational mega-marketer and behavioral-change guru Anthony Robbins (2) teaches that all of our motivations in life, the things we will and won’t do (with all of their corresponding rewards or punishments), are driven by the double-edged principle of pleasure and pain. In all of his books, seminars, and materials, he says in many different ways that we do what we think will bring us the most pleasure and that we go to great lengths to avoid those things that bring us the most pain. Robbins has often produced seemingly miraculous results in his clients and followers, in some cases instantaneous freedom from addictions or phobias, simply by associating enough pleasure with the things they thought would bring them pain (like diet and exercise), or by associating enough pain with things they thought most pleasurable (like eating non-nutritious foods).

Pleasure and pain are relative, at least to some degree, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that he’s really onto something – we humans really do seek what we think brings pleasure in every area of our lives and the fact that literally billions of dollars are spent each year just marketing pharmaceuticals to us is a pretty good indication that we want to skip as much suffering and pain as we can. Although Robbins’ teaching and methods are not Christ-centered, this principle actually echoes what Jesus said in Matthew 7:13, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it." Humans will pick pleasure just about every time over pain.

The fact that Christian worship is an actual discipline has seemingly escaped most present-day believers. Because we’ve done such an excellent job of reducing almost all expectations on our congregants to next-to-nothing, most churchgoers today feel no compulsion to actually enter in to corporate worship or practice it at home any time during the week. We’ve practically excused them from all responsibility for personal worship by offering such excellent music from the platform that it places no demands on group participation. As Michael Walters points out in Can’t Wait for Sunday: Leading Your Congregation in Authentic Worship (3), wrote, "When we worship God for who He is and what He has done, worship will prove transforming. Thus, the use of music in worship ought to be transformational. It ought to facilitate the discipleship and maturation of people in the faith. Liturgical music that merely entertains the crowd or showcases the skill of the musicians falls short of its intended purpose." I believe the reason that we’ve come to this point in many of our churches is because we’ve had too little understanding of the discipline and theology of worship, along with an understanding of its "intended purpose(s)" individually and corporately, and we’ve somehow allotted this understanding (discipline) to the pain column. As Robbins so aptly puts it, we avoid the "pain" of discipline, even as Christ’s devoted disciples (note that these have the same root, disciple and discipline). It’s in the discipline practiced over time that reaps the greatest benefit, as any aerobics instructor or personal trainer will tell you if your goal is to shed unwanted pounds. We miss the fruit of transforming worship in our lives because we only practice it for about twenty minutes once a week on Sunday mornings. My friend, Jean, says that "the Devil’s in the details". I say that "God is in the discipline."

Christ and His teachings were almost always counter-cultural and even counter-intuitive. He had a knack for shocking His listeners when He told them that they would have to "eat my flesh" and "drink my blood" in order to have eternal life (John 6:53). He told the disciples that they could walk on water, heal sick people, feed multitudes with a few bread crumbs and sardines, and that there existed a Father in heaven that had only been known up to that time as an unpronounceable tetragramatron, YHWH. Even though He used earthy metaphors in his stories like seed, dirt, and water, He often assigned new meanings to those simple things by re-associating them for his listeners (could this be where Robbins got his technique?). In the famous John 4 passage where He interacted with the Samaritan woman at the well, He re-associated the cool, clear artesian water in Jacob’s well (Bir Ya’qub) with a living stream that could be in her heart if she took one drink of what He offered to her. Jesus also re-assigned, or re-associated the stale rituals of the Hebrews, infusing them with new meaning as He fulfilled "all the law and the prophets" (John 1:45) before their very eyes. For them, through His actions and words, He re-worked the dead rituals of their religion into life-giving principles that affected everything from here to eternity. True worship is much more than re-associations, of course, but we all need a few of them along the way. Churches struggling with worship renewal often need to re-associate their historic traditions, holding onto what is good about them, while incorporating some forward movement for the sake of reaching current culture. People fear losing what has been dear to them in their traditions until they see that what is most valuable in those traditions can be effectively handed on to the next generation with a little updating. In the end, Christ’s aim is to redirect, re-associate, and realign our lives with His own through His completed work at Calvary and by the ongoing ministry of His Spirit in and with us. We are transformed as humans when we worship, spend time in the Word, experience great fellowship (koinonia), and live the disciplined life of devoted Christians. There is no separating the discipline and transformation, for it is the discipline that brings about the transformation. While many people (including me!) would love to sidestep the hard work of discipline in our lives, to be more like Christ means we practice the things He has proscribed as healthy and good. As Don Saliers said in the beginning quote, our lives are "given back to us" as we yield them to Him and worship Him in singing, praying, dancing, the elements of the table, and in all the balance of healthy Christian living – something even Tony Robbins could never do.

Heavenly Father, I pray that You would open my eyes to the areas of my life that need more guidance, instruction, and even discipline. I pray that I could be a more balanced, healthy, and effective Christian believer, able to bear witness of Your goodness and love in this earth. Let the ministry of Your word and Spirit be real to me now, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

1. Don E. Saliers, Worship Come To Its Senses – simply one of the best books out on worship right now

2. Michael Walters, Can’t Wait for Sunday: Leading Your Congregation in Authentic Worship – this is the book I should have written – I love this book and think every pastor and worship leader should read it!

© Copyright 2007 by John Chisum. All Rights Reserved. For reprints or other permissions contact Worship4Life with John Chisum at 251-414-5832.