A Lifestyle of Worship

Worship as a LifestyleRichard Foster defines worship as “our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father.” Seen from this light, worship involves so much more than gathering in community once or twice a week. Worship encompasses our thoughts, attitudes and actions. It is expressed through treasuring God and surrendering to him as we seek to live in ways that honour him. It finds multiple expressions through the moments of our days as we live gratefully in his presence.

I love Angela’s painting. It reminds me of the beauty of receiving the embrace of the One who sees to the depths of our hearts and loves us still.

Let us awaken in the morning in His love, and offer ourselves to His love the whole day. This means follow the will of God and live under His eyes, with Him, in Him, and for Him alone.
And when the evening comes, after a dialogue of love which never stopped in our hearts, we will fall asleep in His love. Elisabeth of the Trinity

Workshops

Nurturing a Lifestyle of Worship

Since we are called to worship God with our whole lives, this workshop explores what that can look like. We gain inspiration from Scripture and spiritual writers and consider helps and hindrances to living out worship daily. Highly interactive and practical, the participants leave with an armful of ideas to apply to their life and ministry. More

Books and Links

  • The Way of a Worshiper – Buddy Owens  Buddy’s book on living life as an offering to God is now augmented with a study guide and a DVD. Excellent material for worship teams (or anyone else) who wants the whole of their life to breathe worship.
  • The Air I Breathe – Louis Giglio
    In his new book, Giglio explains how our sense of worship increases beyond the Sunday routine as all of life becomes our delighted response to God.
  • Windows of the Soul – Ken Gire
    A beautiful read, Ken Gire captures the essence of seeing God in our everyday moments. Creative and inspiring, I come back to this book time and again.

Deeper Devotion

Deeper Devotion is dedicated to helping individuals and churches go deeper with God. It brings together spiritual formation and worship arts, two areas which are vital to Christian life and community. The meditations and articles are offered here to encourage you spiritually. Workshop descriptions present equipping opportunities for your community. More

Articles

Duty & Devotion

David Timms is a professor at Hope University in California. I met him 5 years ago and have subscribed to his weekly e-letter ever since. He is an ever thoughtful writer who speaks pastorally and prophetically to leaders in our culture. Here’s a recent article that especially resonates with me.

“Apart from love, obedience is simply an act of obligation.
As a response to love, duty becomes an act of devotion.”
David Benner, Surrender to Love, p.64.

Occasionally I see fully devoted followers of Christ. Occasionally I am one. Just occasionally.

It’s not that I don’t read Scripture, pray, attend church services, give, serve others, and even preach and teach. It’s that I don’t love—not sufficiently, not consistently, not deeply, not unreservedly, yet. And love forms the foundation for true devotion.

It’s relatively easy to structure my life around duty. I’ve spent my lifetime working hard to meet the expectations of others. Those of us who struggle to say “No” place high importance on the opinions and approval of others. We do our duty to receive their admiration.

But “fully devoted” and “deeply dutiful” reflect different sources.

As Jesus faced the journey toward Jerusalem, He did so out of devotion not duty. He faced His approaching death not from obligation—some divine plan that must be accomplished, no questions asked—but because He loved so deeply; His Father, us. He did not endure More »

Additional Articles

A Lifestyle of Worship