Should We Worship The Spirit?

Posted by Al Gordon on 12 September 2011 | 7 Comments

Is it right to worship the Holy Spirit? With 'Spirit Break Out' being released this month, a question we get a lot is whether we should worship the Holy Spirit? Isn't the Spirit's role to point away from himself and bring glory to the Father and the Son? If you've ever wondered about this, you'll be pleased to hear you're in good company.

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Seven Questions for you!

Posted by Al Gordon on 4 March 2011 | 2 Comments

I just did a little interview for a friend's blog, where he asked seven questions. It was quite fun, so I'd love to ask you the same questions... Answer below and pass on to the WC peeps! Here are the questions for you to answer, just copy and paste your replies below, and pass on!

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Should we worship the Holy Spirit?

Posted by Al Gordon on 12 January 2011 | 4 Comments

Isn't the Spirit's role to point away from himself and bring glory to the Father and the Son? If you've ever wondered about this, you'll be pleased to hear you're in good company! We sing lots of songs that worship Jesus, glorify the Father, but few that worship the Spirit. There's a sense that the Spirit is somehow less the focus of our worship? Is it right to worship the Spirit? Or are we getting sidetracked? It's one of the oldest questions that the church has wrestled with through the ages. I have been reading recently about how in the days of the early church, some tried to argue that the Spirit was not supposed to be worshipped. In response, one of the giants of the first few centuries of Christianity, Basil the Great, wrote an amazing work called "On the Holy Spirit" 375 AD that sounded loud and clear with the message that the Spirit is fully God. Basil says that the Spirit is more than some divine access point, rather the Spirit is the starting place of our worship, writing, "If you remain outside the Spirit, you will not be able to worship at all." So important was the divinity of the Spirit, and the place of the Spirit as equally God with the Father and the Son, that in 381AD the great leaders of the church got together an put out a kind of press release, The Creed of Constantinople, as a way of tying down what we believe. They wrote that we believe "in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life... who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified..." The Holy Spirit is to be worshiped and glorified, because he is God. To deny that is to create a false hierarchy in the Trinity. So, I feel challenged not to forget the Spirit. He has been worshipped through the ages of the church, in our prayers, our hymns, our lives. The Holy Spirit is fully God, and therefore to be worshipped with the Father and the Son. I also feel challenged to not reduce the Spirit as the vehicle to get to the Father, but as the destination of my hearts affection, the one who leads me to intimacy with the Father and Jesus. So, songwriters, worship leaders, creatives, planners, speakers, prayers... Praise the Father, the Son and don't forget to praise the Holy Spirit. Here are some cool things on the Holy Spirit: An ancient prayer (might inspire some stuff...) Come, true light.
 Come, life eternal.
 Come, hidden mystery.
 Come, treasure without name. Come, reality beyond all words.
 Come, person beyond all understanding.
 Come, rejoicing without end.
 Come, light that knows no evening. Come, unfailing expectation of the saved.
 Come, raising of the fallen. 
Come, resurrection of the dead.
 Come, all-powerful, for unceasingly you create, refashion and change all things by your will alone. Come, for your name fills our hearts with longing, and is ever on our lips.
 Come, for you are yourself the desire that is within me.
 Come, my breath and my life.
Come, the consolation of my humble soul. Come, my joy, my glory, my endless delight. - St Symeon the New Theologian (C10th) Here is an ancient hymn to the Holy Spirit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veni_Creator_Spiritus Basil's 'Treatise on the Holy Spirit' is on Amazon, and there's also a great book coming out soon by Graham Tomlin on the Holy Spirit. Over to you... What do you think? www.worshipcentral.org

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How Do You Define Worship?

Posted by Al Gordon on 12 May 2010 | 0 Comments

Defining worship is a bit of a tricky one. I recently watched a documentary about Turner, the great impressionist painter, who was famous for the way he captured light. Turner was a master at painting the unpaintable, working in theopen air, often in dodgy weather. He used to work furiously fast, so that he'd capture the changes in the light, landscape and sea as they happened. The TV presenter, an artist in their own right, set out to try and paint like Turner one afternoon, but found that as they began to paint the light, the sea, the sky, they could not begin to do justice to what they were encountering. The sky was simply too massive and luminous, the sea too powerful and textured... it was almost impossible to capture them on a simple canvas. When we try and define worship, we often find ourselves in the same position. Worship is such a vast concept that no one definition can contain it. Instead, I find I end up collecting little quotes and ideas that give me glimpses of the incredible, dynamic adventure that we call worship. Here are a few definitions, but I'd love to hear your favourites too, so please add your own below: A definition we've been using a bit with Worship Central is: “Worship is the total alignment of our heart, soul, mind and strength with the will of God. It is our whole-hearted response to God’s extravagant love and mercy.” I also love Roman's 12's all-encompassing "offer your bodies as a living sacrifice" Then these are few I've heard again recently that I think are great... “To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.” (William Temple) "Worship is a deliberate and disciplined adventure in reality." (Willard Sperry) And for something a bit different, an Eastern Orthodox perspective: "Christian worship is the response of men to the Divine call, to the 'mighty deeds' of God, culminating in the redemptive act of Christ." (George Florovsky) Basically, it's all about Jesus... "Worship is not primarily man's initiative but God's redeeming act in Christ through his Spirit." (Nikos A. Nissiotis) Basically, it's not about us, it's all about Jesus...

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