Worship as a Lifestyle and Lifelong Service
- Cultural Compass
- Sep 24
- 6 min read
Contributor: Josh Bunnell
A Challenge IV graduate from my Classical Conversations community delivered her Senior Thesis on the topic of worship. She concluded her speech by encouraging the audience to surrender everything and give it all up to God:
“Do you have a life of worship, of worshiping your God? Do you have a habit of praising Him? And I want to encourage you that when you come to church, when you’re in congregation, to set aside everything else, to bow down yourself, your life… anything you can do, just bow it all down to God and just worship.”
It is an indisputable fact that God calls us to worship Him. Yet, people often disagree on how people should worship the Lord. Some prefer to adhere to age-old traditions, some love to shout out their praises in concert-style sessions, while others would rather sit outside in the grass and contemplate on the majesty of the Creator.
The truth is that all of these ways of worship are right, provided that they are done in sincerity of the soul and humility of the heart. As long as we worship God only, not the experience of worship itself, He will be pleased no matter how we choose to worship Him.
Worship According to the Scriptures
Before Christians try to determine what ways of worship feel most natural to them, they should first turn to the Scriptures to understand God’s expectations for worship. We know that the Lord said, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8, NIV). So, no matter what people’s occupations are as they work six days of the week, God consecrated the seventh day as a day to rest from work and worship Him.
The Scriptures also call believers to meet in church (Hebrews 10:25; NIV) and to continuously offer praises to God by the name of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 13:15; NIV). But how do we worship in church? How do we properly praise the Creator of the world and the Savior of our souls?
Most church services include a worship session in which the congregation sings psalms, hymns, or contemporary songs. Different denominations will prefer different genres of music by which to praise the Lord, but this time should be a point of Christ-like unity rather than division.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish each other with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” – Colossians 3:16 (NIV)
Frankly, God does not really care about the specific genres of the songs we sing; He only expects that in whatever we do and say we glorify Him.
Is There a Wrong Way to Worship?
The only wrong way to worship is to do it for any other reason than to worship God. Jesus warned, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1; NIV). That means that we are not going to put on a show to attract attention from others, nor should we perform rigid routines and utter specific prayers to boast about our feigned piety. Whatever we do, we do it for the Lord alone.
In other words, we should worship as if nobody except God is watching. Worship is not an excuse to be overly charismatic for the sake of getting human attention, but it is a time for Christians to show without shame that they have chosen to follow God and trust Him with all their heart. Once we see worship in this light, we can worship the Creator the way He created us to worship Him.
The Sacred Pathways
As Odyssey Leadership seeks to help students cultivate their relationship with God, the program illuminates several worship opportunities by which students can connect with the Lord. Although students never read the entirety of Sacred Pathways: Nine Ways to Connect with God by Gary Thomas, the program continuously refers to the principles and religious convictions expressed in that book.
We explore our Sacred Pathways not so much to know more about ourselves, but to know more about God. Students take a test in order to determine their Sacred Pathway, which could be one of the following: Learning, Sensationalism, Quiet Prayer, Nature, Caregiving, Social Activism, Traditionalism, Asceticism, and Enthusiasm.
For example, I scored the highest in Learning, for I feel that I am closest to God when I read His Word as well as external sources to learn more about the Creator and His relationship to mankind.
It is not a stretch to say that God created humans with more heterogeneity than with which He created the rest of the animal kingdom. While all animals are testaments to the Lord’s majesty and beauty, humans are the only species that can choose to worship the Creator and through a multitude of ways.
Although Thomas highlights nine pathways to worship, each pathway constitutes an infinite number of practices. To name just one example, Enthusiasm can constitute initiating conversations about Christ, shouting out praises to God, or even honking car horns to celebrate the sovereignty of Jesus (yes, I have heard people “Honk for Jesus” after reading this sign at an intersection).
“So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” - 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV)
As the Apostle Paul wrote, no matter how we worship God, we do it for nothing else than for the sake of worshiping Him.
Worship in Odyssey Leadership
When planning and preparing for the excursions of the Odyssey Leadership program, students serve on one of six jurisdictions, one of which is the Worship Team. Much work goes into selecting songs, recruiting instrument players, and practicing worship sessions, but the important thing to remember is to do it with a sincere and humble heart.
I volunteered as the piano player for three of the four excursions. One significant learning experience was when I realized that my heart was often consumed by a desire to make our worship time as excellent as possible. Through the urge to play the chords to perfection and obsessing over how to safely transport the piano between airports, I turned the experience into a chore rather than an opportunity to praise God.
It was not until I sat down with my fellow classmates and played the piano that I became comfortable with worshipping imperfectly. Besides, the worship was perfect as long as we did it for God. After the music sessions, we listened to prepared devotions from one of our mentors. As I listened to my classmates express their heartfelt convictions, I realized how much I needed to get outside my own head and praise the omnipresent Lord. These moments of communal worship moved me as much as they humbled me.
My main advice for Odyssey Leadership students in future Worship jurisdictions is to not worry when things appear to go wrong. If handled with humility and gratitude towards the almighty Lord, then the result will be even better than what was prepared.
One of my favorite memories in Odyssey was our last worship session in Destin, Florida. We were going to broadcast slideshows that a student had prepared before the excursion, but a technical issue prevented us from using the slideshows and restricted us to reading from the song’s lyrics on Google.
As we sang a song about abiding in Christ, the music cut off just before the end, but we did not stop singing. We sang as though the lyrics were engraved into our hearts, but the real reason we kept going was because our hearts yearned for Christ – and He was there, waiting for us to abide in Him.
Moments such as these forge strong bonds not only between fellow worshippers, but between worshippers and God.
Conclusion
Of course, the worship practices encouraged in the Odyssey are meant to be practiced outside the classroom, too. Students should experiment with the Sacred Pathways and find the ways by which they can worship God in all reverence and humility. Worship is a lifelong service to the Lord and a ceaseless celebration of the Creator, through whom all things are possible.
“We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.” – Romans 12:6-8 (NIV).
See Also
Felicity Dubs | Nexus Senior Thesis 2025 (uploaded to YouTube by Bradley Pac)
Sacred Pathways: Nine Ways to Connect with God by Gary Thomas
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