Christmas Gift Guide
Christmas Gift Guide
We Must Reframe Our Concept of Joy in Worship
Worship Is Participation
The root word for joy is actually the word for grace. I think we often view joy as something that just sort of happens to us and we have no control over it. So if I leave a worship service and say, “Oh, that was so joyful for me,” it’s usually just, I felt good. The music was the music I like. The coffee was great that day. I was in a good mood. But that’s not joy in the biblical sense.
Spirit-Filled Singing
Ryanne J. Molinari
Drawing from Galatians 5, Spirit-Filled Singing provides a biblical framework for intentional worship, exploring how singing and the fruit of the Spirit both work to glorify God and edify his church.
Throughout Scripture, joy is inextricable from the grace of God. The grace of God doesn’t waver, change, or fluctuate with our feelings. So when we approach worship and we hope to experience joy, we have to reframe our concept of joy and not think of it as a feeling but as this heart posture of constantly tuning ourselves to the grace of God in Christ, constantly reminding us of the gospel story, constantly dwelling on God’s goodness to us and giving thanks.
And in this we find that rejoicing is actually what we’re doing. We are not gathering for worship to feel joy. We are gathering to actively participate in rejoicing—continually retelling ourselves the story of grace. And in this way, we actually get to the root of joy and we find a more enduring joy—a joy that is sufficient and stable no matter what we are going through.
Ryanne J. Molinari is the author of Spirit-Filled Singing: Bearing Fruit as We Worship Together.
Related Articles
7 Suggestions for When You’re Struggling to Worship Joyfully
We will not always brim over with delight on Sunday mornings. So, what are we to do when we find ourselves worshiping without joy?
How to Cultivate True Encouragement and Kindness as a Worship Leader
While society means that we must accept ourselves and cut ourselves slack, Christian kindness requires self-reflection and reliance on God’s kindness to us.
Podcast: Singing Is for Everyone and Every Day (Kristyn Getty)
Kristyn Getty talks about how singing together as a family gives children songs they will carry with them through their whole lives.
Podcast: What Worship in the Church Is Actually About (Ryanne Molinari)
Ryanne Molinari addresses how music shapes what we want, what we think about, and how we do things, and how this plays into the importance of the way worship is done in the church.
