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Excuse me for a minute. I may begin to rant.

On Sunday morning we talked about our value of Worshiping God. What I didn't talk about on Sunday was music. As a musician and church music leader for many years one of my pet peeves has been calling our music time in churches "our worship time". Or even more frustrating, limiting "worship" to one variety or style of music.

Let me put this as plainly as I can. Worship does not equal music. Music, even "Christian" music, does not equal worship.

Sometimes when talked about this and people have dismissed my concern as being insignificant and suggest that because music can be a form of worship, that our choice of language doesn't really matter. I suggest it does matter for a couple of reasons.

First, to automatically call our music "worship" is to imply that form, function, or content is what makes something worship. We tend to call something "Worship" music if it has the right formula in the lyrics that say nice sounding things about God, or has a melody that allows our voices to soar with emotion at just the right spots, or has a rhythm that gets us excited and dangerously close to dancing. But Jesus makes it clear that none of those things are what makes something worship. What makes something worship - even musically - is the heart and spirit behind it.

A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. (Jesus)

We can do all the right things musically and have no heart of worship behind it. In that case no amount of "worship" music is true worship. Conversely, we could fumble and fail musically . . . or have no music at all . . . and be at a place of true worship of God.

Matt Redman, a popular congragational song composer who was at the forefront of the contemporary "worship" (church music) movement, wrote a song called Heart of Worship. It came out of a local church experience in which the cutting edge band and lights and music were done at an amazingly high quality. What their local church was doing was being copied by churches around the world. But the pastor saw that the heart behind it was lost. They scrapped it all - the band, the music, the projectors, the lights. The church gathered in a different room around tables with nothing more than their Bibles. It was awkward at first because without the show they didn't know what to do. But they kept at it. Slowly, but surely, God recalibrated their hearts to a place of true worship. When they sang, they did so with the right spirit. Eventually the band and projectors came back, but Redman said, "Now it was different. The songs of our hearts had caught up with the songs of our lips."

I pray that our music is worship. But if it is, it isn't because of the sound, style, or even the lyrics. It will be worship because of our heart.

The second reason I don't like calling music our worship is because it subtly demeans other things. If our music is our worship, is our giving not worship? Is our listening to scripture not worship? Is our time of prayer, or encouraging each other in conversation, or participating in communion not worship? When we refer our music our worship, we certainly suggest that this is true. But it isn't. All of life is worship.

Because worship is an expression of the heart we can, and should, worship in all kinds of ways and places. Doing our best in our workplace with the right heart is an expression of worship. Baking and/or enjoying a great meal can be worship. Eric Liddell, a missionary to China who died in a Japanese internment camp in 1945, was most famous for his speed. He won 400 m gold and 200 m bronze medals at the 1924 Olympics in Paris and he deferred his departure to China as a missionary in order to run. The movie Chariots of Fire made famous his quote, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast! And when I run I feel his pleasure." Liddell knew that running, if done with the right heart, could be just as much worship as travelling half way around the world as a missionary.

If you refer to our music time at church our "worship time" I probably won't say anything. It is such a common part of Christian language that I don't think I'll change it. In fact, I hope that our music at church is worship! But I pray we will never limit our worship to songs we sing or even our gathering together. May we, every day and in all we do, worship God in Spirit and truth!