WHAT IS WORSHIP? (Part 1): Why and Who

WHAT IS WORSHIP? (Part 1): Why and Who
Vernon M. Whaley
July 22, 2026

If we're honest, those of us who serve as worship pastors sometimes become so occupied with planning services, selecting songs, rehearsing musicians, and leading congregations that we forget to pause and ask the most important question of all:
What is worship?
Not, What songs should we sing?
Not, What style best fits our congregation?
Not even, How should we structure our services?
Those are important questions, but they are not the first questions.
The deeper questions are these:

Why do we worship?

Who do we worship?

Until those questions are settled, everything else is merely methodology.
Over the years, I've discovered that whenever worship loses its wonder, it is usually because I've stopped asking those questions. I become preoccupied with leading worship while quietly neglecting the heart of worship.

Perhaps you've been there too.

Maybe you're a worship pastor preparing for another Sunday. Maybe you're a pastor planning next week's sermon. Or perhaps you're simply a follower of Christ who longs for worship to become more than something you experience for an hour each week.

Wherever you find yourself, my prayer is that these next few moments will help us return to the One who alone is worthy of our worship.

David's prayer in Psalm 86 provides a beautiful place to begin. Before he speaks of praise, he prays, "Teach me Your way, O Lord... Unite my heart to fear Your name." Worship begins with a heart that has been united around God Himself.

Before we explore what worship is or how we worship in the next article, we must first answer two foundational questions: Why do we worship? and Who do we worship? Everything else grows from there.

I. Created for Worship - Why We Worship
The answer to why begins long before the first hymn was ever sung. It begins in Genesis. When God formed Adam from the dust of the earth, He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). Humanity was never intended to exist merely as physical beings. God created us as spiritual beings with the capacity to know Him, love Him, and enjoy fellowship with Him.

The New Testament often uses the Greek word pneuma to describe the human spirit. While God alone is Spirit in His eternal nature, He graciously created us with a spirit capable of responding to Him.

Dallas Willard observed that the human spirit is "the deepest part of the human self," the center of our personhood from which our lives are directed and formed.¹ Worship, therefore, begins much deeper than music. It begins deeper than emotion. It begins deeper than religious activity. It begins in the spirit God Himself created.

I have often said that worship is part of our spiritual DNA. God has woven worship into the very fabric of our being. We do not learn to become worshipers; we are created as worshipers. The question is never whether we will worship. The question is always whom—or what—we will worship.

That explains why every culture throughout history has worshiped something. Humanity cannot escape its God-given desire to worship. Even those who reject the true God inevitably give their devotion to something else - success, pleasure, power, possessions, relationships, or self - these become idols. As Paul reminds us in Romans 1, sinful humanity exchanges "the truth of God for the lie" and worships the creation rather than the Creator.

We were created for more than that. We were created for Him. Yet something happened. Sin entered God's perfect creation. While our capacity for worship remained, our fellowship with God was broken. Humanity's desire to worship did not disappear—it was simply redirected.

So how does God restore our hearts to Himself?

That brings us to our second question.

II. Called by Truth - How God Awakens Our Worship
The gospel is far more than God's answer to our sin. It is God's invitation to restored worship. Left to ourselves, we do not naturally seek the true God. We worship created things rather than the Creator. We may be deeply religious, emotionally sincere, or morally committed, but apart from God's gracious initiative, we cannot worship Him as He desires.

Jesus made that wonderfully clear when He told the woman at the well, "The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth" (John 4:23). Notice those two words: spirit and truth. Worship is neither emotional enthusiasm without biblical truth nor intellectual knowledge without spiritual life. Genuine worship is born when the Holy Spirit awakens the human spirit through the truth of God's Word.

I appreciate the way Ronald E. Hawkins explains this reality:

" Worship is the normal response of a person in whom the lamp of the human spirit has been brightened by the witness ministry of the Holy Spirit in the human Spirit. This same Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth found in the word of God and creates a heightened desire for obedience to that truth. The outcome of this witness is enhanced understanding of all things spiritual, the brightening of the light within the human spirit and an outflow of worship."²

What a beautiful description of God's grace. The Holy Spirit awakens our spirit. The Scriptures illuminate our minds. Christ captures our hearts. And worship begins.

Job anticipated this truth centuries earlier when he wrote, "There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding" (Job 32:8).

The Holy Spirit not only gives us life; He gives us light. He opens our eyes to see the beauty of Christ. He opens our minds to understand God's truth. He opens our hearts to respond in faith, gratitude, obedience, and praise.

This is why authentic worship is always a response. God reveals Himself. We respond. God speaks. We listen. God loves. We adore. Everything about biblical worship begins with God's gracious initiative.

III. Centered on Christ - Who We Worship
Once we understand why we worship and how God awakens worship, one final question remains. Who do we worship? The answer is beautifully simple. We worship the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christian worship is not directed toward an idea, a philosophy, a tradition, or even an experience. It is communion with the living God revealed in Jesus Christ. One of the great temptations in worship ministry is that we become so occupied with worship that we unintentionally lose sight of the One we have come to worship. Music matters. Excellence matters. Preparation matters. Creativity matters. But Christ matters infinitely more.

Every song should point to Him. Every prayer should exalt Him. Every sermon should proclaim Him. Every act of service should reflect Him. Everything we do in worship finds its meaning in Jesus Christ.

The Father seeks worshipers. The Son makes worship possible through His saving work. The Holy Spirit enables us to worship in spirit and in truth. Christian worship is, from beginning to end, the gracious work of the Triune God.

Before we ask what worship is...

Before we ask how we worship...

We must first settle why we worship and whom we worship.

We worship because God created us for Himself.  We worship because His Spirit awakens our spirit through His truth.  We worship because Jesus Christ alone is worthy. Everything else grows from there.

In our next article, we'll build upon this foundation by exploring the next question:
What is worship?

1. Dallas Willard. Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2002), 53.
2. Michael Neale and Vernon M. Whaley. The Way of Worship (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 62.