Worship as Missions

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.”

I love this quote from John Piper's book Let the Nations Be Glad. I first heard Steve Hawthorne teach on it when I took the Perspectives course in 1996, and since then, it’s been central to my thinking about both of those subjects – worship and missions. The phrase that really resonated with me is this: “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”

You may be thinking - could that really be true? We have awesome worship at our church every Sunday. And, while that’s one aspect of worship, I don’t think that’s what Piper is referring to in this statement. I think that he is referring to an attitude of worship – a lifestyle of worship – that is lived out every day and in every aspect of our lives.

God created us for His glory (Isaiah 43:6-7), and His greatest desire – His end goal, if you will - is for every tribe, tongue, and nation to glorify His name. He even says in Isaiah 48:11 that He will not yield His glory to another. When He is glorified – when His name is lifted up – He will draw all men to Him. It is our responsibility as His representatives here on earth to insure that His name is glorified. That’s where worship meets missions. While we may excel at worshipping Him inside the walls of a church building on Sunday morning, are we living a life on Monday through Saturday that glorifies Him in such a way that men and women are drawn to Him as a result? I know that I fall short many times and in many ways.

Through our worship, we can have a part in drawing others to worship Him, so that serves to make us all missionaries. Our job, then, is to keep worshipping Him with our hearts and our lives, in spirit and in truth – sharing the story of His glory through our words and our lives - until the day finally comes when ALL peoples are united in worshipping Him.

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14