LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND WORSHIP ART
THINGS TO REMEMBER 1
Submitted to Dr. Rodney D. Whaley
in partial fulfillment for the completion of
WRSP 502-B01
History and Philosophy of Worship
by
Thang Piang
Jesus is the focal point to our worship. He is also the focal point of redemption,
resurrection, eternal life, and for fellowship with God. He fulfilled the Old Testament sacrifice
through His sacrifice on the cross. And He is the fulfillment of worship. The apostle Peter was
one of the greatest commission worshippers in history. Moreover, he was among the most
popular biblical characters and one of the greatest stories of a changed and transformed life in the
Bible. The apostle Paul was one of the most influential teachers of mankind. He was a Pharisee
(Php. 3:5-6). Therefore, he was highly educated in that time period. He was a student of the
Scriptures and knew them well. He was a skillful writer; he wrote 13 epistles which are 13 books
in the New Testament. Also, he was debater and public speaker. In the Gospel of Mark, the
apostle John appears as a Son of Thunder (Mark 3:17). This surname, given to him and to his
elder brother (James) by Jesus, was undoubtedly an epithet of honor and foreshadowed his future
mission, like the name Peter given to Simon. James was the older of the two apostle sons of
Zebedee, he and his brother John enjoyed the advantage of having known Jesus longer than any
of the other apostles. He was modest and undramatic. Joshua ben Joseph states, “James lived his
life to the full, and when the end came, he bore himself with such grace and fortitude that even
his accuser and informer, who attended his trial and execution, was so touch that he rushed away
from the scene of James’s death to join himself to the disciples of Jesus.”1
Apostle Peter and Paul left us one of the greatest legacies which is the example of a Great
Commission Worshipper that we can apply to our lives today. According to Vernon Whaley,
“Worship is formational, transformational, relational, missional, and reproducible.”2 Our worship
must be formational which means that it shapes us as fully devoted Jesus. Next our worship must
be transformational which mean that it changes us from old to new and dead to living. And our
1 Joshua ben Joseph, The Life and Teaching of Jesus (Scotts Valley: CreateSpace Independent Publishing
Platform, 2010), 1553
2 Elmer L. Towns and Vernon M. Whaley, Worship Through the Ages (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group,
2012), 12, ProQuest eBook Central.
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worship must be relational which means that our worship would be upward to God as well as it
would impact other people in our life. After that our worship must be missional which means that
our worship should impact and influence not only believers but also lost people as Peter, Paul
and other Apostles brings the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Last our worship must be
reproducible which means that it is motivating us to teach and train others to worship in spirit
and in truth. In other words, we need to mentor and nurture new believers to become disciple
maker.
Furthermore, all apostles and early believers or Christians showed us patterns of worship
that we can apply today as well. First, we have to be persistent in worship through prayer as they
were in the upper room. Next, we have to be consistent in worship through prayer with generous
heart and humanity as we see in Acts 2:42-47. Then, we have to have a private worship through
prayer just as Peter (Acts 10:9). We have to spend a regular time alone with God, we have to sit
at His feet and listen to Him before we go out.
Bibliography
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