B I B L I O N - A C H R I S T I A N B OO K M AG A Z I N E
the other attendees in singing and
celebration, in that little window of
church service time we are given to
praise God. Of course I wish I hadn’t
given that reckless answer when I
was reminded of who truly was our
“audience” – God. Paraphrasing the
words of Kierkegaard, the worship
leader made me see how the whole
church unites to praise the Lord –
those who sit round the stage are as
much part of the celebration as those
who stand on the stage. It is a simple
concept that is very easily ignored
when we get carried away by the
subtle narcissism of our times.
This is the reason why Manuel
Luz’s work couldn’t come at a better
time. The American worship leader
shares his experiences and speaks
of his definition of honest worship.
To Luz, worship is not merely an
action, but a continuous attitude that
requires humility and faith in an age
of pride and skepticism. Its message
of both transparency and consistency
applies to every believer who seeks
a strong, g enuine relationship with
God, and it transcends doctrines, de-
nominations, and established forms
of worship in church services.
Manuel Luz reflects on the hu-
man being’s unique nature to show
how important the true, authentic
worship promoted by his work really
is: a human being made in the image
of his Creator seeks to express him-
self in creative ways, and worship is
no exception – if there is something
that the diversity in worship found
across the denominations proves is
the capacity of the body of Christ
to imagine and innovate. However,
human nature’s corruption by the
sin of pride is an obstacle almost
unavoidable to honest worship, since
we easily seek our own glorification
when we should seek to glorify the
only being worthy of praise. This
pride takes root in an even deeper
and inconspicuous way in our indivi-
dualistic culture, where appearances
wherever , whenever
BiblionApp • www.biblion.pt
www.biblion.pt 21