Preaching as Worship

Growing up, my local church provided a weekly overview of the service in a bulletin insert. On the schedule, we would have a “call to worship,” a time of worship (singing), and the tithes and offerings were referred to as an act of worship. Even the genre of music that we would sing was called worship music! Almost everything in the service was referred to as a form of worship except for preaching.

To be clear, I don’t know of any Christian who would argue that preaching is not worship. Still, I want to caution us to be careful in our language when we refer to everything in our services as worship other than preaching, which is the high point of our worship. Hughes Oliphant Old argues, “Preaching is worship because it is the Word of God that is being preached.”¹ Allowing your people to hear from God is the highest form of worship.

A Biblical Example

Nehemiah 8 provides a helpful example for preaching as worship. As the church gathers together for this first recorded worship service after the return post-exile, the proclamation of the Word of God remains front and center. Multiple times in the text, the author emphasizes that the Bible is preached so that the people can understand (Neh 8:2, 3, 8, 12). Furthermore, everything that is done as worship in the following chapters results from the preached Word. The people respond in conviction (8:9), celebration (8:12), confession (9:2), and commitment (9:38). Each response of worship can be traced directly to the preached Word. The Bible remains front and center, guiding even the application of the people as they respond in worship.

Worship for the Preacher

How can you and I cultivate a sense of worship in our preaching? Let me suggest two practical ways.

1. Worship in your preparation: In his Between Two Worlds, John Stott uses the analogy of bridge-building to describe the work of the pastor. He says that, on either side of the bride, there is the Word and the world, and a preacher must be familiar with both in order to be effective. Commenting on the Word side of the bridge, he writes, “The higher our view of the Bible, the more painstaking and conscientious our study of it should be. If this book is indeed the Word of God, then away with slovenly, slipshod exegesis! We have to make time to penetrate the text until it yields up its treasures.”² Will you commit to viewing even your preparation time as an act of worship?
2. Worship in your declaration: Bob Kauflin writes, “Magnifying God’s greatness begins with the proclamation of objective, biblical truths about God, but it ends with the expression of deep and holy affections toward God.”³ In other words, worship happens when facts about God’s character and works move from our head to our heart. This is what our preaching is meant to do! We, and our people, should feel as if we are in the very presence of God, not just when we sing together, but when we hear His Word proclaimed as well.

Pastors, we have the responsibility to teach our people the importance of preaching through the way we prepare and declare the message. Let us take care in the way that we refer to preaching so that it is not seen as a “pause” in our services while the fellowship, singing, and giving are all seen as worship. Preaching, from our study to the pulpit, is a process of worship.

¹Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures In the Worship of the Christian Church, Vol. 6, 344.

²John Stott, Between Two Worlds, 182.

³Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2008), 65.