Intimacy and Integrity (Essentials Green)

The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St Stephen’s University, Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt

I believe that intimacy and integrity should be core values in our worship but in this post I will focus on intimacy because that is the one that raises questions for me.

Brian Doerksen, when asking whether the whole talk about intimacy in worship is a fad, writes this “Without reverence, we will not experience real intimacy in worship¹”.

How does reverence fit in with the whole concept of intimacy as we have heard of it, especially since, as Dan Wilt reminds us, intimacy speaks often of “vulnerability, self disclosure, healing, freedom…²”, all things that sound a bit disquieting to me but very close to what we can humanly experience when we have deep relationships in our families or our friendships?

This is where the question “Who is the God we worship?³” discussed by Dr. Don Williams and Brenton Brown, is an indication of an answer. It has all to do with the object of our worship: God as he reveals himself, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In other words, he is a mystery that we keep exploring and discovering, albeit in small ways.

The reason behind all my questioning is this nagging feeling (that I love) that intimacy with God implies things like nakedness, a revealing not only of my heart but of all of me, a total abandon. One of my leaders says “it does not necessarily look pretty”. There is this calling of Jesus to “lose oneself”, throw caution to the wind, a generosity in the way I am supposed to give myself over to God, in response to his generosity in giving himself over to us. I often feel I do not understand the measure of God’s love hence God’s call to worship him.

That degree of intimacy leads to unity with God, to having God dwell in us and to living in him: we are his temple⁵, He is our home.  We learn to care for what matters to God, it becomes important to us. So that implies death to our priorities and resurrection to God’s priorities, as Andy Park⁶ explained it so well.

The third thing I find disturbing about intimacy is the extent to which God changes you and changes the kind of people you love, enlarges your circle of friendships and affections and also the way you love. That is a real life disturber because intimacy with God often reveals how far we are from love as God means it.

1. Brian Doerksen, Intimacy in Worship, Inside Worship, p. 12-13
2. Dan Wilt, Essentials values in worship leadership: the values of intimacy and integrity, Essentials Green online course text, p.7-9
3. Dr Don Williams and Brenton Brown, Who is the God we worship?, Inside Worship, p. 4-5
4. Ibid (2)
5. 1 Corinthians 6:9, NIV
6. Andy Park, The Most Important, iTunes U Video, St Stephen’s University