manifesto  (ˌmænɪˈfɛstəʊ) — n  , pl -tos , -toes
a public declaration of intent, policy, aims, etc, as issued by apolitical party, government, or movement

The Church defines worship in many ways, but none is universal. A liturgy of worship can aid a congregation in worship, but it is ultimately a state of the heart.

Many want to make this a state of complete prostration, others wish it to be conviction while others take it to the extreme of reckless celebration – drunkenness in the experience.

Worship can be found in all of these things, to some extent, but worship’s core is the person of Jesus Christ. At the very core of worship must be the gospel – that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, come to redeem and restore all of creation.

It is not enough to view His work as a punctuation point in the midst of a larger story, to be “saved” and then along the way become “holy.” Worship’s core is the reality that Jesus’ redemption and restoration of creation is ongoing, active and present, and that while there is a personal element to this redemptive work, it is not solely or even primarily focused on the individual.

Worship is knowing that Christ is not simply imminent (overhanging and coming soon) but also immanent (present and active), that the restoration of creation is not just happening in individual hearts and will one day happen in all creation but that the work in the hearts of men and women is one and the same with the work in the creation.

At worship’s core must be the conviction that Jesus is not just my Savior but that he is creation’s Savior, and that the gospel preached to us is not that of the individual but of all things (Revelation 21:5).