Fifteen years ago, I would have chafed at the title of this post. Worship is not evangelistic; it is for Christians.

But that was then. That which once chafed I now embrace.

To practice public worship in a way comprehensible to the non-Christian and at the same time in a way that honors the Christian need to exalt his God is not only possible, but essential.

Tim Keller demonstrates and defends this in his helpful article “Evangelistic Worship”.

Bryan Chapell’s Christ-Centered Worship makes a similar case, a part of which is this:

“Healthy worship is one of the church’s most effective evangelism tools; thus, we cannot forget the unbeliever even as we focus on enabling believers rightly to honor their God.”

Not only is the content of worship an important apologetic to the non-Christian, but so is the joy, engagement, and passion of the believer in worship. If the Christian is engaged and invigorated by the worship, if the Christian finds it full of richness and meaning, and if the Christian is renewed at a deep level by the worship, that will be an attraction to the non-Christian who sees that.

If the Christian is significantly and sincerely touched by worship, he will long to bring others into that experience. One cannot expect a congregation to invite those they know to a service of worship they find empty of meaning. To seek to enrich worship for the Christian, even this has an evangelistic component.

Worship cannot help but be evangelistic.