It is no secret that the church in the Global North is struggling. For many, in this increasingly secular age, the church is an icon of religious irrelevance. This paper questions whether the root of many of our challenges is a misunderstanding of the nature of worship. Frequently in the Hebrew Bible, the Lord rejects Israel’s worship, not because their liturgical practices are wrong per se, but because the worshippers are wrong. They do not display the proper heart posture before God; therefore, their worship is meaningless. Rather than rendering heart-felt worship (הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה or προσκυνέω), they are stiff-necked (קְשֵׁה־עֹ֖רֶף). This paper will argue that one of the challenges facing the contemporary is that for all our ecstatic, seemingly heartfelt expressions of worship, we are stiff-necked before God. To demonstrate this, will begin by examining the terms הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה and προσκυνέω with particular attention to the communicative intent of the gesture Then, I will contrast this gesture with קְשֵׁה־עֹ֖רֶף (stiff-necked). Then, I will discuss the significance of these findings for the contemporary church in North America.