Worship as Moral Formation

Most discussions about worship focus on its liturgical expressions. While many scholars recognize that a church’s liturgical practice has implications for the community’s daily life, the majority leave those implications unexplored. While there has been some work in the intersection of worship and ethics, most of these studies still focus on the liturgical context. (Leiderbach’s Worship as Ethics is a notable exception.)This paper will address this gap by arguing that moral formation is an important, though often missing, aspect and expression of worship. The liturgy (whether of high or low church tradition) should cultivate a kingdom-oriented moral character in its participants. Likewise, the cultivation of one’s moral formation outside of liturgical practice can be an expression of faithful worship.