Worship does more than express what a church believes—it forms what a church comes to believe. The language congregations repeatedly use for God and the stories they highlight in worship shape how people understand the image of God. Dr. Allison A. Hickey explores how expanding worship language can help congregations more faithfully reflect the biblical vision that all people bear God’s image.
Christian worship does more than express belief: it forms belief. What congregations repeatedly pray, sing, and preach gradually shapes how they imagine God, how they understand themselves, and how they interpret salvation itself. Language, imagery, and exemplars used in worship are never neutral. They either participate in God’s restoring work—or quietly undermine it.
At the heart of this is the doctrine of the imago Dei: the biblical affirmation that all humanity is created in the image of God. When worship consistently presents God as exclusively male and centers men as primary theological actors, it distorts that image. This distortion is not merely a matter of fairness or representation. It strikes at the core of Christian soteriology because, in the Wesleyan tradition, salvation is about the restoration of God’s image in all people.
Why does worship language matter?
How can God’s original design for the imago Dei—integrated with gender-of-God theology, John Wesley’s theology of equal worth, and the United Methodist Church’s long-standing commitments to inclusive language—encourage worship practices in which women and girls more clearly see themselves as bearers of God’s image? And in turn, how can this shape how men and boys understand equal partnership within the whole human community?
Worship is where theology becomes embodied. A disconnect often exists between what the church confesses doctrinally and theologically and what it practices liturgically. Many Christian traditions affirm that God transcends gender and that all people share equal worth in Christ. Yet worship frequently tells a different story—one in which God is overwhelmingly “Father,” “King,” and “Lord,” and where men dominate biblical exemplars in sermons and lectionaries.
How did we get here?
The dominance of male God-language did not arise accidentally or from biblical necessity. Its roots lie in the convergence of Greek philosophy and early Christian theology. Influenced by Aristotle, early theologians equated the image of God with rationality, intellect, and reason—traits culturally coded as male. This “substantive” understanding of the imago Dei justified hierarchy: male over female, mind over body.
Church fathers such as Augustine absorbed these philosophical assumptions, reinforcing the idea that men more fully image God, while women do so secondarily or relationally. Medieval theologians further codified male normativity by embedding Aristotelian hierarchy into Christian doctrine. Over time, what began as a metaphor hardened into a theological norm.
Worship became the primary mechanism by which this theology was normalized. Repeatedly naming God with masculine titles and pronouns and repeatedly centering male figures as theological exemplars reinforced the association between “maleness” and divinity. Modern cognitive research describes this dynamic as the illusory truth effect: repetition creates the perception of truth. In worship, what is repeated week after week becomes what is believed.
Salvation and the image of God
If worship shapes belief, then distorted God-language distorts salvation. In the Wesleyan theological framework, salvation is not limited to forgiveness of sin; it is the ongoing restoration of the image of God in humanity. Wesley taught that God’s image endures in every person despite the fall, and that salvation restores that image through grace and sanctification.
When worship practices imply—explicitly or implicitly—that men more fully resemble God than women, they contradict the very salvation they proclaim. Inclusive language and imagery, therefore, are not optional pastoral sensitivities. They are a soteriological imperative. Language that expands our images of God participates in God’s restoring work; language that excludes limits it.
Scripture consistently supports this claim. The Bible repeatedly warns against imagining God as human or male, and at the same time, it affirms a wide range of metaphors for God—rock, wisdom, light, refuge, midwife, mothering hen—none of which can be reduced to a single gendered image.
Congregations are more ready than you think.
Empirical data challenges the assumption that congregations are not ready for change. Surveys conducted across multiple United Methodist contexts reveal that while most worshipers primarily experience God as male in worship, the majority are at least moderately comfortable with inclusive or gender-neutral language and are willing to hear more about women as biblical exemplars.
Resistance often stems less from theology than from habit. Many worship leaders report that inclusive language “feels unnatural” simply because it has not been modeled. Yet practice—not argument—is what reshapes instinct. As with any form of liturgical formation, repetition of truth is the antidote to distortion.
What do we do now?
The work ahead is both theological and practical. It does not require abandoning tradition but reclaiming its breadth. Scripture itself provides abundant, non-gendered, and expansive names and images for God. Worship leaders can begin by praying to God rather than about God, reducing pronoun usage while expanding salutations. Hymnody can be assessed and balanced using public-domain texts, inclusive hymnals, and new denominational resources designed with expansive language in mind.
Lectionary use also matters. Women are central figures in only a small fraction of Revised Common Lectionary Sundays—not because Scripture lacks women’s stories, but because of long-standing selection patterns. Supplementing the lectionary with women-centered readings and exemplars restores biblical witness rather than distorting it.
Change-management wisdom suggests beginning with “low-resistance” practices—introducing inclusive prayers, varying God-language, and intentionally naming women in sermons—before moving toward more visible shifts. Silence is not neutral; it allows distortion to persist by default.
Reclaiming the full image
The goal of inclusive worship is not to replace one idol with another, but to prevent any single image from becoming absolute. As Elizabeth A. Johnson notes, “When one metaphor dominates God-language, idolatry replaces mystery.” Reclaiming the imago Dei in worship opens theological imagination so that God’s saving work can be more fully proclaimed.
Related Resources
- Diverse Congregations Are Stronger Congregations by Faith Communities Today
Revitalizing Worship is More than a Question of Style by Donna Claycomb Sokol and L. Roger Owens - Worship and Mission Should Go Hand in Hand by Mark R. Teasdale
- Leadership as Liberal Art featuring Michael Lamb — Watch the Leading Ideas Talks podcast video | Listen to the podcast audio version | Read the in-depth interview
- Suggestions for Churches with a Clergywoman, a free Lewis Center “To the Point” resource
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