In a competitive market, the secret to success is
giving the customer what he wants, at a price he likes. And in the
cut throat world of Church growth, adapting worship practices to
best suit the tastes of the unchurched has become a marketing
miracle. Are people bored by preaching? Well shorten that tedious
old sermon, get rid of that stuffy theology and lighten up your
"message" with lots of jokes, anecdotes and pious platitudes. Do
people want to be entertained rather than edified? Well, trot out
that special music! If you work it right, with all the choirs,
soloists and special numbers, the congregation won't have to sing at
all! Have attention spans been destroyed by television? How about
throwing in some drama or maybe even a little liturgical dance? With
enough ingenuity, you can make your worship service so harmless,
that people will come from miles around to applaud your efforts.
OK, so you have a church full of spiritual dead
wood, but man, you'll be successful! You can build an opulent
physical plant full of smiling faces. And hey, the laborer is worthy
of his hire, right? Not only are there financial rewards (more
people = bigger offerings = better salary package for the pastor)
but you'll be in demand as a denominational speaker. You might even
get a radio program or a book deal out of it! Yup, there sure are
advantages to pleasing men rather than God; right up to the day the
Almighty Sovereign King of creation judges your life, ministry,
church, community and nation for apostasy. And we are being judged,
right now.
Definition
By denying the Law, broad evangelical Christianity
sinks into a morass of subjective, humanistic, self gratifying,
blasphemous nonsense, little different from the syncretistic pagan
fertility cults of three millennia ago. Therefore, rethinking the
entire concept of worship is a critical task. So let us start at the
beginning. The Biblical words for worship tend to emphasize two
distinct aspects, an attitude and an action. One group of Hebrew
terms literally mean "to bow down," "prostrate oneself," hence "to
revere" (e.g. Ex 20:5, Deut 26:10). Several New Testament terms
carry the same emphasis. There is an attitude towards God we must
have if we are to properly worship Him. Our God is a holy and
majestic God, powerful, mighty, awesome in all His ways. Therefore,
Biblical worship must focus on the character, nature, attributes and
acts of God (Deut 32:3) to drive sinful men to their knees in humble
submission to this great and glorious King (Isa 45:23). It should
foster an attitude of reverence and fear (Lev 25:17 Pvbs 9:10,
etc.).
The second aspect of Biblical worship emphasizes the duty
we owe God. God commands His creation (and especially His covenant
people) to worship Him. Therefore, God Himself determines the
content of proper worship. Since it is a labor, a duty, a work
offered to God, it must be done according to God's law. "Strange
fire," no matter how sincerely offered, is an abomination, and will
be judged (cf. Lev 10:1-2) Thus we cannot and must not and dare not
approach God in any other way than He Himself has proscribed.
Worship is not something to be trifled with.
Spirit and
Truth
One of the crucial New Testament texts on worship
comes from Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.
She had asked whether the Jews or the Samaritans were correct in
their worship. Jesus replied that Biblical worship must be in spirit
and truth (Jn 4:20-24), thereby criticizing both Samaritans and
Jews. The Samaritans were undoubtedly sincere (their ancestors had
been eaten by wild animals for not worshipping God) but they had
mingled true worship with pagan innovation. Such worship was not and
is not acceptable to God.
However, even though the Jews had better knowledge,
their worship, no matter how technically correct, was also
inadequate because it was not "spiritual." The term "spirit" could
mean the Holy Spirit with the implication of the necessity of
regeneration. Romans 12:1-2 helps to clarify it further. "Spirit"
also refers to inner nature; worship that proceeds from the heart of
man. God is not interested in ritual for ritual's sake (Pvbs 21:3,
Ecc 5:1, Hosea 6:6, etc.). Jewish temple worship may have been
according to the letter of Old Testament Law, but by New Testament
times, it did not flow from regenerate hearts. When the Anointed One
appeared, about whom all the sacrifices were intended, He was
rejected by His own people. They rejected Christ because they had
already rejected God. God does not want people who just go through
the motions, even if the motions are the right ones. He wants heart
felt worship (Matt 15:8-9, Isa 29:13). The Jews should have kept the
Law, while worshipping from the heart. Both aspects are
essential.
The answer to modern foolishness is not a retreat
into comfortable traditionalism. This is not a debate between
"traditional" versus "contemporary" styles of worship but rather the
very nature of worship itself. God's word establishes how He is to
be worshipped in truth and therefore must be based on His specific
commands (Jn 17:17). Yet, if pressed, the average churchman will say
that the acid test of worship is "How does it make me feel?" People
come to church today for a certain experience, whether rampant
emotionalism, comfortable traditionalism, or just entertainment.
Feelings, not Law, is the basis for contemporary evangelical
worship. As one of my seminary professors said, "people don't come
to church to feel bad, but to feel good."
But if God's people worship Him in Spirit and
truth, they will not always be comfortable, or entertained, or
necessarily happy. Our God is a consuming fire (Deut 4:24), and
coming into His presence with a sinful heart is a fearful thing
(Hebs 10:27). True worship will drive us to our knees in humility,
as we are convicted of our sins (Isa 6:5). True worship will expose
the darkness in our souls and make us long for the righteousness
that only comes from Christ (Matt 5:6). True worship relieves our
guilt only as we trust in Christ alone. True worship magnifies God,
and glorifies His name, but is seldom comfortable and never seeks to
please men.
Worship in Spirit and truth is God centered, not
man centered. It focuses on the character, nature and attributes of
God: in what we sing (and how we sing it), in what we pray (and how
we pray it) in what we preach (and how we preach it). In all these
things, Biblical worship is Word oriented.
Impediments to
worship
Unclean
Hearts
There are a variety of reasons why modern churchmen
do not worship in spirit and in truth. First, we cannot worship if
our hearts are not clean. Psalm 66:18 says, "If I regard iniquity in
my heart, then the Lord will not hear me." Sabbath worship begins in
our life during the week, not in a pew on Sunday morning. But that's
just what many evangelicals want; i.e., church is a place to
recharge one's spiritual batteries, so God may then be safely
ignored. Yet, each of us has a personal relationship with God (Jer
33:3). If we have a lousy time when we are alone with Him, it will
not get any better in a group.
Therefore daily, personal worship and daily family
worship is fundamental to healthy corporate worship. One of the
reasons that sinful men compromise God's laws in regards to worship
is that they fail to fulfill their covenant duties at home. If
neither they, nor their children have much personal experience of
worshipping the living God on a daily basis, corporate worship will
seem strange, stifling and boring. Therefore, they experiment with
human innovation.
Relationships
Secondly, fractured relationships result in poor
worship. Wherever two or more are gathered, Jesus said that He would
be in their midst (Matt 18:20). Therefore, if there are problems
among the brothers then our worship will be unacceptable (Matt
5:22-24). If a congregation does not know each other, if they do not
love each other, if they do not resolve their problems with one
another, then Sabbath worship will simply be a collection of
isolated individuals (and the Lord's Supper will be a time of
judgment rather than blessing cf. 1 Cor 11:27ff). The body of
Christ, is a body. A body that wars against itself is sick and
diseased. Worship cannot be in "truth" if the people say they love
God, but cannot stand each other (1 Jn 4:20).
This may explain why so much time, talent and
effort has been spent transforming worship into entertainment.
People want anonymity. If you go to a movie theater, you're part of
an impersonal audience. You don't need to know or interact with
others, you just pay your money, choose your sin , enjoy your film
and go home (and that, in a nutshell IS the average broad
evangelical worship service.
Praise
A third hindrance to Biblical worship is an
inadequate concept of praise. The most common word for prayer in
Hebrew is tephillah; which literally means "a song of
praise." Christians need to relearn how to sing and pray God's
praises (cf. Col 3:16). To praise God is to verbally ascribe to Him,
His nature, character, attributes, and acts. When we pray and sing
God's praises, it transforms us. Psalm after psalm bears vivid
testimony to the power of praise. No matter how disheartened,
disillusioned or despondent the psalmist may be, reciting God's
praises lifts his spirits, rejuvenates his mind, and changes his
heart. Yet how often is the pastoral prayer a long, boring litany
little different from reciting a shopping list? How often are hymns
expressions of our feelings about God, rather than about Him?
In order to praise God, one must first know what He
is like. Sadly, doctrinal knowledge is at an all time low. Most
evangelicals' understanding of the nature of God consists of rumor,
hearsay, blatant falsehood, and serious misconception. Not to be
cynical or nasty, but listening to other people pray is often
illuminating. They can "thank" God for many things, but often, too
often, they do not and cannot accurately and articulate God's
nature. OK, perhaps not everyone is creative enough to pray
extemporaneously. So therefore, we ought to let the inspired prayers
of the Psalms teach us how praise, magnify and glorify Him.
Christians need to memorize them, meditate on them, and let inspired
words replace our insipid ones!
Preaching
Part of the problem is undoubtedly poor preaching.
Doctrinal preaching is seldom done and even if we do get it, is
often dry, academic and irrelevant. It is a grievous error to make
the nature of God boring and theoretical to His people. When pastors
should be giving the words of life, we give the words of the
academic cloister. Is it any wonder that bored congregations look to
ear tickling preaching? And then, Pastors, afraid of boring them
even more, begin to substitute pop psychology, humor, warm mushy
anecdotes for the commandments of God.
Powerful preaching is not all that difficult; just
explain what the text means and then show people how to apply it in
their lives. When you've told your anecdotes, delineated your three
points, pontificated at length, every preacher needs to ask himself
"Now that I've said what I said, so what?" In other words, what does
God expect this people to DO in light of what you've just said
(Joshua 1:8)? The difference between life changing preaching and "ho
hum, business as usual, glazed look over the face, isn't he ever
going to finish...;" is practical application. God's people need to
know what His Law requires, and how to obey it. If the pastor
doesn't tell them, who will? The most power preachers are not
necessarily great orators, they simply teach God's people what He
wants them to do, why He wants them to do it, how He wants them to
do it, and then, sits down ("physician, heal thyself...").
Inadequate
Music
A fourth obstacle to Biblical worship is inadequate
music. First, sappy, theologically deviant, revivalist hymns need to
be given a quick burial. Secondly, different styles of music produce
different emotional effects. Therefore, the tunes we sing have a
powerful emotional impact on our worship. Some brothers seem to have
a problem with this as if somehow, feeling something during worship
is cheating.
But is there not a legitimate place in worship to
ensure suitable music is chosen? I have been in services which,
forgive me, reminded me of a funeral; everything was sung as a
dirge. It was not majestic, just somber. Music should be appropriate
to the words. Some tunes foster feelings of awe, reverence, respect
for God and His nature. But there is also celebration of our
intimate status in Christ, our joy in redemption, our victory over
the world. Thus different tunes, and the resulting emotional effects
they cause, should be taken into consideration. Perhaps one of the
reasons why man made hymns replaced the Psalms is that the music of
some hymns have emotive power that the older Psalter tunes
lacked?
Furthermore, we need to sing more Scripture. The
book of Psalms is the church's hymnbook, and we are robbing
ourselves of God's inspired hymns when we neglect them. But
Charismatics have done a fine job recasting many Scripture passages
in appropriate meters for singing. Many people react against
Scripture choruses because they do not like the emotion that flows
from the contemporary tunes or are afraid of being identified with
Charismatics. Yet these same people will sing man made hymns, with
questionable theology, because it is comfortable and traditional.
Our God is not only King, but also heavenly Father. It is
appropriate to sing His praises in affectionate and loving terms and
there is nothing wrong with people feeling intimate with God, as
long as truth is not sacrificed.
Participation
rather than Observation
Finally, true worship should focus on participation
rather than observation. Years ago, my wife and I attended a very
successful mega-church which began it's Lord's Day services with a
stand up comedian (who did the announcements), two superb soloists,
a professional choir and string quartet. Though the performances
(sorry, no other word will do) were really outstanding, the
congregation sung only one hymn. All the musicians, singers,
speakers, readers, etc., looked like they were having a wonderful
time, but we didn't worship. We watched other people worship. Yes,
there was a role for singers and musicians in Old Testament worship,
but they led the people in worship, they did not do it for them
(e.g., 2 Chrn 23:13).
Conclusion:
All the elements of Biblical worship will be those
which God Himself has commanded. In historic Presbyterianism, this
is called "The Regulative Principle of Worship." If God has not
commanded it, then we have no warrant for doing it. Granted, there
is some legitimate room for discussion regarding which Old Testament
principles carry forth into the New Testament era. Some However, try
as you will, you cannot use David dancing before the Ark as an
excuse to dress people up in tutus and call it worship.
True,
spiritual worship will be Scripture oriented. We read the Word, We
sing the Word, we pray the Word and we preach the Word. Christians
need to come to church prepared by quality time with God at home
during the week. Sins need to be confessed and relationships made
right with others, before the Lord's Day. Christians need to learn
how to praise God, by spending quality time in meditation on the
Psalms, so that God's own inspired prayers guide our own. We need
not fear emotion, for our God is a loving and gracious Father as
well as a glorious and majestic King. Even though their tastes may
have become jaded by superficial entertainment, Christians do hunger
to worship the one true God. If our worship honors His Law, and if
our hearts are prepared, we won't need human innovation to
substitute for true worship. As we approach Him in Spirit and truth,
we will grow in understanding, wisdom, obedience and reverence for
Him. That's the only kind of Church growth we ought to be concerned
about.