Thoughts on Worship

I don’t know if it is still there or not but I saw a billboard advertising a local church, I don’t know which one, when driving home on I-40 the other day.  It was a picture of a concert stage with the surrounding areas darkened to draw the eye on the people on stage and the slogan “church like never before”.  Now, as I said, I don’t know which church this is and the thoughts that follow really don’t have anything to do with whatever church the ad was for. 

As someone that has attended traditionally conservative churches (Southern Baptist, Pentecostal, and Lutheran) my first thought was what’s wrong with church before?  Hymns, Liturgies, alter calls, sermons that mention sin and Jesus.  In case you aren’t aware the church in America has congregations that mention neither sin nor Jesus if they can help it.  Anyway, I got to thinking that there really isn’t anything wrong with traditional services, yes I’m biased.  Some people prefer worshiping the Lord in a more reverent, subdued manner.  Absolutely nothing wrong with it.  But by the same token there are people that prefer more exuberant, active worship.  Absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Psalm 100:1-2

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.  Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

2 Samuel 6:14

David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might.

Hebrews 12:28

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.

Zephaniah 1:7

Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.

I remember having a conversation with a young man that had been told, on more than one occasion as it sounded, that he couldn’t worship in the way he did and be a Christian.  As we talked it didn’t seem that there was anything really wrong with his worship practices other than that they weren’t traditional enough for some.  Further, I remember a former pastor of mine stating, from the pulpit, that worship that wasn’t free in movement and overly emotional wasn’t sincere in his opinion.  It’s my personal opinion that to say there is exclusively one right way to worship the Lord is asinine.  Moreover, such comments really only serve to injure someone’s walk with God.  Literally, people that say these things are saying that your gift of worship to the Lord isn’t good enough or acceptable enough.

I think we can all agree that there are indeed ways to not worship the Lord.  I don’t believe it too much of a stretch to say committing an act that is clearly a sin can be considered worshipful unto the Lord.  Killing the infidel, getting stoned, drunk, sexual acts outside of marriage really cannot be considered worshiping the Lord no matter how you characterize it.  They are all contrary to Scripture in some way and you can’t worship a holy God by sinning against His holiness.

That said the Bible doesn’t say anywhere that I’ve been able to locate that THOU SHALT WORSHIP IN THIS WAY.  There is exceptional freedom in the Bible in how God’s people can worship Him.  Dost thou have a talent?  A singer, martial artist, mathematician, a writer, exceptional dental hygienist, or alligator wrangler?  Using your talent for the glory of the Father is an act of worship unto Him.  Feel compelled to dance when the praise band starts playing?  Go for it, particularly if all the brothers and sisters around you are of like mind.  In a mixed setting but still compelled to dance?  Go for it, but be respectful of practices of your brothers and sisters that believe in being still in worship.  (e.g.  Don’t force the still to be mobile if they don’t want.  If they are like me they are introverts and you are invading their personal bubble.  Respect the bubble.)  For those of you that believe in being still, go for it, be respectful of those who want to dance in those mixed settings.  (e.g.   Let them do their thing it’s just as pleasing to God as your stoic reverence.  Forcing them to be still will probably result in physical harm to their bodies.  Or a result in an Incredible Hulk like transformation in to a giant green rage machine on their part.)

Quite literally the manner in which we worship the Lord is not something non-believers need to see us bickering amongst ourselves about.  The manner in which we worship is secondary to the fact that we worship.

My parents told me about a church they were invited to attend services at one time.  During the service when it came time for the praise team to begin playing the Worship Leader grabbed her microphone and shouted into it “Are you ready to get your worship on?”  (As a side note, worship leaders don’t shout into your mics, it irritates your sound guys.  I speak from experience.)  From there the praise team proceeded to deafen the congregation through the unabashed abuse of the max volume setting.  Now I don’t know the sincerity of the members of that church and am not commenting on that in any way.  Honestly, my parents don’t remember much of anything about the church after that, probably because they couldn’t hear any of the sermon or they were still shell shocked from the sonic assault they had just survived.  The point is though there are people that sincerely enjoy that style of worship service and as far as I can tell there is nothing wrong, Scripturally, with it.  If that decibel level is how they are most able to give their most fervent praise to the Lord, well, then, okay. 

Since joining a Lutheran church I have discovered there is a term for things like this, adiaphora.  Adiaphora is something spiritually neutral or something that is not essential to the faith.  Are any of the following essential to faith in Jesus Christ: contemporary songs performed with an electric guitar, a chancel choir, or hymns sung a Capella by a congregation?  The answer is no.  Each of these are methods of expressing the greater faith that is essential to Christ.  A sincere believer worshiping and praising God with a sincere heart has an awful lot of methods for expressing that worship and praise.

We can debate whether or not churches select certain types of worship services because that is the truest and most sincere expression of their faith or because they are trying to market themselves to a certain audience to increase attendance and/or the size of the church’s wallet.  That however is a discussion for another day.  Moreover, don’t take this to mean I think our dear little IV chapter has a problem with this.  We, quite clearly I believe, don’t not have an issue in this area.  This is just something that “grinds my gears” about the “church” in America today and is, in part, why the “church” has the stigma it does with non-believers, in my opinion.

Basically I say all this to encourage us to be mindful of how our faith appears to others.  We as Christians are lights in the darkness with eyes on us at all times, even, probably most often, when we are unaware.  If we are picking at each other about thing like this, it will be a turn off to those who don’t believe.  I'm not saying to tone down you expressions of you faith because it might offend someone in our culture that worships the idol of political correctness.  Merely be discerning in what you are willing to fight about.  There most certainly are things we should take a stand on.  However, there are lots of little squabbles in the "church" in America today that amount to children in the back seat of a minivan fighting over whose picture of the TARDIS is better because they each used a different shade of blue.