Christians often talk about “being fed” or “not being fed” from a worship service. There’s a subtext I always hear in these statements – it’s the leadership’s job to feed me.
Maybe some of these Christians take some active hand in trying to ‘receive’ the spiritual ‘food’ from the leadership, but ultimately if there’s no leaders there’s no food.
Babies need to be fed (or at least provided for). Let’s grow up and pick the fruit of Life ourselves for a change.
The obvious answer – worship is for worshiping God! - is not my answer. Not exactly, anyway. I think the real trouble is we’ve misappropriated the word “worship” to apply to regular church gatherings, of which worship was only part. I’ll keep using “worship” to refer to church gatherings because it’s familiar language, so please just bear that in mind while you read.
I believe there are three distinct kinds of worship we can find in the New Testament. Unfortunately, I find only one – or at best two – in modern churches. We have a lot to learn from our past.
We have to start at the regular weekly gathering of the early church, particularly because the other two won’t make sense without this foundation. 1 Corinthians 11-12 give some specific images of these gatherings. They’re small, intimate, and most noted for their participatory nature. Everyone is involved through their gifts to make the concept of a unified Body of Christ a legitimate reality.
The central purpose is expressing Christ as his Body. The main event is the Lord’s Supper, which for them is a genuine feast. Everyone comes together to share the meal equally. The meetings are also marked by a mutual sharing of spiritual gifts. All the believers are gifted, and all are exhorted to use their gifts in the meeting, as led by the Spirit. Paul is clear this shouldn’t be chaos – Christ guides the church in its meeting with unity, as one guides their own body. Sometimes the early churches messed it up, but were always encouraged to continually seek to be more faithful.
This kind of meeting is absent from modern churches, and I mean entirely. There are ways to use one’s spiritual gifts in various ministries, but not in any communal setting like this. If a brother or sister is gifted for teaching, they can either teach a class or (if they’re either clergy or in a particularly open church) preach a sermon. Other gifts, like prophecy or tongues, in these settings would be disruptive.
The second kind of worship we can talk about is marked by preaching sermons, large crowds, a mix of believers and non-believers, and (if it’s successful) baptisms. This is most familiar to us, because it looks almost exactly like a modern worship service.
The central purpose here is evangelism. We can see the marked absense of spiritual gifts and sharing. There is generally one preacher talking to a large crowd. While it isn’t described as such, I can easily see other brothers and sisters leading songs or prayers for the group. It’s also likely brothers and sisters were mingling in the crowd, talking one-on-one with non-believers or new converts, praying with them, baptizing them, and connecting them with a local church.
While we see leader-to-audience services with a focus on teaching the gospel, there’s usually a greater expectation that members attend than newcomers. Not that visitors aren’t welcome, but they’re only part of the puzzle. Members going deep in faith – however that happens at each church – are expected to get their primary spiritual experience from what is intended as a sort of newcomer’s seminar.
The last kind of worship gathering is when an apostle is planting a church. The church isn’t ready to be led exclusively by the Spirit, so an apostle mentors them – sometimes for years – in functioning properly. The work is never truly completed, as the epistles show us, because the apostle continues communication and coaching in Body life. However, a point always comes when a church is mature enough to function independently, without constant supervision.
The central purpose here is discipleship. Newly converted Christians are guided into the full experience of Christ’s church through his Spirit. They find their gifts, learn to express them in an orderly, Spirit-led way, and comprehend living Christ as a group instead of as an individual. They are also taught in how to live all of their lives in Christ, how to serve the poor, and how to spread the faith and make more disciples.
This kind of meeting happens in some modern churches, but not all. In the ones it happens in, one or more facets are still missing. It’s usually done as a small group ministry, but may be a bible study, outreach or service mission, or membership class. Small group ministry is most akin, and most effective, as a small group can practically function as an early house church. The trouble is, there’s never a separation from apostolic leadership. The church is never allowed to truly mature and grow up; they’re trapped as spiritual children, or perhaps even teenagers.
We’ve lost focus on why we do the things we do, what the purpose is. All three kinds of gatherings are vital to the whole church, but church leadership needs to reclaim the apostolic traditions of evangelism and planting. We also need to acknowledge each other’s spiritual gifts, and create space for their proper use.
Spiritual matters don’t come naturally to our sinful flesh, which is why it takes time to learn. Since the apostolic traditions are so lost among most of our churches, it will be a messy process.
I don’t want to discourage anyone reading this, especially those part of an institutional church. I believe we are a long way off, but rather than condemn I want to help shed light on the Way of Christ. We Christians have a long and famous history of making mistakes. Rather than fall prey to guilt, instead we must affix fresh eyes on Christ. His Spirit is a guide to us, guiding us ever closer. There are small steps you can take at your own church now to pursue Body life. Seek them out always, and pray in the Spirit constantly.
The Great Commandment can be a useful lens to view your church through. I recently visited an Assemblies of God (pentacostal) church and realized how strongly they emphasized heart in worship. Music was highly repetitive, with leaders improvising or adding variations on the theme. Prayers and testimonies were emotional, punctuated by loud outbursts. I’d suggest the sermon emphasized a secondary interest in strength, focusing on coaching for life challenges.
In my last church, Presbyterian, the focus was mind. Music was lyrical hymns designed to slowly reveal points of understanding. Prayers were usually read, either by a leader or responsively, and (apart from the Apostles’ Creed and Lord’s Prayer) were unique to each service. The sermon interpreted and illuminated scripture. A secondary emphasis was on heart, with prayer requests, flowers in loving memory of someone, and a few minutes to pass the peace.
Consider what your church focuses on – heart, mind, soul or strength - and to what extent. What would a church look like that focused on something different? What changes could be made immediately in your church to raise emphasis on an under-represented aspect of the Great Commandment? What changes might take longer (a year or more) to fully realize?
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. (I Corinthians 13:12)
I’ve known a lot of things in my life (I’m speaking about God here). Once, shortly after a prophetic revelation during my agnostic years, I randomly opened a bible and stumbled into I Corinthians 13. I don’t advocate the randomly-open-a-bible method of seeking the mind of God, but this time at least something came of it.
The words quoted above have stuck with me. To think how much more someone in the bible must surely know! Compared to me, quite a lot, and yet they are keenly aware of their present ignorance.
There’s a secret hope tucked away in those verses, though. Face to face, as I have been fully known. The hairs on my head have been numbered in heaven, as have yours. How fully then will we come to know our Lord in that place?
I don’t discount what I have known, because (I believe) each fragment is like a hair on the head of Christ. I simply must remember how few of them I’ve been privvy to, and both yearn for more and rest in knowing I have all eternity to search his depths and mysteries.
Yearn and rest. I hope you can do the same.
A lot of Christian teachings focus on discerning personal calling or mission. This is usually discerned through and grounded in spiritual disciplines like prayer, reading the bible, and small group participation. These are all good things, and I wholly recommend them despite what I’m about to say:
If you love the Lord intimately – in every breath, at every moment – you can do anything.
The ancient monastics did far more than pray in monasteries. They were equally at peace gardening as leading armies, equally pursuing Christ begging on the street as shaping politics, equally at home in a monastery as a jail cell. The monastic life wasn’t about ritual, sacrifice or isolation – although it often included these. It was about perpetually dwelling in Christ, living through his life at all times.
And so they went everywhere and did everything.
Much as Paul said, this freedom in Christ is not license to sin. On the contrary, if you live in Christ you die to sin, which means you just plain don’t want to sin anymore. When it is by his life, you won’t be led astray.
Rather than focus on personal calling and mission, focus on the living Christ and find true freedom.
Most of us grew up in the modern era, which is now coming to an end. Modernity was defined by the Industrial Age. The “first world” modeled the machine as the new paradigm. Society was a large, complex system composed of interlocking smaller systems which could each be broken down into a hierarchy of parts down to people, the cogs of the social engine.
Machines are factory-built, so education came to resemble an assembly line. Move from grade to grade at the correct rate, taking the required courses, until you were a perfectly interchangable widget. From there you might go to be specialized in college, but you’d gotten all the essentials to “fit in” by high school.
The problem I came to realize (and I think most folks in my generation are with me) is I have little idea how to really live, or even how that’s different than filling a role.
We’re heading into the “postmodern” era, which is defined by the network. Finding a specific role is akin to locating an electron’s position. The cubicle walls, white picket fences, and any other traditionally modern boundaries are crumbling in exchange for hive-like interconnectivity and mutual participation.
The problem is, while there are still valuable skills like reading or math, our challenge isn’t proficiency but wisdom. This was the job of mentors. Unfortunately, in the modern era this was a colossal waste of resources. Machines need uniformity, but organisms need heterogeneity.
I’m struggling with these issues now because of my daughter, who will eventually need some kind of formal education. I feel let down by mine. There were mentor figures to me, but our time was always brief, constrained by pre-ordained seasons.
I suspect as the Industrial Age continues to give way to the Information Age, we’ll see a return to education-by-mentor. Apprenticeships will be far more valuable than undergraduate programs. There’s still the issue of elementary and high school. To my mind, the necessary academics could be condensed to a handful of years. Specialization is far more valuable in the postmodern era than ubiquity.
The same dynamics are playing out in the church. The modern era saw a one-size-fits-all worship format. Each church was essentially the same as each other. Membership was defined by performing the pre-defined tasks (giving money, volunteering, serving committees) to keep the machine running. Each person’s unique gifts were irrelevant to these chores, as basically anyone could perform them.
Now I think we return to the Apostolic Age, where mature Christians will coach new brethren in the Way, instead of content Christians recruiting brethren to membership.
I love the lyrics to the song “T.S.R.” by punk band Against Me. I doubt there was any Christian intention when it was written, but in a pagan world of multiple-choice religion I think it’s a cry for meaning that can only truly be answered by Jesus Christ. To me, it strikes a chord of - while drowning in sin - struggling desperately to reach up.
Here’s a portion of the lyrics:
I hope my body can take it;
I hope I make the occasion.
It’s only this fucked up I start realizing
All this living is just dying,And if these are my friends, if this is my home,
If this is how I spend my nights,
How I communicate and demonstrate
A love of life,My eyes roll in to the back of my head.
If these are the last words that I ever said,
No, I’m not ready to die just yet.
Who are your companions?
Where is your heart’s home?
How do you spend your nights?
How do you communicate and demonstrate a love of life in Christ?
If you’ve ever wondered why that nice young family who joined and participated for a year or two eventually faded out of your church, I have something short for you to read.
In Kicking Habits, Tom Bandy illustrates and contrasts a declining and thriving church through a narrative. Bob and Sally Public visit St. Friendly-on-the-Hill Church, then move on to New Hope-in-the-Heart Church. Tom has made the narrative available on his website.
I have personally been Bob Public, although I’m sorry to say I haven’t found a “New Hope-in-the-Heart.” I’ll let you know when I do.
All marketing means is communication – one of the Church’s core missions – but the word marketing communicates the wrong message.
I’m a big fan of church marketing. I subscribe to Church Marketing Sucks, Church Relevance, and non-churchy blogs like Seth Godin’s blog. Marketing is a complex, yet deceptively simple issue – all it means is communication. Churches, like everyone else, “market” through every action they take (including inaction).
There’s obvious stuff like signs, bulletins, newspaper ads, and greeters. There’s far more less obvious (and often unintentional) things like what time the grass gets cut, if there’s litter in the parking lot on a Thursday, or how the greeter you saw Sunday is acting in the grocery store next Saturday.
Church marketers are often interested in raising awareness of the issue of church marketing to church leaders. If every action we take communicates something about us, we do the Gospel good by being more intentional in our actions.
However, the word marketing carries the unintentional meaning of commercialization. Marketing as a word is jargon - insidese - which excludes non-marketers due to the unintended connotations. This is reinforced since most marketing “shop-talk” is about traditional or current commercial marketing techniques.
Church marketers pursue a noble mission, but shoot themselves in the foot trying to broaden other people’s horizons. Skip the jargon and speak to lay people plainly.
Then the disciples came and asked him [Jesus], “Why do you speak to them in parables?” … “The reason I speak to them in parables is that ’seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’”
Matthew 13:10,13
(PS: Here’s a good spot to talk about it.)
There’s a very familiar bible verse I recently saw in a new light. This is Jesus talking, from Matthew 9:16-17.
No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.
The unshrunk cloth and new wine are like new Christians, and the cloak and wineskin are like the church. We can especially see a declining church in the damaged cloak. Members of a declining church often see solutions in new (and especially younger) members.
But the reality is, new members will need to grow and flex. They’ll be moving in new directions. A “damaged cloak” church can’t accomodate it, and the existing damage is made worse by yet another conflict.
Rather than try to assimilate new Christians into an old church, raise up missionaries to plant new churches. The old church has experience to offer, but its procedures, habits and patterns will smother new enthusiasm. Let it instead become a parent church fostering and releasing children churches to create new families, who will in turn raise and release their own children churches. Just as a family stays connected through regular correspondance and special gatherings, so churches can do, too.
