What Is Worship For?

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.

Regular Meetings

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.

Preaching

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.

Church Planting

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 – usually for a handful of months – 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.

The Full Measure of Christ

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 Death (and Resurrection?) of the Mentor

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.

Not All Traditions Are Created Equal

The pastor at my church started a class I’m very fond of, talking about making bridges from our faith to the indigenous culture.  A topic we got on was how folks of my generation (I was born in ‘81) view institutionalism as irrelevant at best (and evil at worst).

After some discussion, I pointed out how most of my ilk decide not to put up with it, and get their spiritual community with their friends wherever (which roughly states my recent leanings).  My pastor pointed out how undisciplined community tends to go nowhere and fizzles out.  I completely agree.

However, I believe institutional churches are rooted in human-made traditions, which ultimately came from paganism.  This is not bad on its own.  However, these traditions (such as property, clergy and ritual) encourage a passive lay body of pew-warmers, who have little depth of faith.

I’m not a fan of abolishing tradition, however.  I think we’ve just clung to the wrong one.  My pastor is completely right saying undisciplined house churches are lousy.  The first-century house churches weren’t just strung out on their own though, they were backed by the apostolic tradition.  This is something we’ve lost, and which the institutional church demands too much control to revive.

Heirarchical office structures, theological education and professional experience do not leave room for apostles.  The better structure is an extremely flat one, with one massive layer of house churches tied together by a mesh of traveling apostolic workers.  Apostles are who keep house churches from running amok, maintain discipline, plant sound teaching and encourage the faithful in hard times.  They also stay largely absent, which means the “laity” (a term which should be abolished) have no choice but to function actively as the Spirit of Christ intends.

What’s It All About Again?

Someone once pointed out to me the most crucial element of visioning – the Nehemiah Principle.  Nehemiah brought Jews out of Babylon with permission of the Babylonian king to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem.  About halfway through, the Jews got distracted by their homes and other concerns and quit working.  Nehemiah had to recast the vision halfway through.  It took 52 days, so the people forgot in 26 days – a little under a month.

It’s easy to get caught up in tactics, frustrations, ideas and distractions.  I lose focus on the crucial, foundational reason for doing whatever I’m doing.  Besides this, visions are usually full of emotion and metaphor.  They don’t always make sense immediately, so they need to be said in a hundred different ways, at different times, in different places.

For me, the vision is the apostolic church looking forward to the kingdom of God.  It’s the church we read about in Acts, the Epistles, and even the gospels in Christ’s early disciples.  It’s the ekklesia, rather than the institutions.  It’s a fellowship of subversive missionaries changing people’s lives.  It’s a vast network of cell groups huddling around the light of Christ to hedge out the darkness of sin, built up by each other so they can build up the kingdom.

What vision motivates you in your faith?