What If Worship Was…

…a conversation.

A lot of churches are experimenting with new worship service formats. Some have been for years; some are just starting. Almost inevitably, they still revolve around one or a handful of leaders speaking to a crowd of listeners.

In the new culture of networks, clouds and global collaboration, most people learn and grow through participation. The bible’s also pretty clear that everyone should share their gifts in a chuch’s regular meetings.

You’d need smaller crowds, of course – probably less than 20. And folks trained in group dynamics to keep things on Jesus and not current events, and manage potential conflicts. It’d help to have some folks gifted in pastoring to talk privately and pray with folks who have strong emotional responses.

What do you think would happen to a church that worshiped this way? How would people grow? Would responsibility and participation in worship bleed into other areas of the church?

Not Being Fed

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.

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.

Heart, Mind, Soul & Strength

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?

It’s Okay for a Church to Die

Hello, counter-intuitive!

What I mean is, it’s okay for individual congregations, or even denominations, to die (disaffiliate, dissolve… whatever).  It’s okay, so long as the Church doesn’t die.

And guess what?  It won’t.  God’s vision, his plan for humanity, is his church (what I often call the ekklesia, so it’s not confused with how we often misuse the word “church”).  He wants believers to band together in the unbreakable fellowship of faith in Christ.

Evangelicals get this wrong because their attitude is God’s plan is salvation.  That’s part of it, but only step one.  The common intent is the “personal decision” for Christ.  Faith in Jesus isn’t a personal matter, it’s communal.

Mainliners get this wrong because their attitude is God’s plan is worship.  That’s step two.  The common intent is the fellowship of God’s people.  Faith isn’t a matter of consent to doctrine though.  The word faith implies action, that your hope of success for your actions rests solely on God.

At any rate, the point is living a Christ-like life in community with other Christians.  (Incidentally, the word “Christian” means “little Christ.”)  There should be as many cells of ekklesia as there are children of Abraham, and just like cells of a body these should be born anew, grow, and eventually die to be replaced by new ones.

Unfortunately our churches – evangelical and mainline alike – have lost the skill of dying gracefully.  It’s good for churches to grow, and sometimes God resurrects congregations for new life.  Sometimes though, it’s time to make room for new things.

Spectator Worship

I’d guess nearly all American churches – mainline, orthodox, charismatic, evangelical… whatever – do worship as a group of professionals (paid or volunteer) leading a group of spectators, possibly with occasional guided crowd participation.

The kicker is, that’s not how Christians are supposed to worship.

New Testament worship was done is small cell groups (averaging around 35 people, I think).  It was done in homes.  Everyone participated using their spiritual gifts.  Several people read and interpreted scripture, and the group judged for themselves if it was good.

Sometimes the New Testament church gathered all the groups across a city for important matters, and sometimes they’d do big crowd spectator worship.  These were relatively rare, however, and primarily geared toward evangelism.

Weekly spectator worship conditions congregants to be passive, and supresses expressing spiritual gifts.  You can’t even see other worshippers’ faces without turning around!  No wonder members feel like volunteers instead of owners.

Modern churches can return to New Testament worship by focusing worship in small groups and promoting gifts discernment and use.  Read scripture, pray, sing, meditate… whatever works with each group’s makeup of personalities and gifts.  If you can, scale back crowd worship to monthly or bi-monthly and market themas large public evangelism events.

What’s With the Building?

The word “church” has been used to refer to architecture since AD 190 (Clement of Alexandria claims the first honor).  In the New Testament ekklesia - translated as church – always means people.  I think people get this.  So why do we still bother with buildings?

I’m all for meeting in a roofed-in, climate-controlled space.  What I’m not all for is property ownership.  My home church has gotten too small for its campus.  Some churches find the opposite problem.  It severely limits mobility, since the action usually happens in the paid-for space (especially Sunday worship, which is often the largest activity in any church).

I talked about wandering churches using rented, borrowed or public spaces.  Let’s talk logistics.

• Renting weekly for Sunday is a hassle.  Why do full-congregation worship weekly?  The intimacy of a home group supports the nurture of spiritual gifts, inclusiveness and true fellowship far better than the spectator worship.  Do a big event monthly or bi-monthly.  You’ll be able to plan bigger stuff, attract more newcomers, and cut costs.
• What about the office?  Train home group leaders to handle most of the load through a shared web-based church management system.  Keep two backups with trusted leaders.  Members should get their care through their home group anyway, so no problem there.  Have someone gifted in communication keep a church phone for outside contact, or use Skype for easier sharing.  Mail to a post office box.  Cut down on all the unwanted solicitation!
• Where do you do large-group church functions (dinners, classes, seminars, meetings)?  Don’t do them!  Okay, treat them like Sunday worship and do them less often.  Find a restaurant in town that’ll clear house if you promise a big paying crowd (maybe a member owns one).  Go to the park on nice days.  Ask other churches about space usage.  Ask hotels about non-profit discounts on conference rooms.  There’s lots of options, and your network of home groups will spread the word (remember how informed they are with the web-based network?).

The most exciting chuches I’ve visited didn’t own one square foot of real estate.  Rick Warren’s famous Saddleback Community Church didn’t own property until they had 10,000 weekly attenders.  You don’t need property, and in all likelihood it’s putting blinders on your vision discernment and creative mission strategy.

If your church doesn’t have property yet, don’t get any.  If your church does, look into birthing new churches that don’t buy property (and do your best to keep them out of the mother church).  People will sit up and take notice, and it’ll be hard to argue with the authenticity of your mission.

What Part of Worship Is Like Heaven?

One of the questions our pilgrim band borrowed from Ship of Fools is “Which part of the service was like being in heaven?” I’ve been really distracted lately, and visiting new churches sometimes heightens it. This question really helps me focus on looking for the kingdom of God exactly when I should be. What part of your church’s worship (or any church’s worship if you don’t have a particular one) is like heaven for you?

Small Groups, or How I Learned to Love the Hype

Churches everywhere are doing small groups, with varying success. What is the point? Boiled down enough, anything a church does must have a straight-line connection to the “Great Commission” (Matthew 28:19-20):

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

I suspect a lot of churches start small groups (under various monikers) to build deeper relationships, and to engage people mid-week beyond Sunday morning. After all, it’s hard to make friends in a crowd of a few hundred (or thousand) people. These are terrible reasons for a church to do anything.

Small groups must be about discipleship. My church is spiritually dead. The only times you will hear Jesus’ sweet name is Sunday morning, or maybe during the prayer over the mid-week dinner. Maybe. Therefore the single best thing my church could do is engage in spiritual conversation, to make it part of our daily life. To just plain get used to talking about our faith, because so far we’ve bought into the secular myth that faith is a private affair.

Small groups will not make our church grow. Good! Growing a congregation isn’t in those two verses above. Spiritually mature people, however, will be able to make more disciples. Small groups won’t create maturity; they’re only step one. After this comes hands-on mission and faith-sharing, authentic worship of a God we walk with daily, and (I believe) a re-anointing of the Holy Spirit to plant a vision of God’s kingdom for us to pursue.

What piece of God’s kingdom are you building? What’s it look like? Who’s it for?