Category Archives: Assembly

Microphones do not a leader make

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churchI want to repeat myself a bit. I think this point gets lost in so many of the discussions about gender: much of the problem stems from an overemphasis on public worship.

We define our churches by that once-a-week gathering of the saints. We define much of the work of the church by what is done during that time. Think about your church’s budget. What percentage goes to providing for that time? I’m talking about salaries, about building costs, about everything involved in allowing us to bring dozens or hundreds of people together. Isn’t that the main thing our church does?

If it is, then our church has little right to exist. Our weekly time together prepares us to go out and do the work of the church. If three hours a week (or five or one) make up the bulk of our Christianity, then something is really, really wrong.

Much of the discussion about men and women in the church comes down to who is going to get to stand up, who is going to get to speak, who is going to get to be seen by everyone else present.

So let me restate my radical views:

  • I don’t think the focus of the early church was a once per week assembly. To be honest, you have to do some piecemeal Bible study to even present a case for a weekly assembly.
  • I don’t think the focus of the church was on gathering hundreds of Christians together in one place. That wasn’t practical in many settings. And if it were the focus, wouldn’t we have more discussion of such in the New Testament?
  • I think a lot of our angst comes from the modern design of assemblies. Not the New Testament example. The modern design. Suddenly stepping up to a microphone implies authority. Where someone telling their story to a gathered group of friends feels like sharing, “giving your testimony” to a crowd seems to place you above them, if only for a moment.

I know that not all of the problems mentioned in gender discussions revolve around public worship. But a high percentage of them do.

I also know that pointing out that problem doesn’t solve it. Fact is, we have large weekly assemblies. We are guided by modernism’s idea of what should be done at such times. And we’ve got to work out how to proceed.

Let’s just recognize that there should be flexibility in how we proceed, with each congregation being given the freedom to work out its own standards and norms. Those who damn other Christians for not being more inclusive of women are running the risk of damning themselves. Those who damn other Christians for allowing women to participate more fall under the same threat of divine judgment.

How worship practices changed in the Bible

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Travis raised an interesting point in the comments yesterday. He wrote:

Here’s another question I’ve been pondering. Maybe you can start a thread on this some day. We have passage after passage about not changing “worship” or adding to/taking from God’s word, etc. But in studies I’ve done over the past few months, I’ve noticed how much the worship and celebrations within Judaism changed through the centuries. Hannukah is a religious celebration (of a sort) and Christ took part (it appears He did. We have no record of Him rebuking those who celebrated it.). Also, the Passover feast changed significantly from its origins, adding the drinking of wine (nowhere mentioned in the OT), the reading of certain psalms, etc., and we see Christ celebrating the Passover on multiple occasions. In both of these examples, we see Christ later using them as teaching moments, first to teach “I am the light” (Hannukah) and second the institution of the Lord’s Supper during Passover. My question is, from these examples, does this signify acceptance on God’s part that we are not obligated to keep 100% what is specified for worship? We can change it, without penalty?

We do see a worship evolution in the Bible. Along with the things Travis mentioned, I think we can point to the synagogue as a major “innovation.” (The fact that the King James uses the word “synagogues” in Psalm 74 does not mean that the Old Testament “sanctioned” synagogue assemblies) There were also numerous Jewish traditions which are reflected in the New Testament.

Considering what we talked about yesterday, it’s helpful to me to see that the church didn’t try to start from zero. They continued with what was being practiced in their day and adapted it as necessary. For a long time (possibly until A.D. 70) the Jerusalem church functioned primarily as a Jewish church. Acts 21:20 tells us that the Jewish converts remained “zealous for the Law.” To some degree, worship continued to be related to the temple. We have in mind that all of that was immediately left behind, yet we see Paul participating with Jewish Christians in temple worship in Acts 21, to the point of planning to make an offering!

The early church took the synagogue format of weekly meetings and adapted it to their own needs. Early Christian writings show that Christians saw Sunday assemblies as a replacement for the Sabbath meetings of the synagogue. In Ignatius letter to the Magnesians, he wrote:

We have seen how former adherents of the ancient customs have since attained to a new hope; so that they have given up keeping the sabbath, and now order their lives by the Lord’s Day instead (the day when life first dawned for us, thanks to Him and His death.)

That’s what I see in the Restoration Movement. When early leaders of the movement sought to return to biblical practices, they took what was being practiced in their day and analyzed it in the light of Scripture. They didn’t start from zero. They built off of the practices in vogue in the 19th century in the churches they had been a part of: weekly assemblies centered around preaching, Sunday contributions, singing of modern hymns, etc. (Jay Guin had a wonderful post about this a couple of years ago; my searches of his site have proved fruitless, so if anyone can spot the post I’m talking about, please mention it in the comments section)

I do an exercise with my anthropology students, talking about the reactions a 1st-century Christian might have if he were somehow transported to one of our churches today. Personally, I think he’d be shocked to find out it was a Christian church! So much of worship and the trappings around worship have changed through the years.

As Travis asks, is that a bad thing?

Worship a la carte

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So how do we deal with differing tastes, differing convictions, differing needs and differing desires? When some want variety and others predictability? Or when some want nothing but modern praise songs and others want classic hymns? Or when some want stoicism and others want passion?

Some of the answers:

  • Majority rules—whatever most people want goes
  • Tradition rules—whatever we’ve always done goes
  • Age rules—the younger folks can do it their way when their time comes
  • Separate but equal services—one service for one group, another for the other
  • Worship style determined by each week’s praise leader—different men in the congregation take turns leading, with each one determining what style will be used that week
  • My way or the highway—if some folks don’t like it, they can find themselves somewhere else to worship

Are there other suggestions? What’s the best way to handle our differences?

Spontaneous structures

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Years ago, I read a book called A Man Called Peter, which was the biography of Peter Marshall, the man who was chaplain of the U.S. Senate (not the game show host). The book told of the time when reporters asked Marshall if he could give them a copy of his prayer in time for them to run it in their papers, rather than having to wait until he actually delivered it. Marshall explained that that was impossible, since he merely prayed as the Holy Spirit moved him at that time. One reporter called out, “Couldn’t the Holy Spirit move you ahead of time?”

One of the great tensions in planning an assembly is just that: how much should be planned? Can we allow for spontaneity without falling into chaos? Can we organize our assemblies ahead of time without limiting the Spirit?

I feel a need for a balance of both spontaneity and organization. If I had to lean one way or the other, I would lean toward organization, merely because human nature can often lapse into sloth and call it spontaneity. I find nothing particularly spiritual about a song leader who does not choose songs ahead of time because he wants to let the Spirit move him. Why not spend time in prayer and study during the week and let the Spirit move you as you plan the service?

The larger the gathering, the more structure that will necessarily need to be involved. Still, there needs to be room for someone to bring what God has placed upon their heart. There needs to be enough flexibility in our schedules so that someone can share a thought, a prayer need, or a timely passage without everyone in the congregation groaning about the delay.

I’m not sure of all the ins and outs of that, and I know that this can be a touchy subject for some. I’ve written before about assemblies and don’t want to rehash all of that again. But I know that we can grow in our understanding of how to have structure and flexibility at the same time.

Structuring our services: your thoughts

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I’ve been thinking some about our assemblies. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the structure of said assemblies. I’d like to hear some opinions about the structure of our worship.

How spontaneous do you think we should be? I know some of that has to do with the size of a congregation, but there’s more to it than that. I’ve heard people argue that we have to leave room for spontaneity to allow the Holy Spirit to work (a la 1 Corinthians 14). Others feel that we need structure and planning.

In the same way, to what degree do we try to address different worship views? I don’t mean extreme things, which in our fellowship would tend to refer to instruments and participation by women. I’m talking about things like spontaneous vs. structured, traditional vs. modern, formal vs. informal. One answer some congregations have tried is having multiple services, each with its own personality. Others try and keep things varied within one service.

The other question that I wrestle with is: have we given these sorts of issues too much importance? Do we spend too much time focused on our assemblies, to the neglect of other things?

Those are some thoughts for a Monday morning. I’d like to hear your views.