Category Archives: Worship

Is the Sunday assembly worship?

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Sometimes I have more questions than answers. People look at a blog and wonder what point the author is trying to drive across. Many times, my posts are pointless. (All puns intended) That is, I’m asking questions not out of an attempt to “set you up” for something I want to say, but as an effort to get some input.

So please read today’s post in that way. Not argumentative. Information seeking.

Why have we come to see the Sunday assembly as “worship”? What is that based on?

I don’t think it’s based in any way on the Old Testament. We don’t have weekly assemblies there, nothing that resembles what we do on Sunday.

Some would point to the synagogue, but the main purpose of the synagogue was teaching, not worship. (Correct me if I’m mistaken; I’m no expert on the synagogue)

Are there certain New Testament texts that lead us to refer to our assemblies as worship?

I’m used to the terminology that says “Bible class at 9, worship at 10,” but is that terminology accurate? On what basis do we call part of our time together on Sunday “worship”?

I’ll do my best to sit back and listen. Looking forward to your input.

Photo by Eugenia Beecher

How old of a path should we seek?

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I want to pause this discussion for a while. All of the good comments have left me with lots to think about, and I want to work through some of this in my mind before proceeding. More than once I’ve been accused of beginning a series like this with my mind made up, with my final conclusions preset. That’s just not true.

I want to leave you for now with one big question: how do we deal with the Old Testament passages on worship?

The traditional argument I always heard was that the Old Testament was nailed to the cross and has nothing to do with the practices of the New Testament church. Or as Thomas Campbell eloquently put it in his Declaration and Address:

That although the scriptures of the Old and New Testament are inseparably connected, making together but one perfect and entire revelation of the Divine will, for the edification and salvation of the church; and therefore in that respect cannot be separated; yet as to what directly and properly belongs to their immediate object, the New Testament is as perfect a constitution for the worship, discipline and government of the New Testament church, and as perfect a rule for the particular duties of its members; as the Old Testament was for the worship discipline and government of the Old Testament church, and the particular duties of its members.

Others say that the Old Testament moral law is still in effect, but all of the ceremonial law was abolished.

Another view is that the Old Testament shows us what is pleasing to God; unless a practice is specifically said to be discontinued, it should be a part of our worship.

And there’s a multitude of nuances from there.

What’s your view? In what ways should worship in the Hebrew Scriptures inform the worship of the church?

Why don’t we chant?

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One thing that I haven’t figured out yet is why our brotherhood hasn’t embraced chanting more fully. Before we get distracted, please note that the ancient world didn’t make the distinction between chanting and singing that we do, so we’re not talking about anything extrabiblical. At least some of what we see in the psalms would probably have been presented via a chant.

There were other ancient music forms, so I’m not arguing that all the early church did was chant. But as I listen to people discuss the benefits of singing, it seems that most of those benefits are better served by chanting.

We do know that the early church wouldn’t have used the four-part harmony that is so common in the U.S. And our modern melodies would have definitely had a foreign ring to their ears. Undoubtedly, our singing is very unlike what the early church knew. I sometimes think that people envision the Ephesian church sitting in pews, holding Songs of the Faith and singing “I’ll Fly Away.”

Don’t chants better emphasize the idea of speaking to one another? Don’t they put the emphasis on the lyrics? Wouldn’t they avoid a lot of the sensationalism that we are concerned about?

Is there any theological justification for intricate melodies and part singing? Is there any benefit in those things, beyond the way they stir human emotions?

Why do you suppose we haven’t put more emphasis on the chant?

Emotions and worship

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If you aren’t reading Paul Smith’s Instrument-Rated Theology, you need to be. If you didn’t read his post yesterday, you need to do so.

Knowing that some of you are too contrarian to go read Paul’s post, I’ll summarize a bit. Paul pointed out how often we judge worship by how it makes us feel. If a song stirs our emotions, we consider it to be a valid worship experience. If the song doesn’t please us, we feel that the worship was of no value. Paul notes that this subjective observation is extended to instrumental music; some consider it to be valuable (or not) because of its effect on their emotions.

He goes on to say, “I suddenly realized that all too often we use our songs and hymns to create a worship experience in our hearts, when we should be communicating to God the worship experiences that we have had all week long.” Worship shouldn’t begin in the assembly; the assembly should reflect the worship that goes on daily in our lives.

Paul went on to consider sacrifices in the Old Testament:

At what point was the ancient Israelite sacrifice actually considered worship? Was it when the carcass of the animal was burned? Was it when the throat of the animal was cut? Was it when the animal was being led up to the altar? Or was it when the farmer or shepherd walked out to his field, looked over his group of yearling sheep or bulls and selected the best, most fit animal for the offering? The actual sacrifice took place when the farmer removed that prize animal from the lot and he knew he would not have its services to strengthen his flock. Then, as he watched that animal die he could make the connection (or not) to his relationship with God. Was it a fellowship offering, a sin offering, a thank offering? The sacrifice came first – the emotion could only come as a result of the sacrifice.

Good thoughts. I carried this thinking about sacrifices a bit further. Most sacrifices didn’t end at the altar. They extended to a community meal, the table of the Lord, an “eating and drinking in the presence of the Lord.” The worshipers’ enjoyment was part of the worship.

Might that still be true today? Could our pleasure be pleasing to God, could our emotional response actually be part of what God’s after? Or are our emotional responses irrelevant to true worship?

Scripture and our druthers

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There’s a saying I’ve heard attributed to Dr. Jack Lewis. He was speaking about an individual in the church and said something to the effect of: “He has a hard time differentiating between what the Bible says and his personal preferences.” I don’t know the original context or even the reliability of the attribution, but I’d say that statement sums up a lot of the discussion on church music.

If we want to clap while singing, we can find scriptural support. If we like the way we feel when singing with instruments, we can find biblical evidence as to why they should be used. If we don’t like modern praise songs, we attack their theology. In other words, if you don’t agree with me, you’re disagreeing with God.

If we don’t turn to the Scriptures, we make “objective” statements that support our views. Singing without instruments promotes unity. Singing with instruments attracts non-churched people. Singing too many new songs will cause some of the old-timers to leave. Singing too many old songs will cause the young people to leave. In other words, if you don’t agree with me, you don’t care about people.

We can find scholarly studies that support our views. Anecdotal evidence from growing churches (or dying churches!). We can point to faraway lands where they’ve done what we like and, behold!, their churches have achieved a utopian bliss.

Most of it’s hogwash. It’s a focusing on externals rather than internals. It’s ignoring all that the Bible says about what makes for true worship and what makes for vain worship. If you can’t worship God without an instrument, you can’t worship him with one. If you can’t be edified by singing Isaac Watts, you’ll eventually find that Casting Crowns leaves you cold as well. If people come to your church because of your praise band, they’ll leave when the church down the street has a better one.

Worship is about the heart. And a big sign of a heart not right with God is the unwillingness to consider your brother’s needs ahead of your own, your brother’s preferences instead of your own.

I recently read a quote that said church leaders should aim to have one hundred percent of the people happy eighty percent of the time. If that’s true, we need to be ready to not get our way twenty percent of the time. (And the “stronger brother” should expect to give in more often than that!) Are you ready to not be satisfied one fifth of the time?

It’s time to take the “I feel”s and “I like”s and put them in a drawer. It’s time to seek what’s best for the body as a whole.

(I know “druthers” goes back further, but I picked the word up from the musical L’il Abner. There’s a song called “If I Had My Druthers”)