Tag Archives: Worship

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.

OK, so I was wrong…

8 Replies

bible1I was edified by yesterday’s discussion. It’s what I would love to see happen all the time, not just on this blog, but around the Internet. I saw little to no anger, no name calling, no harsh words. And I was shown to be wrong in something I said! While I don’t enjoy being wrong, I do like to learn. This Kitchen is meant to be a place where one can present “half-baked” thoughts for evaluation, critique and even correction.

Some of the debate centered around form and function, trying to separate what is done from why it is done and accepting the fact that the same thing can be accomplished in more than one way. I still think that today’s sermons are a form of teaching that grew up over the last few centuries; they fulfill the function of teaching God’s Word, but it’s not wholly impossible that the same function could be fulfilled in other ways. If we look at 1 Corinthians 14, there is little there that looks like our traditional preaching, yet its a description of the public teaching that went on during the assembly in Corinth.

I hope we can explore ways in which we can restore a balance to our worship services, rather than making them so sermon centered. That was one of the main things that came out of yesterday’s discussion. We need more focus on the reading of God’s Word, more focus on the Lord’s Supper. I’d like to see more times for interaction: sharing prayer concerns, confessing sin, offering words of encouragement, seeking and giving forgiveness. I fear the unthinking routine that I see myself falling into at times. We get into a rut and, as my high school choir director used to say, “A rut is just a grave with both ends knocked out.”

I like to preach. No, I love to preach. As I’ve said before, I would love for the whole service to be centered around the preacher and the preacher to be me. But I don’t think that’s what the assembly should be. That doesn’t fit what I see in the Bible.

But I’m definitely open to being corrected. :-)

{If you didn’t vote in yesterday’s poll, please go back and do so! }

Sermon-less assemblies

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pulpitNick Gill made an interesting comment on the last post:

Ironically, I wonder if online sermons might offer an opportunity to reshape the assembly of the saints into a more healthy pattern?
If we could get more people to listen to sermons on their iPods, et al, we wouldn’t have to give so much assembly time to sermons — there’d be more time for communion, for public reading of Scripture, for dialogue.
What do you think? Am I dreaming?

The answer is yes, of course, Nick is dreaming. We’ve got a whole industry built around Sunday sermons. What would we do with all of the out-of-work preachers?

OK, seriously, it’s an intriguing idea. Sunday sermons are a relatively recent addition to Christian assemblies. [Edited at noon, August 13: OK, I’ve had to back off this statement. I may write more about this in a future post. I believe that sermons in their present form didn’t exist in the first century, but my original statement was misleading]  They’ve come to dominate the time that God’s people spend together. What if we could remove that teaching experience to another time of the week?

I enjoyed yesterday’s poll. Let’s do another one:

What do you think of sermon-less assemblies?
They are an abomination. You have to have sermons in the assembly.

I would feel cheated.

I think the church would not grow as much spiritually.

I think they are a great idea!

I do not really care one way or the other.

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Photo by Ian Britton, FreeFoto.com

We gather together

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worshipAs we grow in understanding on different topics, it’s easy to say things like “The church hasn’t taught…” or “We’ve overlooked…,” when in fact we need to personalize that a bit. I shouldn’t blame previous generations for my lack of insight. So I’ll try to accept responsibility for this one.

I’ve come to realize that I’ve failed to see the community aspect of faith. I mean, I’ve talked about the church, the body of Christ, our role as members, etc. Yet I’ve especially been guilty on Sundays of creating a virtual isolation booth around my person, losing awareness of the people I’m there with. I see now that trying to worship in an individualistic way cuts me off from the purpose of the assembly. “We gather together,” we assemble, we come together as the people of God. It’s a community moment. There are times during the assembly when we might lose ourselves in communion with God, but we mustn’t lose sight of the horizontal aspect of what we’re doing. We sing to God, and we sing to one another. We seek ways to encourage one another, to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” We take the Lord’s Supper as a body, waiting on one another and considering one another. We greet one another. We confess to one another. We share prayer concerns and pray for one another.

We have many times during the week to commune with God individually. Our sharing times with our spiritual family are less frequent. Let’s not waste them! That’s a lesson I’ve needed to learn and still need to learn. I know that my spiritual life will be healthier if I do.

[Photo by Martin Boulanger, sxc.hu]

When they started worshiping

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hieroglyphicsOn Sundays, in our Bible class, we are studying the book of Exodus, using some materials that Mark Hamilton prepared for our church. This past Sunday we were looking at Exodus 12-13, the establishment of the Passover. It struck me that this would have been something totally new to the Israelites. They hadn’t been worshiping God as a community, from what we can tell. Remember that Moses worried about who to tell the people had sent him to free them. He couldn’t say “our God” because they wouldn’t have known which god he was talking about.

Then you add to that the fact that we don’t see any sort of structured worship in the book of Genesis. No assemblies. No feast days. No weekly gatherings. All you have are some people who recognize that God is God and offer sacrifices to His name, circumcising their young men as a sign of their identity as God’s people.

I guess such realizations make me stop and look at what I consider as worship. Even the establishment of Passover doesn’t fit most of my presuppositions. It was family-based worship, not community assemblies. It was once a year, not once a week. It was meal-based, not act-of-worship based. That’s where things started as far as corporate worship. I don’t think that’s where we’re supposed to be today, but I do think there are some things we can learn. I certainly don’t think we should look to be at the other end of the spectrum.

I’m grateful that God has such grace that he can meet each of us where we are and take us where he wants us to be.