Worship can be an
individual or corporate act, but the Church – clearly based on New Testament
teaching – has always emphasized the importance of worshiping with other
believers (often called corporate worship). Christians are called to worship
corporately as a reminder that the Church is a family of God and because God is
glorified when a group of believers gather in unity to worship him. Jesus promised
in Matthew 18:20 that when two or more Christians are gathered together in his
name, he’ll be in their midst. That doesn’t mean that Jesus isn’t with an
individual Christian who’s praying and worshiping, but clearly Jesus was
emphasizing that there’s something special about worshiping together.
During the New
Testament times, worship was usually held in homes and occasionally in Jewish
synagogues. However, after the Church grew and became more organized, local
communities began constructing church buildings for group worship. That same
practice continued on through the centuries to the present day. Some Protestant
groups now gather in places outside of church buildings (homes, school gyms,
and so on), but the focus remains the same – worshiping together as the Body of
Christ.
Deciding when to
worship
Protestants
commonly call the time when Christians get together to worship a worship
service, while Catholics refer to it as Sunday Mass. Although Jews worshiped on
the last day of the week, Saturday (also called the Sabbath), the early Christians
decided to set aside the first day of the week (Sunday) for worship, instead,
because Jesus was resurrected on that day. This tradition has carried on
through the ages, although rare exceptions exist where believers still observe
the Jewish Sabbath as the proper day to worship God.
For Catholics,
Sunday Mass can actually occur on either Saturday evening or Sunday morning. The
reasoning is that they follow the old Hebrew practice of recognizing a new day
at sundown rather than at sunrise.
Many Protestant
churches offer Saturday evening services as well. Sometimes, the service helps
accommodate people’s busy weekend schedules. Other times, the motivation is to
appeal to teen or young adult age groups.
The secret to successful
worship: Preparation
Sunday mornings
are hectic for many Christians; just getting to church in one piece is often an
accomplishment! Consider the following typical scenario: The alarm clock doesn’t
work (Hmmm...), causing you to oversleep. You rush out of bed, jump in the
shower, and then hop in the car – if you’re lucky, grabbing a change of clothes
and a cup of java in between. Next, you dash off to church, outrunning to local
sheriff who tries to chase you down for speeding. Then, just before the service
begins and as you’re looking out the window for flashing sirens, the kid
sitting behind you starts repeatedly kicking your pew, giving you a pounding
headache. As a result, by the time the service begins, your mindset is nowhere
near being focused on worship. What ends up happening is that your racing mind
constantly replays your frustrating and hectic morning before you can finally
put on the mental brakes and get focused. But, by then, the worship service is
over and you’ve missed your chance. Preparation is, therefore, the real secret
to being in a proper frame of mind to worship. Consider the following tips:
If you attend
church in the morning, plan ahead to get up early to avoid the morning rush.
Spend time
reading the Bible, praying, and listening to worship music before you leave for
church.
Be early or, at
least, on time. Coming in late not only makes it hard for you to worship, but
it also has an impact on others around you.
After you take
your seat in church, use the moments before the worship service begins to clear
your mind and prepare your spirit for worship.
Overall, a
Christian’s goal is to have an attitude of worship by the time the worship
service begins.
Exploring Ways to
Worship: Liturgical Versus Free Worship
Although Christians
tend to agree on what worship is, exactly how to worship is a matter of much
discussion and debate. The Church has had different perspectives on this issue
for centuries, but these differences seem to have peaked within the past forty
years.
Christians hold
two basic viewpoints on how the Church should conduct worship:
Liturgical worship:
Embracing tradition, the liturgical (or high church) view looks at the early
Church model and aims to duplicate it. Not only do proponents of liturgy
(rituals and ceremony) say that it’s the most biblical approach, they also say
that only through the liturgy can you worship God in awe and reverence. These Christians
believe that repeating liturgy from the early Church strengthens Christians
today by providing a link to the past.
Free worship: The
free worship (or low church) view embraces the adaptability of the gospel in a
contemporary setting, saying that modern worship should pull from the practices
of the early Church, but not clone them. Free worship advocates believe that
their worship approach is in line with Jesus’ ministry because he spoke against
the empty traditions that the religious leaders of his day performed. They see
free worship as being flexible to the needs of the congregation and allow for a
more informal environment that they believe makes people feel more comfortable
opening their hearts.
I discuss these
two perspectives more in the sections that follow.
It’s important to
note that, although both sides of this debate make important points about what
can go wrong using the other worship style, neither side produces an airtight
biblical argument in support of its style or against the other. It’s important
to remember that God didn’t use a cookie cutter when he created people. Christians
have likes and dislikes that aren’t always the same as those of other
Christians – a point that they always seem to have a hard time remembering. By and
large, Christianity says that so long as worship expression is within the
boundaries of biblical teaching, it glorifies God. Ultimately, Christian
worship, no matter the style, should emphasize both reverence toward God and a
closer personal relationship with the Lord.
Taking the high
road with liturgy
A liturgical
church provides a rigid structure to the order of the worship service and uses
liturgy as a key part of the worship experience. Copying the worship patterns
of the early Christian Church, they have a set structure for their normal
services, often emphasizing written prayers and creeds and a repeated set of
music. In general, all churches of the same type (Catholic, Orthodox, and so
on) use this structure consistently year after year – see Chapter 10 for more
on the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Liturgical churches also have an
organized structure for special services, such as for baptism, Christmas,
Easter, and Palm Sunday. In terms of music, liturgical churches sing
traditional hymns, either accompanied by an organ or a cappella, without
musical accompaniment (see the section, “Incorporating Music: A Call to Musical
Arms,” later in this chapter).
Liturgical churches
place a high degree of priority on creating a worship environment that displays
grandeur, mystery, and reverence toward God, paying attention to every detail,
including the structure of the church buildings themselves. The medieval
cathedrals and the traditional American stained-glass-clad churches all reveal
this emphasis in the intricacy of their design. Liturgical churches focus their
services on expressing reverence and awe to God through these physical
surroundings along with the tried-and-true order and ceremonies of worship.
The sacraments
play a central role in a liturgical church. Catholic and Orthodox churches,
both liturgical, place greater emphasis on the role of the sacraments in
salvation than do Protestants (check out Chapter 8 for the skinny on the
sacraments). Naturally, then, Catholics and Orthodox Christians believe that
the purpose of liturgy is to enable Christ to be present through worship in
order to produce a saving encounter with God. Many Protestant denominations,
however, such as Episcopalian, Lutheran, and United Methodist, have a
liturgical style of worship, but see worship as an expression of a Christian’s
inward saving faith, not as an activity directly related to salvation itself.
Of all the strands of Christianity, the Orthodox
Church undoubtedly places the highest value on liturgy. That’s because it sees
liturgy as a primary way in which one experiences true Christianity. As Chapter
10 explains, worship becomes something that involves all the senses – sight (icons,
architecture), hearing (music), smell (incense), touch (baptism), and taste
(Communion) – to awaken the hearts of believers and wipe away the stains of a
sinful soul. The Orthodox Church has performed the same liturgical practices
for centuries and is resistant to any change in those practices. Because these
practices are the main method of the Church’s expression, they see changing the
liturgy as equivalent to tweaking the core tenets of the Christian faith.
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