Uncategorized Murray McLellan on 11 Mar 2008 03:11 pm
Considering the Church - part 4
Here is the 4th in the series by Buff Powers. Here he looks at the primary purpose why we meet together … and, surprise, it is not for worship … read on…
Conversations for Change
Article Four:
The Church Gathered
It has been said that if a rocket leaves earth heading for the moon with its trajectory off
by just a fraction of one degree, the rocket will miss the moon by thousands of miles.
What appears so insignificant an issue today when stretched out over decades can be very
harmful to the church. And one question that seems to have the church off-target today is
this one: What is the purpose for the church gathering together? Now, there is no
question whether the church should gather. We must gather! The question has to do
more with what the purpose of the gathering is. One’s answer to this question may send a
local gathering of the church of Christ on a trajectory that over the course of time is far
off target. There are three answers that the evangelical church at large believes are right
on target. The evangelical church generally believes that the church gathers for worship,
evangelism, or preaching / teaching.
I hope that you will patiently allow me to challenge these as primary purposes for the
church gathering. My thesis for this article is that the church does not gather for the
primary purpose of worshiping God, or evangelizing the lost or hearing sermons. Let me
address them in that order: worship, evangelism, preaching.
The church does not gather primarily to worship God.
Although I believe that when we gather for church as well as when we do anything else
we are to be worshipping God, the church gathering is not a “worship service.” It is not
as though we can compartmentalize life into the categories of sacred and secular. All of
life lived in Christ is sacred living. All of life is worship. The way you eat and drink in a
restaurant is as much a worship service as the way you partake of the Communion Table.
The way you sing in your car with your stereo blasting is as much a worship service as
the way you sing in church. The way you dole out money at the shopping center or car
lot is as much a worship service as when you give in an offering at church. We do
ourselves and God a tremendous disservice when we speak in terms of sacred and
secular.
In fact, I would contend that in the life of the believer there is no distinction between
sacred and secular on any level. Take literature for example. Reading a John Grisham or
a Tom Clancey novel is as much sacred time as is reading a book by John Piper or Jerry
Bridges. Take music as another example: listening to Garth Brooks, Elton John, Andrea
Bocelli, or Celine Dion is as much sacred time or worship as is listening to the Gaithers,
Michael Card, Tree 63, Newsboys, Michael W. Smith, or Mack Lynch. These things
either enhance our worship or they distract us from worshipping or living for God. But
the books and the songs, in and of themselves, are neither sacred nor secular. We are
sacred. We are sanctified. We have been set apart by God. So you can see that there is
no “service” that is to be designated as a “worship service.” Instead, all of life is
rendered as a sacrificial act of spiritual worship (cf. Rom. 12:1-2). So while worship is
happening when we gather as a church, it is not to say that it is substantially different or
categorically distinct from anything else in life. The primary purpose of the church gathered is not worship.
Everything about the Christian life is worship. The church-gathered is a subset of
Christian living. As a believer, we are worshipping God 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Yet typically we only gather with believers once or twice a week for a few hours..
Since we have fallen into the habit of calling our gatherings “worship services,” we have
subsequently fallen into a mentality that we are entering a sacred place to perform some
sacred duties as we are ministered to by some sacred people. The formality of the sacred
then feeds what I call “the performance monster.”
Meet the Performance Monster
Each Sunday, people come to the sacred place dressed in their sacred formal attire (“We
dress in such a way as to give God our best!” they say). Upon entering the sacred place
they receive the program at the door, politely smile as they are ushered to their seats, and
sit quietly while they await the opening of the “service.” The prelude music softly plays
in the background. Then the master of ceremonies stands to make a few general
announcements and commences the program with prayer. Certain sacred people
appointed for the sacred duties of “worship” appear on the stage and begin their polished
and oft-rehearsed performance of “worship music.” (This music is really only deemed as
“mood” music since it serves to set the stage for the oration.) Following the musicians’
performance is the main attraction. A lone man comes to the pulpit with his thoroughly
prepared manuscript ready to dazzle and amaze his audience with his knowledge of all
things biblical. He is a paid professional, masterfully skilled in oration (which has now
been labeled as the art of “preaching.”). Upon the completion of his speech, the people
rise to leave the comfort of the auditorium. As they flow out toward the parking lot, they
begin to critique the service on the basis of how well the sacred people performed, met
their expectations, or captivated their attention.
In this scenario there is little, if any, audience participation. And there is little to no interpersonal
interaction. The “sacred” people on the stage served the “secular” people in the
seats. And the “secular” people left the church knowing that they have done their sacred
duty for the week – they went to church. Furthermore, the entire day is judged on the
height or depth of the experience: “We need a better preacher. He is boring.” “The
music was too loud.” “The air conditioning didn’t work.” “The acoustics were pathetic.”
“I didn’t care for the costume that the guitarist was wearing.” They treat church the same
way they would treat the Opera! In my opinion, this is due, in part, to the fact that we
have treated church as a worship experience that at the end of the day can only be judged
on the merits of the performance.
But read this carefully! When we come to church we are NOT coming to a sacred place
to perform sacred duties and we are NOT ministered to by sacred people. We are NOT
under the old covenant with its sacred place – the Temple. We do not have sacred duties
– sacrifices and offerings. We do NOT have sacred attire like the OT priests as if there
are clothes for one day but not another. We are not served by sacred men – priests. Each
one of us is a priest. The dwelling place of God on earth is within his people. And
everything we do is a spiritual service of worship.
The Church does not gather primarily for evangelism.
Our church has never demonstrated this mis-emphasis as we have the former one. But
many voices in our day are crying out that the gathering of the church is for the purpose
of bringing lost seekers to the presentation of the gospel. Preachers are expected to
deliver gospel sermons and the church is to present itself in a warm, friendly and nonthreatening
manner so as to welcome sinners to Christ. The litmus test for success is seen
in the numbers of people who flock to the front during the altar call as they make a
“decision for Christ.”
The church, by definition, is a gathering of men and women who have been effectually
called out by God in Christ. The church-gathered, is by definition, for the church, not the
lost. However, the Scriptures do present the possibility that on occasion an unbeliever
may attend a church meeting, be convicted of his sins as the brethren minister to one
another through their spiritual gifts, and be converted (1 Cor.14:24-25). Nevertheless,
throughout the book of Acts, evangelism took place, not in the gatherings of believers,
but where unbelievers naturally congregated, including:
1. city streets (Acts 2:12-40)
2. the temple grounds (Acts 3:1-26)
3. a desert road (Acts 8:26-40)
4. the synagogues of non-Christian Jews (Acts 9:20-22; 13:5; 13:14-41, 44-49; 14:1-3;
17:1-4; 17:10-12; 18:19; and 19:8)
5. the home of an unbeliever (Acts 10:34-43)
6. a riverside (Acts 16:13-15)
7. prisons (Acts 16:30-31; 26:1-29; 28:23-31)
8. the market place (Acts 17:17)
9. a hill dedicated to a pagan god (Acts 17:19)
10. military barracks (Acts 21:34-22:21)
11. the governor’s official residence (Acts 23:35; 24:24-25)
The church gathers for mutual edification and then scatters to live life in the arena of the
world where they encounter unbelievers and minister the gospel to them. Once a convert
is made, that individual is baptized into the body of Christ.
When the church adopts the view that the purpose of meeting is for evangelism, its
members will inevitably remain immature and shallow since the emphasis is always on
the basics of the gospel. There is little time for going deeper into the truths of Scripture.
Furthermore, the members will re-define evangelism as bringing people to the church so
the sacred professionals can deliver the gospel. This will remove all sense of true biblical
responsibility. A member of a church can honestly believe that they are involved in
evangelism because they work the concession stand at a basketball tournament aimed at
reaching the lost. Selling candy bars is NOT evangelism.
The Church does not gather primarily for preaching.
Here is another emphasis of ours that may be a mis-emphasis. Over the past thirteen
years we have over-emphasized preaching to the exclusion of much more crucial items.
Without denying the importance of sound doctrinal instruction when the church gathers
(1 Tim.4:6,13,16; 5:17; 6:2,17; 2 Tim.4:1-4), we must beware of equating that instruction
too rigidly with the traditional sermon – the monologue. In most churches, one man (the
pastor) does all the talking, while the congregation does all the listening. There is a
certain deficiency in defining preaching as “passionate monologue.” Although the
traditional sermon may be helpful in instructing God’s people, it does not allow God’s
people to be involved in teaching, exhorting or admonishing one another, and it does not
allow the pastor to be ministered to by the rest of the congregation.
Furthermore, if the church adopts the view that the purpose of meeting as the church is to
listen to a sermon, its members will inevitably adopt a passive attitude. They will come,
take notes, and fill their minds with wonderful biblical truths, but will leave without
fulfilling their God-given spiritual responsibilities. Yes, sermons can be a powerful tool
in edifying the body, but sermons should not be allowed to crowd out the ministry of the
rest of the church.
So, What does the church primarily gather for?
I want to examine this in the next article. We need to carefully examine two passages
that describe the purpose of the church gathering: 1 Corinthians 14 and Hebrews 10. In
those passages we will discover that the church gathers primarily for mutual edification
and encouragement. The church is formulated by Christ into a body of believers and is
called the family of God. In order for the church to exist as a family of believers, there
must be mutual ministry happening.
