Yesterday, we started talking about when worship doesn’t work. If you haven’t read the first part, please go and do so now.
It provides the necessary context.
Image Credit: sxc.hu/ortonesque
We identified something I call the “disconnect of worship.”
What is it, you ask?
It’s when Sunday morning doesn’t match up with the rest of the week.
When what we experience together on Sunday doesn’t translate into Christ-like living Monday through Saturday.
I’ll be the first to admit that it’s fun to hear people complement a worship service. To say that they really enjoyed a certain song or element. Or how something creative really “spoke” to them. That the music/band was awesome or that someone sang a particular song really well. I’ll also freely admit that is can be discouraging to go a few weeks without hearing any feedback.
But, if that is all we are focused on as worship leaders/pastors, then we are missing the mark. Our first priority isn’t to create fun and entertaining experiences for the church body to do together. While it is important for me to make sure corporate worship is accessible and participatory, it isn’t appropriate to manipulate people to sing. While I need to offer hope and a clear picture of Christ, it isn’t necessary for me to make people feel good about themselves.
My greater concern, in conjunction with my senior pastor, should be whether or not the time we spend together is resulting in life transformation. Worship should be transformational. That’s discipleship. The transformation happens in people’s lives by the work of the Holy Spirit, but the environment we create plays a role.
If people’s lives aren’t showing a pattern of transformation, we need to be asking serious questions. If we are more concerned with whether the music sounded good than with whether or not people are responding to the Gospel message, then we need to ask the Spirit to examine our own hearts.
Worship doesn’t work when people aren’t drawn a little bit more into Christ-likeness. Every week may not see masses of people committing their lives to Christ in a new way. It may not be that half the congregation signs up for a new small group or ministry opportunity. But if there isn’t a clear pattern of forward movement in people’s lives over time, then why are we doing what we do?
So, what does worship that “works” look like? In his book Exiles (Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture), author Michael Frost offers an answer from Romans 12. The Apostle Paul is counseling the Romans as to what true worship looks like, in addition to music. Worship that works can be seen through people who:
- Don’t conform to the norms of society (v2)
- Humbly express spiritual gifts in practical ways (v3-8)
- Love others (v9-10)
- Are spiritually zealous, hopeful, patient, and prayerful (v11-12)
- Are hospitable and generous (v13)
- live in harmony, with munificence (great generosity) and charity toward unbelievers (v14-21)
I think that Mark Labberton, in his book The Dangerous Act of Worship, captures this well.
The crisis the church currently faces is that our individual and corporate worship do not produce the fruit of justice and righteousness that God seeks. This creates a crisis of faithfulness before God and a crisis of purpose before the world. Scripture indicates that our personal and communal worship are meant to shape our vision and fire our engines to be daring disciples, imitating and sharing the love of Jesus Christ in acts of righteousness and justice. What’s more, the Bible teaches that the people of the world, whether they believe or not, suffer and die while waiting for us in the church to live like the people of God, demonstrating our worship with our lives (Romans 8:18-25). The heart of the battle over worship is this: our worship practices are separated from our call to justice and, worse, foster the self-indulgent tendencies of our culture rather than nurturing the self-sacrificing of the kingdom of God. We are asleep. Nothing is more important than for us to wake up and practice the dangerous act of worship, loving God’s call to justice.
As worshipers, let’s commit to doing what we can to see that worship works according to God’s standards first instead of our own.
How do you know if worship works in your church? What have you learned about this? Leave a comment below.
Great posts, Chris. Very thought provoking. I’m wondering if one step towards “waking up” and engaging in connected worship that “brings God’s loving justice,” is for Christians to truly start loving the lost. Not only caring about their eternal destiny, but caring about their current plight, whatever that may look like. I see too many Christians fighting a public battle with little caring about the individual needs that the debated issues represent. Yet, it is all so complicated, and there are no easy answers. Having made such a statement I would say the first step is making sure my own heart is connected to the One who has the answers. Thanks for spurring me on to evaluate what connected worship looks like; to love others and do all I can for the glory of our God.
Thanks for reading and sharing, Amy. It could be a chicken/egg type situation. Do we love God, and then that will make us love others? Or do we love others, and then we will love God more fully? I don’t know that we can really separate the two since they seem to exist hand-in-hand.