Worship: Key number four to revitalization
Blog post by Justin Nash
This is the fourth post in a series that will examine five key revitalization strategies for the local church. (Read the previous posts on Discipleship, Fellowship and Church Membership). Each of these strategies is intended to deepen the overall spiritual character of the church, because a deepening of the culture and spiritual character of the people of the church is likely the best and most effective means of overcoming major obstructions to renewal. As the Lord deepens and instructs his people, the deficiencies, threats and necessary changes should become clearer. This post will consider the role of worship in revitalization.
The Sunday morning worship service is central to the life and the well-being of a church. Not only is it the primary corporate gathering for the church members, it is also the primary point of contact for guests. Therefore, whatever we do in our gathered worship defines our churches and puts their health on public display.
Instead of leaning on tradition, answer the "why" of worship
When we gather for worship, what are we trying to accomplish? Many churches have never really thought about this critical question. Therefore, many just do what they have always done or what they like to do. But answering the “why” question is essential to worshiping well. While this is a bigger question than this post has the ability to address in detail, I’d like to suggest a helpful framework put forth by Matt Merker in his book “Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God’s People.”
Merker gives us the three E’s of worship: exaltation, edification and evangelism as a framework for why the church gathers in worship. One key to this structure’s helpfulness is to properly prioritize these functions of worship. If we get them out of order, the framework falls apart.
Exaltation is the primary purpose of worship
The first, and primary purpose, of our gathered worship is exaltation. God gathers his church unto his glory. The church’s primary responsibility in worship is to glorify, praise and thank God by “ascribing all honor and worth to our Creator-God precisely because he is worthy, delightfully so.” Exaltation is the heartbeat of God’s gathered people. Merker concludes, “Consider the connection between the health of a church and its ability to exalt God’s glory. We become like what we worship.”
Edification is for the mutual good of the members of the body
The second reason the church gathers in worship is for the mutual good of the members of the body. As we exalt God, we edify one another. While we address our worship to God, we simultaneously build up one another and spur one another on. Those who are filled with the Spirit show it by “addressing one another” when we make melody to the Lord (Ephesians 5:19). Our unity as a church and praise of God are connected (Romans 15:5-6). The whole church should benefit from every word, every song, every prayer.
Don't forget the seekers, evangelism is part of worship
Even as we prioritize exaltation and edification, we should aim to make our services intelligible for unbelievers. While we do not focus on seekers, we don’t forget them either. Clearly the apostle Paul expected both believes and unbelievers to be present during times of gathered worship. He references the presence of unbelievers during times of corporate worship. He writes, “Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say ‘Amen’ to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?” (1 Corinthians 13:16). Paul goes on to speak of the presence of unbelievers in the church service. The end goal being that the unbeliever would be “falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you” (1 Corinthians 14:23-25). So, the goals for crafting a corporate worship service should be the edification of believers, but in such a way that the service is open and accessible to unbelievers.
Merker makes this important observation regarding the priority of these functions,
“The way God calls us to be evangelistic when we meet is not to consider the non-Christian visitor our primary audience. Rather, the service is a family meeting of God’s people. Gathered around his throne for the priorities of exaltation and edification. But in God’s surprising way, this is precisely how he intends to use our worship services to draw people to Christ. Exaltation and edification are not at odds with evangelism. They’re exactly what the Lord uses to convert unbelievers in our midst (1 Corinthians 14:24-25).”
This means our services ought to be filled with the gospel. We exalt God by proclaiming what he has done for us at the cross. We edify one another as we rehearse who we are in Christ. In these actions, the unbeliever will see and hear the gospel call to repentance and faith.
After answering the "why" of worship, one must move on to answer the "what"
Once we settle the “why” question, we must move on to the “what” question. As in, “What will be the content of our worship services” or “What we will do when we gather together?” This is another question that will draw myriad thoughts and opinions. Again, Merker suggests a content model for worship that is centered on Scripture: Read the Word, preach the Word, pray the Word, sing the Word and show the Word.
There is clear biblical instruction that the public reading of Scripture should be part of our worship services (1 Timothy 4:13). This is also a good way to get participation from a larger segment of the church body. This can be done through have different individuals read each week, or the entire congregation can read the passage in unison.
As mentioned in an earlier post, there needs to be a firm commitment to expository preaching. The meaning of the passage of Scripture ought to be the point of the sermon. Preachers ought to preach the text to their people. Do to otherwise is for the shepherd to let his sheep starve.
Prayers can be drawn directly from the pages of the Bible. Our free church tradition eschews any thought of scripted prayers seeing them as disingenuous. But gleaning prayers from Scripture or writing out prayers based on the biblical text will help us to pray God’s words back to him and shape the hearts, minds and words of the congregation as they learn to pray.
Our songs should be full of Scripture and deep scriptural truth. This means there needs to be a meaningful song selection. Three things should be addressed in this song selection. First, the songs must have good content biblically and doctrinally. Music can be an excellent source for teaching theology. Second, there needs to be an alignment between the music and the sermon so that the music complements the message. Both of these issues will require improved communication between the pastor and the song leader. The pastor will need to get his main points of the sermon to the song leader far enough in advance for the song leader to pick appropriate songs. Third, songs that are selected should be songs the congregation knows and will actually sing. Robust congregational singing in which most everyone is participating can overcome some of the stylistic barriers the church may have. This will require the song leader to know the congregation and to pick songs that will be accessible to them.
Finally, we show the Word as we practice baptism and the Lord’s supper. Both serve as visual representations of great biblical truths. In baptism, the Word comes alive as our death and resurrection in Christ are put on display to a watching world. In the Lord’s supper, we physically represent Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. In both events, we show the Word of God in physical and palpable ways.
Changes to worship need to be gracious, patient and measured
One word of caution. Any changes in a church’s worship must be handled with grace, patience and subtly. Radical changes likely will not be well received. These changes should be slight in that they would not affect the structure of the worship service any more than is absolutely necessary. And, remember, everything doesn’t have to be changed at once. Most of these changes can be phased in over time as people become more and more comfortable with new worship practices. However, they can pay large dividends over time maturing your members and improving the overall health of the church.