A call to worship

Adam Couchman says we’ve got it all so wrong. 

B

y virtue of my present appointment I have had the opportunity to visit a few different corps throughout the territory I am in (Australia Eastern) to participate in and, at times, provide leadership for worship.  In the course of my travels I am seeing some disturbing trends and some of these are very concerning indeed. Firstly, a little history…

Many would be well aware of the so-called “Worship Wars” in which “contemporary” battled “traditional” and no one ended up winning; not even the compromiser of “blended” worship (the neutral Swiss in this battle). Following on the revival of the charismatic movement and the emphasis upon Church growth, the war cry of “Contemporary” was “New is good, Old is bad”. As a result, anything that was older than tomorrow, or beared even a striking resemblance to anything that had been used in the past, was thrown out because it no longer “worked” or was “relevant” (apparently) and the replacement of the “brand spanking new” was employed, often times with little or no more “effect” (insert “bums on seats”) than before…

You know the time I’m referring to… you don’t need me to explain it…

The big problem is that when we inserted the “new” often it was done uncritically. Churches looked at the big players like Willow Creek, or Saddleback, or Hillsong and simply tried to do what the latest technology in computers was capable of… “Plug and Play”. We bought into the latest software (new worship and programs) - unaware or uninformed that there was an incredible amount of training and skill required to operate it (e.g. contemporary worship) - inserted this wonder-working device into our own church and…

The Blue Screen of Death!

You know the one. When your halfway through some really important, difficult and time-consuming work and then it happens; your computer freezes and instead of displaying what was moments ago your (inevitably) unsaved work, you are now trying to decipher some completely foreign terminology spewed up from the innards of your PC in the form of white text on a blue screen… Computer failure!… the blue screen of death!

I have to be completely honest… I have been seeing this screen a lot lately. Not on my work computer, but on the faces and lives of people around the territory. As I travel around and participate in the “worship” that is being offered around the various corps, by and large (of course there are exceptions) people have forgotten how worship is meant to be. It’s become meaningless, unimportant, and ineffective. You can see it written all over people’s faces. A desperate nothingness mixed with complete boredom. In many cases people just turn up out of routine, compulsion, or because their child was not involved in their sport that particular day. 

This is incredibly sad for me…

This is an immensely complex problem that requires serious theological, Biblical and most of all pastoral thought and concern. The pastoral aspect was the one we forget the most on the battlefields of “brass” vs “guitar”. One of the main contributing factors, in my opinion, has been the rhetoric of “worship evangelism”.  What I mean by this is the desire to focus our weekly worship gathering on being primarily about presenting the gospel to those who have not heard it before. This saw the gathering change from “reverence” to “relevance”; from “exaltation” to “entertainment”; and from “holiness” to “helpfulness”. 

The huge problem here is that in conflating worship and evangelism into one event, we actually stopped doing both. The move towards more “entertaining” worship gave us some short-lived motivation to “bring people to church”. Why? So that they could be “evangelised”?Slowly but surely, we stopped evangelising in any other setting. We stopped sharing the gospel anywhere but in the gathering. At the same time, because our Sunday gathering became about the “seeker”, all we got fed was the “milk” of the gospel message over and over again. We stopped serving the “main meals” that Christians need, and just kept serving up the basic rations. People stopped evangelising, people stopped worshipping, programs stopped working… computer failure… Blue screen of death!

We have two important changes to make:

1. Firstly, our worship needs to be worship. I know worship is more than “an hour on Sunday” but I am deliberately referring here to our corporate and weekly gathering. This event is about joining with the Spirit of God as he draws us, through the Son, into fellowship with the Father and with one another. Funnily enough, I suspect that if we get this right we might just become attractive to those who are not a part of that gathering. Note I am not referring to getting the “music” right, or the “PowerPoint” or even the “message”. I’m talking about getting the “worshipping together to and in the Triune God” right. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32)… It may also become evangelistic, but as a secondary outcome of our primary purpose here - worship.

2. Secondly, our evangelism needs to be evangelism. We need to get well and truly past this concept that “bringing people to church on Sunday” is the be all and end all of evangelism. The results of that approach are obvious - it becomes just about those “bums on seats”, and evangelism becomes the sole responsibility then of the preacher. This can lead to the preacher becoming incredibly guilt ridden when “results” (again, “bums on seats”) don’t occur. How much more effective could we be if all Christians were engaged in evangelism for every one of the 168 hours available to them in any one week?

While I’m at it, we also need to get over the obsession with “friendship evangelism”. If I’m to be perfectly honest, I find it much easier to share “resurrected life in Christ” with a stranger than my closest friends and family. That may just be an excuse, but subconsciously I guess there’s more “on the line” if the relationship goes sour as a result. So, please, you evangelise my friends, and I’ll evangelise yours. Together, we might just evangelise the world. While we’re at it, let’s “befriend those who have no friends”… Now where have I heard that phrase before. Oh, that’s right … My Officer’s covenant.

I recognise the enormity of this challenge. What I am talking about is a complete “reboot” of our worship. Perhaps even a “rebuild” (if I may be permitted to stretch that computer metaphor just a little bit further). The starting point in this task, I suggest, is to join with the disciples in Luke 11:1 and plead with the Lord to “teach us how to pray”. This may mean learning once again to pattern our worship around the Lord’s Prayer; allowing the worship words of Christ to become our own once again. This kind of worship can only occur in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23). The Spirit, who intercedes on our behalf (Romans 8:26) even when we don’t even know how to pray (all the symptoms seem to suggest that we don’t), brings us by our resurrected and ascended mediator Jesus Christ (1 Tim 2:5) into the very throne room of God the Father, who is actively seeking worshippers of this kind (John 4:23).

“Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16).

My heartfelt desire is that our worship will truly be worship and our evangelism truly will be evangelism. God help us in this task. “Lord, teach us how to pray”.

For the glory of the Triune God and for the purpose of his kingdom, may it be so.

Writer: Captain Adam Couchman is currently the Director for the School for Christian Studies at Booth College, Australia Eastern Territory. He loves reading, talking, discussing, thinking, and re-thinking all things theological. Most of all, he just wants to “be Holy as God is holy”. Adam is married to Megan and together they have two girls - Brielle and Annabelle.

2 Comments to A call to worship

1. Thanks Adam for a beautifully articulated assessment of the “way things really are”. It seems ridiculous that although we realise how important worship is, we are still really rubbish at it.

   We got too caught up in all of that band and songsters nonsense and now some of the ‘oldies’ are paralysed with fear that the whole obsession was a waste of their precious lives.

   The ‘youngsters’ are not tolerant of this and so the tensions continue.

   We live in interesting times!

   Peter B.
Peter B. on February 16th, 2010

2. I’ve been away from the Army for almost 30 years and the worship style has been a real challenge. I asked a friend to read the post, though, and give me his thoughts. His church is contemporary and alive and he said this:

   “Cheryl, if this fellow is believed worship must be terrible in Army circles! Somehow, I doubt that is uniformly true. What we read here is “this is the way worship works for me so make sure you all do it that way.” While well intentioned, so were the Pharisees who also were prescriptive. Patterning our worship as he suggests around the Lord’s Prayer may work for him but it should not be normative for others.

   Some thoughts:

   Blended services don’t work. They offend both traditionalists and contemporary minded worshippers as there is never enough of each style to please people and folks are put off by the other style. There is much research on this–don’t do it.

   Likewise, don’t do as a Methodist church I preached at on behalf of the Mission does: the first service is contemporary, the second blended and the 3rd traditional. I asked the Pastor how I should dress for the different services. He said for the first take off your suit coat, for the second, put it on and for the 3rd, wear your pulpit robe. I did as he asked. The church is trying to maintain 3 identities and they do none of them well. The key is to decide whether you are traditional or contemporary and put all your resources into getting really good at the one you decide you are and never do the other!

   Early in the contemporary movement there were many choruses that had insipid words. I find the songs today to be much stronger theologically. The ones we use at my church are, at least. We also sing “Amazing Grace” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” every month as well but in a little bit more up-tempo manner.

   There is good worship and bad worship regardless of the style. They both are valid, take work and appeal to different groups and cultures of people. Whatever one you choose, do it very, very well.

   We don’t conflate worship and evangelism. I agree with the blog writer on this. Our worship services are for worship not evangelism. However, we give people an opportunity to accept Christ at the end of every service. If you trust the power of the Holy Spirit to convict people of their sin and to draw them closer to Christ, the best atmosphere for the Spirit to work in is one of worship.

   I agree that evangelism is the work of the church and not mainly the Pastor’s but it’s really the work of the Holy Sprit; “irrestible grace”, as Wesley put it.

   Just my 2 cents!

   Cheryl
Cheryl on March 13th, 2010

Leave a comment