Worship--What the Heck?

One of the most frustrating things about being interested in Christianity and especially in Greek and Hebrew is that I have to suffer through hearing other people butcher texts and run roughshod over them (What up Dr. T!!).

This is ESPECIALLY true with the word "Worship."

Some common definitions heard in pulpits (and behind music stands) are that it "literally" means to ascribe worth, and the Greek "literally" means to kiss toward.

Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhhh, but........

Here's the thing. Yes, in Greek the word translated as worship can be broken up with the words toward and kiss. But a word is generally not the sum of its parts. Consider the word "diaphragm," which "literally" means "across a fence." Ummmmm, what?

Anyhow, when we worship, we are not, somehow, blowing kisses at our boyfriend, Jesus. Rather, the "kiss toward" is kissing the ground in front of a king, like you lost a contact lens. It is prostrate position, bowing down, bending over, to do homage, etc., etc., etc. Similarly, the Hebrew word for worship just means "to bend over." No confusion there.

Ergo...

When we "worship" God, we are not sending up silly love songs (and yes, Paul McCartney, I have had enough of silly love songs about God!) or just saying what he's worth (Far more than you can imagine!). If you want the absolute best expression of true worship found in the Bible, it comes from the mouth of John the Dunker (traditionally: "Baptist"):

"He must increase, but I must decrease!" (KJV)
"He must become greater; I must become less." (NIV)
"[He must] move into the center, while I slip off to the sidelines." (MSG)

So simple, yet the implications are farther than we can see. It is about words (including songs) and deeds (yes, works! <>) that increase God's reputation on earth, that increase God's value and importance to us, that increase his authority over our lives! He must increase!

And proportionally, we must decrease! The best part of Purpose Driven Life is the first sentence: "It's not about you." It's not about me. It's ALL about Jesus.

Worship happens when we are alone, face to face with God, when we are with other Christians, and when we act like His kids to both the sheep and the annoying goats (we were all goats at some point in our lives).

God is not "most glorified in us when we are most satisfied with him" (a la John Piper). Rather, God is most glorified, honored, and worshiped by us when He is the biggest and we are the "leasterest," as the apostle Paul so beautifully invented (Eph. 3:8).

Defining Church

I was listening to a favorite preacher of mine the other day (hoo-ray for podcasts!) and he was talking about needing to define what a church is before you start one.

Sounds logical.

I decided to try a little bit, so here goes:
"Church" in the Greek is actually best defined as "Assembly." Much like the word "synagogue," it can refer to both the members (primary) and the place of assembly (secondary). Since the Greeks had all kinds of assemblies (political, religious, parties, etc.), the reason for assembling was very important. The reason Christians assemble is to worship Jesus, our great God and Savior.

So, step one, assembly should involve worship.

The New Testament gives some hints at other things that should happen when Christians assemble: prayers, use of spiritual gifts, public reading of scripture, encouragement, giving money, meeting needs, confession of sin, prophecy/teaching, baptism, Eucharist/Agape meal, and several other things. But of course, the focus of all these things is Jesus.

We (scholars and I) are pretty certain that early Christians used and adapted the synagogue sabbath service as a guide for their assemblies, which involved prayers, singing, Scripture reading, and teaching.

I could blog about this all night, but the conviction I come down to is this:

Church--
A group of people who assemble together at regular intervals for the purpose of worshiping Jesus Christ as our God and the only hope of eternal life. In these times, Christians are to obey the highest commands of Jesus to love God and to love each other by means of using their spiritual gifts to build each other up as growing students of Jesus to the glory and praise of God.

Then, I should maybe add something about sacraments and church discipline (accountability) and something about leadership. But I think I've already blogged enough about those things and I'm sure people are already sick of my fantastic armchair quarterback abilities.

Send me some comments if you dare....I might just reply to them....but I probably won't.

Something Nice

Just so I'm not misunderstood, here's my definition of "traditional" church:

A church whose mission focus and front door is the Sunday Worship service, with the service's main focus being the sermon, and whose supplemental programs focus almost exclusively on classroom learning.

According to this definition, most "contemporary" churches are the same as traditional ones, just with different instruments.

I've been challenged by several parties to say something nice about them. Here goes: they did a great job teaching a lot of people music. Almost all of the best musicians come from this church background (i.e., me) even if they don't stay there (i.e., me).

But the problems I hope to overcome are:
1) they are audience-focused, not God-focused, you couldn't meet God if you tried.
2) the services depend on a completely passive audience (yes, they do!)
3) since there is no time to connect, people never see the "real people" there, just superficial masks that add to a huge hypocrisy problem
4) only a handful of people "do ministry" on a weekly basis, and only because they are paid!

And I will also say this:
the traditional/contemporary church taught me that these four things are indeed problems, but these churches just don't realize that the format is what causes the problems, not necessarily the incredibly sinful people that don't listen.

We need to ask these questions now:
1) How can I teach in a way that leads people to God?
2) How can I encourage participatory learning?
3) What do I do to provide time for busy people to really connect with each other?
4) How can I let more and more people minister to each other (entertainment doesn't count!)?

The short answer is to make churches less like a night at the symphony and more like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. One changes broken lives, the other is an excuse to play dress-up and schmooze with people you don't even like. Which one is your church?

Transparency

As I have been in different Sunday school classes in my career as a church attender, it seems like the hardest thing to do is to get people to answer questions, discuss their life, or whatever. One thing I have found that can reverse the trend is a little transparency.

The problem, however, is that inbred Christian churches (i.e., churches grow by the majority of transfer membership, and never affect the unchurched population) do not create an atmosphere conducive to transparency---that is, people are intimidated to talk about their mistakes.

Basically, it has to begin with the leadership. The pastor has to stop pretending to be perfect. In my opinion (and I know many will disagree with this), it begins by dressing like a normal person, even on Sunday!

We often don't realize it, but by trying to look nice, act happy, and appear holy on Sunday mornings, we are promoting the idea that God is sectioned off from the normal parts of our lives---we do things different at church from the way we do things at home, therefore, I have to dress up and act nice in order for God to accept me, and when I'm in dumpy clothes and and irritated, then God wants nothing to do with me.

The solution? Teachers, leaders, and others need to start freely admitting their failures, mistakes, sins, and start modeling a continuous lifestyle of repentance for the people they teach and lead and disciple. It means apologizing when you're wrong. It means using stories and illustrations about yourself where you are the villain and not the hero.

This is yet another reason why I love working for Set Free. There is zero pretension there. Even the pastor is a recovering alcoholic. Everybody there wears the same clothes they do during the week. And our Bible studies are amazing because nobody there is afraid of looking bad because we all already look bad.

I also recently learned that Charles Wesley used to kick people out of his church that dressed up too much. I may just continue that practice in my church!

Sit Down and Shut Up!!

I have really been thinking hard (aka wasting time) about coming up with a new purpose of the church. Basically, what I have seen is that churches want everyone but the pastor and song leader to just listen to them.

This is partially why I do so much music stuff in churches: A) I can't sit down or sit still long enough and B) I hate the music in most churches (but I already blogged about that!).

However people try to baptize it, church is basically just for the entertainment of the members. Sure, you sing along some times, but don't people even do that at music theaters and some movies?? Then, of course, there's the issue of taking the Lord's Supper out of all but four services a year. What's the point of even going to church? I don't do anything, there are better preachers and music on the radio, and the people are usually doing their own thing and cannot bring themselves to say anything more than "howya doin?" when they see you.

Both on paper and in practice, church needs to be a place where everybody does something, or has the opportunity to contribute something to the overall experience. This is one of the reasons that I am so enamoured with the house churches. I am still working on how to translate this into a larger setting. If it does translate into a larger setting, it may mean putting a heavier emphasis on small groups than on the "worship" service, which I am leaning toward calling a teaching service, because worship is more than an hour on Sunday: if worship is only for one hour a week, then it isn't worship!

What gets accomplished at church? If the church is just spinning wheels, no wonder so many people don't want to go!

Every member has something to offer, yet most do not have any idea what they can do for Jesus or for each other. And that's a problem. It might even be THE problem.

I'm Andrew Riley,
Good night, and good luck.

So What's the Remedy?

In quick response to my last posts, I want to propose a solution to the "problems." My main problem is that the older forms of churches are out of touch with culture, but not in the good way. While being irrelevant to the sinful elements of culture is absolutely what the church is called to do, we are not commanded to just be relevant to older cultures. Missionaries have learned this and work with their people to produce biblically-faithful AND culturally relevant Christianity.

As far as music, I love a lot of hymns, but the music is awful!! I love how many musicians are putting old words to new music. Whenever I hear an old style hymn next to a modern song, it just clashes so horribly, like plaid and polka dot! You can keep the words, just modify the tune and chord structure. It may be fine for Martin Luther, but it makes me cringe.

As to culture, there are many innocent cultural forms, such as music, clothes (as long as they cover up all the naughty parts), hairstyles, architecture, furniture, technology, language, and so many other things! However, the church must always take a strong stand against things that are universally sinful, such as extramarital sex, homosexuality, lying, stealing, drunkenness, rage, hatred, oppression, greed, violence against women, rape, murder, abortion, child abuse, racism, injustice, idolatry, and I'm sure there are others that I forgot to mention.

Let me say about language that the church needs to ensure that she is understood. People need to know what they accept/reject. When was the last time you heard someone use the words exalt, holy, sanctification, repentance, propitiation, or blasphemy in regular speech outside the church? Yet all these words were very secular first century words that everybody knew and used. What if instead we said, honor, pure, purification, turning away, satisfaction, or slander?

Finally, does anyone really like to be lectured? Traditional churches often want you to attend around five church lectures per week. Give me a break! All churches need to put up or shut up! Quit talking about it and do it! People learn better by doing anyway! Jesus always balanced his teaching approach between listening and doing. Gee, maybe we should do that too.

OK, I'm done with my little rants. Hopefully I've hit some nerves and people will send me some nasty hate mail. It's OK, I can take it.

What's Wrong with Traditional Churches? Part 3

Finally, in my scathing assessments of what everybody else is messing up, I want to say a word about Seeker/Purpose Driven/Vineyard/Contemporary churches.

I find it a peculiar irony that these churches still call themselves "contemporary" when most of them are based on Baby Boomer sensibilities perfected in the 1960s-80s.

These churches are now falling into the temptation to perpetuate a dying culture, yet some are realizing that the morally-neutral aspects of church culture need to evolve in order to take Jesus the next generation.

I will say it again, the "morally-neutral" aspects should change. Music is absolutely morally-neutral, and if you disagree, then why are you not singing the Hebrew and Greek styles that the first century church used? There is nothing sinful about an electric guitar or drums.

My biggest problem with the "contemporary" church is, however, the music. Why do all the songs have to be in a gay, Elton John/hippie/happy-clappy style? And why are all the songs totally devoid of teaching and depth?

"You are worthy and wonderful" WHY?!?!?
"We love You, Lord" WHY?!?!!?
"We lift You up!" WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN????

I love what Mark Driscoll says about these churches, where Jesus is portrayed as a "gay, hippie in a dress" that you sing "prom songs" to. (I think he says that in each of his books and interviews but I took it from "Confessions of a Reformission Rev.")

Then, of course, there is the whole issue of the CEO-style leadership that all these churches have, and the desire to entertain seekers rather than follow Jesus. How did this get to be so popular?

What's Wrong with Traditional Churches? Part 2

Next in my series of "everybody's wrong but me" in church matters comes "What's wrong with traditional baptist-style churches.

Traditional Southern Baptist or Independent Baptist churches do not really have the same problems as say the traditional Lutheran or Anglican/Episcopalian churches. But a similar weakness exists.

They arose from 18th-19th century hillbilly and farming communities across the South. This is why so many church planting efforts from the SBC have been such spectacular failures up North, except among those who used to live in the South.

So I have the same problem: in order to become a Christian one has to change from a 21st century person into someone who likes old-timey stuff and white gospel music, along the lines of "O Brother Where Art Thou." (believe it or not, gospel used to be the "pop" music of the 40s and 50s!). Again, it's perpetuating a culture that wasn't even that good to begin with, but old habits die hard. So many things in traditional churches are sacred cows, but they weren't even invented until 1700 years or more after Jesus died! So why is it sacrosanct if it's not even in the Bible? Things such as pews, pianos, organs, steeples, those stupid little Lord's Supper crackers, Gaither music, wearing suits to church, Sunday School (an 18th cent. invention!!), most hymns, titles such as Reverend, talking to God in Shakespearean English, and so on. (although they do get baptism right!)

Also, most of these style churches have ZERO baptisms/year because they are made up of curmudgeonly old people who hate young people, hate lost people, and hate each other, and they especially hate change!

So basically, because I am not a hillbilly farmer from the post-civil war South, they have nothing to offer me (except the awesome fried chicken pot lucks), and they don't want anything that I have to offer....

That is, until I show my skills in men's gospel quartet singing!

What's Wrong with Traditional Churches? Part 1

I was just asked by a Christian friend today, "what's wrong with traditional churches?" Seeing as that's kind of a loaded question, I'll try to tread lightly here.

First of all, let me say that every church is different, and what I'm about to say does not apply to every church, so if it doesn't apply, don't be offended.

The main problem I have with the traditional church is that it arose out of a culture that really doesn't exist anymore, that is, Victorian/Colonial western society. Believe it or not, traditional churches were VERY culturally relevant in times past, but it was and is VERY different from the first century church. (First Cent. church had no building, no staff, no instruments, and had no connections to government, but used grassroots efforts to change their world).

The Bible was written in language that regular Jews and Gentiles understood. Now, traditional churches use language that only exists in church, so there is a huge disconnect that is perpetuated by church, instead of building bridges to lost people.

Thus, in traditional churches, for a person to be saved, they must not only change religion from whatever to Christianity, they must also stop being 21st century Americans and become 17th-18th century Englishmen!

Sure, Victorian England is cool and all, but why should that culture be the only way to properly worship God?

I think that every culture should have a way to worship God in their own way without bringing in paganism or idolatry or heresy or impurity. There's a bunch of stuff in the Bible about every tribe, tongue, and nation worshiping God.

What Would Jesus Sing?

This is one of those things that I don't think anyone would find profound but me, but I was thinking tonight about Jesus singing. I don't recall that I've ever heard anyone ever talk about Jesus singing. The more I thought about it though, I just wondered how weird it would be with all those Psalms about the Jewish Messiah. Would Jesus sing about himself?

Surely he sang often. Jewish liturgy would almost demand it. But what about in his free time? Did he have one of the apostles lead in worship before the sermon on the mount. Did he have private worship times when he went alone to pray? I can only guess that he directed the worship toward the Father, but the whole trinity thing is way beyond me.

Then I wonder, would Jesus ever sing about us? Of course not in worship, but if we sing when we're happy, did Jesus sing when he was happy with his disciples? In the preschool Sunday School class, we have songs where we can insert every child's name and sing about them. Would Jesus sing songs like that about his children?

I've heard the phrase "God loves you/me" so many times that it really doesn't strike me as amazing anymore. I get more excited when I think that God actually LIKES me, is proud of me, is working for my good, is on my side, gave his life to rescue me, enjoys my company, likes it when I use the gifts he gave me, is happy when I work with my brothers and sisters, and so on.

While I can't answer any of my own rhetorical questions, it is quite a comforting thought to think about Jesus in heaven singing, "I love Andrew, this you know, for my Gospel tells you so."

Worship Leadership

I once had a class by the same name as the title of this post. I'll just say this, I was disappointed. Since I have my feet in both camps (worship and pastorate), I thought I'd put down what I would like to see in a worship leader.

I get frustrated with music/worship-types many times because they are often theologically shallow and performance/entertainment driven. My view is very opposite of this philosophy. In Hebrews, worship/praise is described as a metaphorical sacrifice: Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. --Heb 13:15

In light of this, the worship leader is like the priest, and his responsibility is to see to it that the sacrifice is acceptable to God. This goes WAY beyond musical talent. One of the most popular worship leaders today is David Crowder. To put it gently, this guy is not cute. On top of that, his voice really isn't that great either. What he has, though, is complete dependence on Jesus, which comes through often in his music.

Without dragging this on too long, honesty, humility, and heart go a lot further for me than technical precision and flare. Also, churches really need to get away from the professional musician mentality. Instead, worship leaders need to coach people on how to best let their heart and passion shine through their musical expression. Sure God wants and deserves our best, but my best is different from everyone else's best. I guess I just want to say that a worship leader should bring out the best in people, so that we can all corporately praise God with a spirit of unity, and with one mouth glorify the only Savior, Jesus Christ.

Also, ministers of music should not make and distribute illegal copies of copyrighted music. If you don't like it, write your own music.