The Case for Worshiping Together
September 2nd, 2011
R. D. Glenn
The last few months have seen us experimenting with our worship services. Our humble, prayerful goals include both pastoral considerations and evangelistic opportunities.
1) Pastoral Considerations
A. Your Needs
Personal edification is one important aspect of our corporate worship. In other words, corporate worship is intended to shift our focus from our self and our sinfully misguided affections to the glory of God. As such, it is a personal experience done corporately. The personal component is intimate, appealing to our complete person by engaging everything from our emotions, our memories, our bodies and our tongues. For this reason, corporate worship comes with strong personal preferences.
Often we say things like, “I like that song,” or “this particular liturgy is my favourite.” Building up and strengthening our personal faith is a legitimate function for corporate worship.
Our former worship pattern, i.e., two distinct services, has met some of the preferences of some of our people. However, time and again I hear from many St. George’ites who prefer worshiping in the combined/blended service forms we tend to use over the summer and for special festivals.
My sense, after 6 years of observation and 3 years of more intentional and prayerful assessment, is that our congregation’s preference for a blended/combined service falls within the normal bell-curve. That is to say that roughly 66% of our people distinctly prefer worshiping in one blended/combined service, for diverse reasons. If my informal, pastoral evaluation is accurate then that leaves roughly 33% of our people who may not favour a blended/combined service (again, roughly 16% of those prefer an entirely historic worship service, and roughly 16% preferring an entirely contemporary worship service).
From my conversations over the past 3 years, the majority of those within the 33% who personally prefer one particular style over blended worship see benefits in blended/combined worship that outweigh their personal preference.
B. Fellowship
Our time together in corporate worship serves another function. It brings people together who would never, in any other sphere of life, cross paths. In corporate worship we see a unique work of the Spirit of God, bringing deep fellowship and unity that transcends socio-economic status, sex and age. This special ‘togetherness’, if you will, is not something we could fabricate; it is a work of the Spirit. This work of the Spirit has marked the church from its beginning. It is so special that the scriptures use a word to describe the ‘togetherness’ of the early church used no where else (Acts 1:14, 2:1, 2:46, 4:24, Romans 15:6)
Sadly our tendency is to follow the lead of our culture, rather than witness of scripture and the leading of the Spirit. We develop ministries around affinity, sex and age. We tend to compartmentalize and so work against one of the very defining traits of the church.
‘Togetherness’ serves at least two functions. The first is fellowship, the second is witness.
If we can come together, setting aside our personal preferences and our dominant desire to spend time with people like ourselves, we will gain a depth and richness of fellowship otherwise lost. Also, our diversity is a sign to visitors and the world around us that God is at work. What else could explain surgeons worshiping next to the homeless, or senior citizens glorying in the presence of God standing next to youth?
We must push against our tendency to ghettoize. Personal comfort and preference have the potential to prevent the depth of fellowship and strength of witness that God could bring about in our midst.
C. Logistics
Having one blended/combined service opens many ministry opportunities. As we have during seasonal festivals, we will enjoy a larger, more diverse choir. We will have a deeper pool for Sunday School teachers and nursery workers. Our coffee-time and occasional potlucks and after service meetings and classes will all work better. We can even consider a time of adult education before or after the service.
Combining to one service seems to make sense.
2) Evangelistic Opportunities
A. The Mission Field
While ministering to our needs is one important goal in corporate worship, we must also consider our mission to reach our city with the gospel of Jesus.
We ought always to consider how our services of corporate worship connect the unbeliever, or the person struggling with belief, to Jesus and to His church.
The blended/combined worship service feels like the best shape for our corporate worship, when we consider our neighbours, friends, family, co-workers and the city that is our mission field. In working through a blended worship service, we will seek form a service that is accessible to an ‘average’ person in Burlington, inviting and allowing them to connect with the majesty and transcendence of God.
B. Our Role
There are almost 100 churches listed in the Yellow Pages in the city of Burlington. We are not the only one! This simple fact invites us to consider the body of Christ her in our city and to ask the question, ‘Where do we fit?’
The body of Christ in Burlington already has non-liturgical, free-form Evangelical churches. Our calling is not to become the ‘cool-movie-theatre-church’, but something else.
In the city of Burlington, there seems to be a clear need for a worship service with a solid liturgical backbone, progressive musical creativity and clear biblical preaching. We feel that this is our ‘part’ in the ‘body’ in our city.
3) Conclusion
With these thoughts in mind, we will be working to build better worship services. This will include the prayerful exploration of liturgical forms and the creative blending of historic and contemporary music. I humbly ask you to participate in this process well. Begin by examining your heart. I gained insight into this through a recent conversation with one of our seniors, a person who would prefer exclusively historic worship. Of blended worship she said, “I don’t like it but I like what it does.” That sounds like Christian maturity to me!
So, our Fall pattern of worship will be:
8:30am Said BCP (alternating MP and HC)
10:15am Blended Service
7:00pm Worship Night
In thinking and praying through these matters I found these resources helpful:
http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/Evangelistic-Worship
http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/Worship-Worthy-of-the-Name
