Attendance when the church assembles together has been a challenge for many. My friend Scott McCown wonders why we attend church services at his blog, The Morning Drive. I appreciate his thoughts and think you will enjoy reading his post.
Tag Archives: worship
Church of Christ Music: What’s the Big Deal About a Piano Anyway?
(This article is available for download in pdf format. Please click here for Church of Christ Music.)
“Why don’t the churches of Christ use musical instruments?”
“The Church of Christ doesn’t have music. Why not?”
These are excellent and fair questions which deserve an answer. One of the things many people know about the churches of Christ is our insistence on Acapella music, that is, simple vocal music without a mechanical instrument. ((I am being very broad in describing what the churches of Christ do. I am well aware that some do in fact use the instrument. I disagree with them but am nonetheless aware of their thinking. While the churches of Christ do not have any earthly headquarters and there is no official book of doctrine other than the Bible, I do think I am making case that those within the “mainline” churches of Christ would agree.))
Now I know that some of you reading this will be surprised to learn that there is a church which does not use instruments in worship. You may be tempted to roll your eyes and think “that’s crazy.” Can I just ask for your open minded reading for a few minutes?
Continue reading Church of Christ Music: What’s the Big Deal About a Piano Anyway?
Spiritual but not Religious?
There is a new story on the web at CNN.com with the title Spiritual But Not Religious. Take a quick read and offer your comments here. The article is pretty balanced and probably fairly accurate at its description of the modern world. In my judgment the people interviewed make a profound error in thinking that one can ignore the church for which Jesus died (Acts 20:28; Hebrews 9:12; Hebrews 9:14) and seek salvation on their own.
There is another issue however that is raised by this article. Has the present church become irrelevant to modern man? If so, is the problem with the Lord’s church itself or with the people who make up that church? Many who read this blog will defend the church as being divine in its origins and mission and therefore not the problem. That leaves the problem squarely on the shoulders of those people who are the church today.
I fully understand that some people are not looking for the truth, do not desire it and will not accept it is it stares them in the face. But there are many others who have been “turned off” by church. Why?
Here are the questions for you:
- Has the modern church lost its way?
- Have we focused too much on serving the members and not enough on worshiping God?
- Have present day churches become too social and too entertainment oriented?
I deeply desire your thoughts here on the blog.
John 4:24 – “in spirit and in truth”
A recent comment made here asked some important questions about worship. He mentioned John 4:24 and Jesus’ comment that true worshipers must worship God “in spirit and in truth.” I think it would be helpful for us to spend some time thinking about what it means to worship in spirit and to worship in truth. Let’s set the passage before us first:
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Jesus is the source for Christian Worship
The unnamed woman in John 4 asks a worship question of Jesus. Although she might not have fully understood who Jesus was she did call him a prophet. The woman was wise in seeking the answer to a worship question by turning to the proper source of worship information. She noted that people were divided on the proper place for worship. Her people, the Samaritans, believed one thing while their Jewish cousins taught something else. For the actual answer she turned to Jesus.
Like this ancient woman, it is vitally important that we seek our answers from the correct source.The correct source – indeed the only source available today – is the Bible. It is the Bible that offers a single foundation upon which all can stand. It is the one place where God-believing, Christ-honoring men and women can find common ground. While the Bible did not exist as it does today, the words from Jesus were truth for Jesus spoke of God (John 7:17; 8:28; 12:49; 14:10) and God’s words are truth (John 17:17).
Truth has been delivered “once for all” (Jude 3) and is available to all men. Let us always turn to God for truth and reject every form of doctrine not found in Scripture.
The Issue of Christian Worship
Having come to the proper source for truth, the woman now proceeds to discuss one of the many divisions between the Jews and the Samaritans. Her question is in the form of a statement to which she hopes Jesus will reply. The issue centered upon the proper place for worship. Now we could just as easily ask a question about the worship itself or what we do in that worship.
Is there a standard for worship. Does anything go? Are our motives all that matter?
There is a standard. Reaching back to Judaism we find that God always expected certain things of those who worship him. Cain’s offering to God was rejected while his brother’s was accepted (Genesis 4:1-16). Nadab and Abihu, brothers and sons of the High Priest Aaron, worshiped wrongly by offering strange fire at the Tabernacle (Leviticus 10:1-2). In the New Testament Paul rebukes the Christians in Corinth for many things including their chaotic self-centered worship (1 Corinthians 14:26-35). I think we all agree that God desires worship which is true to his teachings.
Let’s take a moment and examine our worship practices. What actually happens in the worship service? Can we offer some authority for them or are we left with personal, emotional answers? While something in a worship service may make me feel warm and fuzzy inside, does it appeal to God? Is it what God wants or what I want?
God is the both the purpose of our worship and author of it. Let us please him and as servants, we will also be pleased.
10 Powerful Ways to Prepare for Worship
Lord’s Day worship occurs every Sunday. While worship can occur elsewhere, the assembly of the saints is a special and unique opportunity for Christians. But sometimes worship seems more like an obligation than a privilege. There are some things we can do to make worship more meaningful and far more powerful. Here are ten tips.
Prepare for Worship Personally
1. Relationship
True worship can only exist within a relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus said that the Father was looking for people to worship him (John 4:23). God desires our worship but without some relationship with him there can be no true worship. It is probably useful to consider the strength and depth of your relationship with God. If you find it lacking, do not despair! Continue reading 10 Powerful Ways to Prepare for Worship
Rethinking Church
You have noticed that people don’t attend church like they once did. Depending upon who you believe, experts say that as many as one-half of Americans do not attended church services on a regular basis. In some areas that number is far higher. Many churches close their doors every year. Even in established congregations the number of “core” adherents, those that attend every service, is maybe only 40 to 50 percent. A Sunday morning worship service may see 150 people but then attendance drops to maybe 80 on Sunday night and Wednesday. In fact, many congregations no longer offer Sunday evening worship services and have ended midweek studies due to a lack of interest. The view is quite dismal.
Some churches have assumed that their numbers are falling because they have not kept pace with changing cultural norms. They offer Saturday services as a substitute for those who do not attend on Sunday but even then the numbers remain poor. Maybe there is another way to approach the crashing decline of church attendance.
Can Two or Three Have Church?
Every Lord’s Day, Christians assemble together to worship. The purpose of that worship is, first and foremost, to honor God through praise, devotion and thanksgiving and the joining together around the Lord’s table in commemoration of his death. It was, and is, God’s plan that his people join together weekly to worship him and encourage one another.
Sometimes a brother or sister will fail to assemble with the Christians. Perhaps they are tired from the evening before or maybe they are traveling and have not prepared by finding a church assembly near their vacation destination. When asked, they may respond thusly: “We just had church at the hotel. You know, where ‘two are three are gathered together’ the Lord is with them.”
Sadly, this is a misunderstanding of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 18:20. In fact, the passage actually argues for a regular assembly together of the body and not for a quickie method of worship.
This passage occurs in the context not of worship, but of church discipline. Two chapters earlier, Jesus foretold the coming of his church. These to whom he speaks will see the coming of the church very soon. Aware that problems arise among followers, Jesus has given a formula for retrieving the erring brother from sin (Matthew 18:5). He directs his followers to use a four-pronged method. First we approach directly involving no one else. If that fails, we take along one or two with us thus confirming what is said. Finally, the problem is discussed with the church generally in hope of regaining the lost soul. Fourth, the impenitent person is excluded from the assembly and treated as a “Gentile and a tax collector (Matthew 18:17).
It is this fourth and final task – the exclusion of the impenitent brother or sister – that Jesus is speaking of when he declares that “where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am in their midst” (Matthew 18:20). The text here is similar to that in Matthew 16:13-20 when Jesus promises that he will establish his church and promises that doctrine taught through the apostles and in the church will have already been made in heaven. In our text, Jesus is simply saying that when making the decision to withdraw from a member, he is present in their decisions – it is not simply a human decision. The passage is meaningless unless there is a regular assembly together of the saints and thus argues for the regular gathering together. If there is no regular assembly together there can be nothing to be withdrawn from and nowhere to make that decision.
What is more important from our perspective, Jesus is not discussing the gathering together of the church for worship. There is nothing here to suggest that Jesus desires anything other than attendance together with the body for worship.
Consider what normally happens when someone does not attend and uses Matthew 18:20 for justification:
1. The so-called worship is abbreviated – it is hasty and usually skimps on some aspect.
2. There is little or no preparation for worship from the one leading the “service.”
3. The gathering about the Lord’s table, if done at all, is very brief and with minimal meaning.
4. There is usually no attempt to lay by in store a contribution to the work of the church.
5. There is no spiritual oversight by elders who are the Lord’s appointed ones.
6. There is no allowance for an invitation, which, while not required, points to the lackadaisical attitude inherent in such a “worship service.”
Our intention is not to lambaste some brother or sister. In fact, we have no recollection of any specific member making this claim to us. Our goal is guide and teach and avoid the dangers of seeking to make worship soft and meaningless. Ample resources are available to locate and investigate churches before leaving town on vacation. Find and assemble with your brethren. You will encourage them and yourself.
So What’s An Ebenezer Anyway?
Christian hymns draw people closer to the Lord and deepen their relationship with him. They also help Christians encourage other saints. But sometimes we find odd or archaic words in our hymns that could even be distracting to the worshiper. We sing them anyway because they just “sound” right.
How about the great song, O, Thou Fount of Every Blessing?”
“Here I raise my Ebenezer:
hither by Thy help I come…
So what exactly is an “Ebenezer” and what’s it doing in our songs? Bob Prichard, a fine preacher of the gospel and an associate from Polishing the Pulpit says it well:
As a reminder of the great victory God gave to Israel, Samuel took a great stone and raised it as a memorial “between Mizpeh and Shen.” As he raised it he “called the name of it Ebenezer [or stone of help], saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12). Whenever the Israelites looked at the stone, they would remember how God had helped them. Unfortunately, the exact site of the stone is unknown today.
Thanks Bob for the explanation. Now let us sing with joy and understanding and worship in both spirit and in truth.
Giving To God – 2
There are financial needs that must be met by every congregation. Those need aren’t met through some miracle but by the offerings and contributions of those who attend. To look at some you might think that anything goes in the realm of church financing but that would be an error. Jesus, through inspired writers, has shown us how he desires the work of the church to be financed. At the outset, remember that Jesus holds all authority (Matthew 28:18) and it is him that we serve. The church was not given as our personal organization but rather as a body of believers serving the one who died for his church.
At the very beginning of the church, we find that Christians demonstrated an attitude of caring toward those around them. Acts 2:44, 45 tells us that the church members held all their possessions in common and used them collectively to meet the needs of other church members. This demonstrates firstly the attitude of the early church toward their possessions. It also demonstrates the simplicity with which the needs of brethren were met. They simply took care of each other. Benevolence was an early, central part of the work of the church.
Acts 6:1 describes a more organized attempt to help certain needy ones in the church. We learn that there was a program in place to assist the widows. Note there was a ”daily” serving of food. Such could not occur without some organization and without some financial support. That the program was rapidly growing is obvious from the apostle’s plan to appoint certain men over the program and free them to serve purely spiritual matters.
How was this financed? Who paid for the food? Back up to Acts 4:34. Here we learn that the needy were being served so that none were overlooked. But we also see the method. Individual church members were financing the work of the church by selling their assets and brining the money to the apostles. There were no bake sales, no retail sales, no fireworks sales, just individual Christians supporting the church through their own contributions. The pattern was simple and straight forward. Bring the money and allow the apostles to determine its use.
Of note was the fact that the church members took care of the sales themselves, not burdening the church with the duties of the sale. The church was not in the business of real estate or retail. Instead, the church met the needs of its community through the contributions of its members. That is the pattern.
That same pattern was repeated in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 when Christians in Asia Minor were directed to assist the needy Christians in Jerusalem. Here Paul adds organization to the plan by requiring that the giving be done on the first day of the week. That money was to be set aside so that it would be available to meet the needs of the church. Simple, organized giving, overseen by church leaders. That is the pattern.
Those who were giving received nothing back in return for their funds. It was pure and simple. The church was not burdened with sales plans and government regulations, there was no profit margin to be concerned with and no stock to maintain. Because the giving was done regularly (on Sunday), church leaders could wisely plan the work of the church. That was the pattern and remains the pattern today.
Let us cling to the authority of Scripture, seen through both command and approved example, and meet the needs of the church simply and directly.
–Bryant Evans
How to Listen to a Sermon
Every week, people sit through a half hour or more of a sermon on Sunday morning and another one on Sunday evening. But some feel that they didn’t get much out of the lesson. It may seem that time could better be spent doing something else like singing or praying. Some congregations have almost no preaching at all and, truthfully, their members reflect a terrible spiritual weakness. Preaching is an integral part of every worship service. John the Baptist came preaching (Matthew 3:1), Jesus came preaching (Mark 1:14), the 12 apostles went preaching (Mark 6:12) and even the members of the Jerusalem church scattered throughout the world while preaching (Acts 8:4). Paul was a powerful preacher who proclaimed the Gospel while rejecting fanciful ideas of philosophy (1 Corinthians 2:3-5). The church of Christ, bought and paid for by the blood of the Savior (Acts 20:28) began with a sermon from the apostles (Acts 2:4ff). A properly preached sermon will proclaim truth to men and lift up Jesus before the eyes of the lost.
With the importance of the sermon in mind, we offer some practical ways to help the listener approach the sermon and use the proclamation of God’s word to change their lives. Continue reading How to Listen to a Sermon