How much do you read your bible? I hope it’s more than me, because I need your help with a question I have…
How often does the bible talk about worship (specifically worship of the singing variety)?
Actually, what I’m particularly interested in is how often does the bible tells us about how often and how much we should worship with singing?
If you can tell me that, can you then tell me how many times the bible tells us to help the poor and those in need? How about the widows and the sick and the orphans?
Then, in the new testament, how many times are people instructed to go out and preach the good news, to GO to the people?
I don’t know the answers to these questions. I don’t have a gift for study. I’m terrible at it actually, but what I do know is that I don’t get the feeling that we’ve quite found the right balance in what we do.
How much time, energy and money does the Church plug into creating wonderful worship services and events? How much of our focus and our resources are dedicated to creating the best possible worship environment?
Likewise, how much of our time, energy and money do we plug into helping the poor, the widows, the orphans, the sick and all those in need?
If we look at how much the bible, and particularly Jesus, focussed on the need for bringing love and compassion to the world in a tangible way, and the amount that the bible and Jesus himself focussed on the need for corporate worship, can we truly say that we have the balance right in terms of how we use our resources?
It seems to me that we, here in the 21st Century, put disproportionately too much emphasis on our Sunday services.
I was talking to someone a few weeks ago and she said something that cut me to the heart and has rattled around within me ever since. It was simply this:
The Church seems to be totally focussed on looking after the members of the Church. If you’re ‘in’ then the Church will do all it can to help you and care for you but if you’re ‘out’ of the Church, then it seems not to care about you at all.
The Church “seems not to care”.
I felt ashamed.
What are your thoughts?
Has the Church found the right balance?
Is it even possible to find the right balance?
Ouch … powerful thoughts. I know this, I can think of once instance where it says that Jesus and the disciples, "sang a song and went out." Just one. I can think of dozens where he helped or requested us to help others in need.
Maybe our balance IS way off.
I think you raise a very important point. We are a very outwardly focused church, but when we "serve the world" we don't do so in the hopes of bringing people into our church, but to bring ourselves out of it. (The building, that is.)
Thanks, Trey.
Worship, both individual and corporate IS important but I just get the feeling that we place TOO much importance on it.
When I stand before God, I don't think he's going to ask me how good I got at worshiping him with song or how well I could craft a sermon.
Here's something that, when I realized it, came as a shock to me. Most of Jesus' earthly ministry happened outside the walls of the established church of his day. It's not that he didn't do things for people at church. He did. But most of the work did not happen there.
It happened everywhere he was. Anywhere he was.
I also know that scripture instructs us to pray without ceasing.
Then I think about how we are called to do the works that Jesus did. Could the two be connected? I think so. I think a life where I pray without ceasing would result in a ministry that happens wherever I am.
I've been pondering this a lot lately.
Exactly – and we need to get out of it more often!
Very interesting questions! If our love and commitment to Jesus ends on Sunday with a few minutes of singing, there is definitely something wrong. As a singer/musician who loves to worship in this way, I would say there are different functions to this from prayer and petition to exaltation and declaration. I so agree though that this is not a substitute for going and being a light. It's an important part, but not the only part. Thanks Peter.
Sometimes I wonder if we focus on the 'Sunday service' because it's easier than focusing on actual service.
Yeah, I thought a lot about the worship leaders, the singer/musicians as I wrote this and I definitely think they should be given the space and opportunity to use the gifts that God has given them but I think our balance may be a bit skewed at the moment!
It's so easy to fall into the trap of being constantly at church. There's so much pressure to serve in the nursery, teach a Bible study, give to the bake sale, come back on Sunday nights, join the choir, join this, join that… None of these things are bad, and all of them can be very God-honoring. But if we fill our schedule with church activities every night, are we really honoring God?
Very uncomfortable point you make here, Peter.
I can relate to what the women said in your post. I remember hearing a member of one of the churches I attended complain out loud to the Pastor that his sermons catered to the new believers. It just rubbed me wrong.
AMEN! Great Word and you tagged it perfectly. Our goal of the church is not to see how pretty we can make it or how many social gatherings for our church group of friends we can have. Our goal is to bring others to Jesus and to serve others. The book of James talks about perfect religion being service to widows and orphans….That has God's heart – not the color of the carpet or the pew cushions. My whole focus is on serving so I really enjoyed your post.
Great post!
Cindy@Simplyserve
Absolutely right, Lainie.
Thanks, Cindy.
I put some anti-worship leader defenses around my house before publishing this, just in case 🙂
You're very right… we have to find a balance and I believe we need to do it FAST!
I would say that posts like these will end up with you being chased by worship pastors armed with pitchforks, unnecessary acrylic scarves, and copies of the book of Psalms. 😉
With that said, I think you've hit on a very interesting discussion point when it comes to the Church. I think the key word is balance, as it's just as harmful to be a church that is totally inward-focusing and never reaches outside its doors, as it is to be 100% missional and just focus on manufacturing believers without discipling them and tending to their needs as believers. The problem with most Churches is that they swing in either direction, turning their noses at those who go in the opposite direction. The Church should be equally adept at discipling and providing a community to plug-in to for believers, as well as providing the infrastructure for the individual believer to reach out and fulfill the Great Commission.
I just think nowadays we throw the Church under the bus for not reaching out as a whole when the problem is not the social entity that is the Church, but rather the individual believer not doing their part in fulfilling the Great Commission–myself included.
Oh that's so sad 🙁
It just pains me that we have created a church environment where people think like that – and it's endemic in the church.
We must work hard at fixing it!
May I bring some balance to this…
Jesus commended Mary's extravagant worship of costly ointment, pointing out that the poor would not cease to exist. When Martha busily served the poverty of Jesus and His disciples, He said that Mary had chosen the better part to be worshiping and learning from Him. A popular contemporary fallacy is advancing a social "gospel" at the expense of acknowledging exactly Who God is and giving Him His due.
The Bible not only puts God first, but also other Christians. ("As we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith." Galatians 6:10 NKJV; also see 1 Timothy 5:8)
Membership does have privileges. Too many churches seek to make converts at the expense of making disciples—which is the departing command of our Lord and Savior.
By all means, reach out to those who aren't in church. Stamp out self-righteous legalism and snobbery. But make sure that the way we treat God and fellow Christians offers something to invite guests to become family.
I've continued to think about this post all week, Peter. More thoughts that occur to me are these: that to first love God equips us to love fellow man; and worship for God is not complete until it finds fullness of expression in service to neighbor.
I love your heart, Peter …