What I Would Do (4)

Section One of this series dealt with what I miss now that I am doing "secular" ministry after thirty years as a parish pastor. Section Two was about what I don't miss. Section Three was talking about "secular ministry." Section Four looked at what I've learned in these three years in "secular ministry."
Links to earlier sections:
Introduction
1. What I Miss: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
2. What I Don't Miss: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Interlude (1)
3. Secular Ministry: Part 1, Part 2
4. What I've Learned: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Interlude (2)
5. What I Would Do: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
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I originally said I was going to talk about leadership this week. Well, I think I need to take a further look at worship. It seems my friend Greg commented on last Thursday's installment of "What If I Went Back?" posting. He raised some issues that reminded me that I hadn't dealt deeply enough with worship. Here's Greg's comment...

I had heard that the early church was a place where the faithful gathered to celebrate their faith in community. It was an acknowledgment of commonly held beliefs, yes, but more importantly an acknowledgment of common Christian practice.

In other words, church wasn't a "weekly filling station" where the faithful got enough fuel to last them all week.

I know I haven't invoked the "Early Church" as a reference for much of what I have written anywhere in this series. So Greg's comments bring me to the point of having to say something about it. I am not a First Century Church Scholar so most of what I'm going to say is based more on intuition than on study. So, let me jump in with my thoughts and opinions.

It would seem to me that there was not a single "First Century Church" style. It varied, I am sure with the leaders and ethnicity. The Gentile communities worshiped differently from the Jewish communities. That is clear from the arguments reported in Acts between those who insisted on the old Jewish ways and those who were willing to admit the Gentiles without circumcision. So the first thing to remember is that the styles differed by the community- a common ground that we share with them in this age that is far more diverse than any place since the First Century Rome. In other words it is not about the style of worship- it has to be something more.

Which brings me to Greg's reminder that the often heard comment about coming to church to get refueled for the week may not be the whole story- or even a very large part of the story. This gets to the very heart of what worship is to be. The "refueling station" concept is one that grows out of the individualism of our modern American civilization. "I" come to church for "my" benefit. It makes "me" feel better. It fits the individual (personal) salvation model that underlies much western Protestant thought, even outside the more conservative and evangelical circles. Church is all about "me" and "mine."

I don't believe that was the focus of the First Century Church's worship. It was about the community. It was the opportunity for the community to get together. It was the time to remember that it wasn't all about "me." It's about God and "us."

A number of things actually do occur in worship- and one of them is the "refueling" for the week ahead. But it's not for "me" to have strength. It is so that "we" can be strengthened and empowered to go do mission as community. The mission is always the motivating force of all that the church does. It is even part of what happens in worship. "We" are refueled- empowered- by worship because

• we pray together
• we hear God's Word together
• we learn together
• we confess our shortcomings together
• we experience forgiveness together
• we sing and praise together and, in short,
• we are community together.

I would find it essential that when planning a worship service these elements be kept in mind. Somehow or another, depending on styles, traditions (or lack of them), culture, and so on, these are part and parcel of who we are as a church and therefore of our worship together. Which may be why, in the long term, the sweetened, self-centered styles of worship may feel good for a while, but will in the end discover they have lost the true center of worship- the mission of God.

The more I think about worship, the more convinced I become of this unbreakable connection. It is at the very center of Judeo-Christian worship, for example. Being God's People is what worship expressed. Not being God's individual person who happens to be sitting next to another of God's individual persons singing the same song or daydreaming during the same prayer. Those interconnections make community and become the very incarnation of Jesus in our world.

Greg is right- it is faith expressed in community, in the practice of worship in community, and ultimately the faith of the community lived and practiced in the world.

So, next week, on to leadership issues.