Anatomy of a Church: Worship
Acts 2:42-47
Introduction
Some people see the many different denominations within the church to be a major problem. If we all believe in Jesus, shouldn’t there just be one church? Technically there is only one church, that which the Apostle’s Creed calls the “holy catholic church” or universal church. But one church doesn’t mean that there cannot be different denominations.
I’m actually glad that there are numerous traditions within Christianity because it brings a beautiful diversity to our worship. I have not always been Baptist. I grew up Anglican and most of my 20s was spent in a Pentecostal church. You cannot get much different than those two ends of the spectrum. You may have visited some of these or other churches and did not enjoy the worship. That is okay because worship was never meant to be entertainment. Worship is about the people of God glorifying God. That can be done through liturgy or ecstatic sing or any number of means. Different traditions allow us to settle into communities in which we have similar ways of connecting with God. What matters is that we are worshiping God.
We have been looking at what a healthy church looks like by going back to this snapshot of the early church. One of the things that they did was to worship God. According to this passage, they did this by going to the temple courts and by gathering in homes. They did not have specific church buildings as we have them now. The oldest known buildings are from about two hundred years after these events. We think of a specific building as a place of worship but to the early church, a place of worship was anywhere they worshiped God.
Last week, we looked at how churches are to be marked by extravagant generosity. That generosity is done not out of a desire to be a charity but out of the context of worshiping community that is responding to God’s generosity.
A healthy church is a worshiping church. But what does biblical worship look like? That is what we are going to look at.
Aimed at God
The first thing is going to sound very obvious but it is actually one of the most common things that are missed. Worship is meant to be aimed at God. How could we forget that? I have heard and even said myself, I really enjoyed or I really didn’t enjoy worship today. I remember a few years ago having two weeks off from the church I was pastoring. I visited two different churches on those Sundays. One was all hymns, none of which I was familiar with. The other was contemporary songs, none of which I was familiar with. I remember thinking both times that I really didn’t enjoy worship. But why should I enjoy worship? I have never read one passage in the Bible that suggests that worship is for our enjoyment. One of the most controversial issues among churches is about styles of music. They are even called worship wars. All of those conflicts are based on the assumption that worship must be the way we like it.
I am not saying that it is wrong to have personal preferences for worship. There are certain ways of worshiping, including the music, that I prefer over others. That is not a bad thing. All that I am trying to say is that the purpose of worship is to glorify God not to entertain us. We can participate in worship we don’t enjoy and still truly worship God. How we feel about a particular worship style is always secondary to worshiping the God who saved us in Christ.
Worship is More Than Music
When I applied for my first paid position at a church, I was worried about one part of the job description and that was being involved in leading worship. In the tradition that I had been a part of, worship leading was the role of leading singing. Since that is not my gift, I was not sure that I could do it. I was relieved when I discovered that they wanted me to be involved in prayers and Bible reading. Going back to that concept of worship wars, that also assumes that worship is music. Music and singing are parts of worship but they are not the same thing.
The Christian church has a long and rich heritage of songs and hymns. Brookfield Baptist Church has been around for some important parts of that. When Fanny Crosby wrote To God Be the Glory, BBC had already been a congregation for thirteen years. So there was a time when that was a contemporary song for our congregation.
As great of a musical heritage as we have, worship is not limited to that. A major part of the early church’s worship was prayer and the reading of Scripture. Even preaching is a part of worship. We need to have a wider view of worship.
But worship is not just the activity that we participate in when we are gathered in a building. There are many ways to worship God. For some people, the most worshipful moments are being out in nature. For myself, it is when I look up at the stars on a clear night.
Other people worship by working for justice or acting on their artistic gifts. Some people worship as they study theology and express their faith in the academic context.
How does all of this fit with what we said about worship not being what we necessarily enjoy. The point of this is that our goal for worship is about God and not our own entertainment. But at the same time, we are all unique creations. We are free to express our worship in ways that reflect who God made us to be. But the point is that it is always about God.
Worship is About Community
I have been stressing how worship is about God. We need to hold that at the centre. Paul made a strange comment in one of his letters: “speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:19) Speaking to one another? What about speaking to God? While there is a role for solitary worship, there is also a role for worship in community. That is what we find in our passage in Acts. People gathered together to worship. Worship is about blessing God but also blessing other people. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul gives some guidance about what worship looks like, and again he stresses the importance of our worship blessing others. James warns about our words being used to praise God one moment and then tearing each other down the next. When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus boiled it down to loving God and loving our neighbour.
Sometimes we separate our relationships with God and people but biblically, that is an artificial distinction. In Isaiah 1, God strongly rejects the worship of Israel, even though they were performing the right rituals, because they were neglecting to care for one another.
I want to mention that just because we sometimes worship online in our own homes, that doesn’t mean this is not worship. Community is important. But so is love for community. If we are doing this out of a desire to keep each other safe, then this is worship glorifying to God.
Conclusion
We want to be a healthy church. That is our goal. There are all sorts of activities that we can and even should get involved in. But may we never neglect our worship of God. We are a worshiping community. We worship through prayer, Scripture and song. We worship in the church building and outside. We worship in traditional ways and fresh expressions. But in all of it we worship to glorify God and not to entertain ourselves. We live to bless God and to bless others. Let us worship God with all of our being.
