Wed, Apr 16th - 10:43AM
WORSHIP: In Search of the Real Thing
IS SIN IRRELEVANT?
I spoke last time about surrendering oneself to God, to becoming vulnerable about one's shortcomings. This assumes that we indeed have shortcomings. Very many progressive evangelicals are claiming that sin is an obsolete concept, especially for those under the age of fifty. Fewer and fewer people are struggling with the concept of sin. It no longer is an issue with them. Shouldn't society be getting better as a result of this trend? The daily news reports do not support such a conclusion however. Hopelessness and lack of direction are the primary personal issues afflicting people according to the experts. Within the church in general there has been an effort to de-emphasize personal wrongdoing in favor of "Jesus making my life work!" But surveys report that around 67% of Americans ask God to forgive specific sins. And 75% disagree that sin is an obsolete concept. George Barna reported that baby boomers, known for their self-centered, selfish, no-rules behavior, were the least likely to agree that sin is an out-dated concept. Now, the exact definition of sin is in question here. With moral absolutes 71% of Americans polled said there are none, that right and wrong varies by the situation. Situational morality. Lee Strobel has discovered through research that the churches that are most successful in attracting irreligious people are those that cling to the Bible's clear-cut moral stands, it is not the liberal churches. It would seem then, that the church's response ought to be to give seekers what they need instead of what they say they want. Makes perfect sense, right?
So getting back to worship, we need to have worship that makes a difference by providing opportunities for people to say, "God, I have totally blown it. My life is a complete mess, and I'm just feeling empty, hurt, and confused as to what to do. Please forgive me. Change me. Here I am." If we provide the space for this to happen within our worship services, they will never be the same ever again. It requires a commitment to interaction. It requires a return to reciting creeds, or celebrating Communion, saying the Lord's Prayer together, kneeling at prayer time, read a psalm of the day, or sing responses to Scripture readings. It means joining in for an anointing, hands applied to the person being anointed, allowing the Holy Spirit to move through each person to the one being anointed. It requires a sharing of leading worship times with as many individuals as feasible. Instead of continuing to restrict the "doing" to just those upon the stage, or platform, we need to involve as many others within the congregation as possible. Sitting in the pews or chairs is not participating, it is spectating. People must be doing something in order to interact with God and with others. Consider that some 53% of unchurched people prefer a service that features a lot of participation (Hendricks, Exit Interviews,260-61). But it will require effort to transform any worship service from what it has been, to what it needs to become. It will require many baby steps. Perhaps Scripture readings could be done from within the congregation and not from the platform? Communion is a great participatory event, but sadly it is done far too infrequently in far too many churches! Feet washing is commanded by Christ before the Last Supper when He became servant to the disciples. Why not perform it as commanded by our Lord and Savior? It is interactive and personal. Love Feast with the shared breaking of bread and responses to Scripture readings is another interactive time, we ought to do it more often. We could provide a time for people to stand and share Bible passages or verses that have ministered to them during times of sorrow or helped them experience a new closeness with Christ.
That is all for today, beloved. I hope this helps you to begin pondering how to "spice up" your worship services so that people of all walks of life can encounter Christ, be touched, and come away with a feeling of having been changed and wanting more of it. Remember, it is not to become entertainment but rather an opportunity for individuals to encounter God and open themselves up to His healing touch. Christ said that He had come to find that which was lost, and to make whole those who were broken. Let us begin to help Him accomplish this task rather than working against His wishes and will.
Grace and peace be yours,
~Eric
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Wed, Apr 2nd - 8:47PM
WORSHIP: In Search of the Real Thing
Time has truly flown by since I last posted to this blog! Let's pick up where I left off last time.
"As the boomer generation negotiates the rough passages of mid-life, it is showing more openness to the nonmaterial side of life...The needs boomers appear to know they have are the emotional, relational ones. You have only to look at the rise in sexual abuse and support groups for adult children of alcoholics to realize the relational rifts, the brokenness that exists just below the surface of many boomers' lives. These are the places where our culture is cracking open---the very places where God comes in, where He makes immediate sense to the modern heart." ~from Paula Rinehart
Relational and emotional malfunctions are mounting at alarming rates throughout our society in America. The question becomes one of whether or not the church is responding properly to these widening "cracks." Evidence would appear to indicate that many boomers remain waiting for the church to help them face their stuff. "Their stuff" deals with very painful issues and hurting people. There is a craving for authenticity, for vulnerability, in a society that seems to also be afraid of it. People are still feeling like the church is not telling the "truth," that people are not "real." They still feel like the church does not deal with the bad stuff, only promotes that good things happen to those who are saved. While this statement may be true, it does not provide satisfaction to those seeking God or simply seeking answers to their many questions. God has spoken about many "bad" things in His Word, so why won't we preach about them and God's solutions to them? Why avoid the tough subjects? In Exit Interviews, William Hendricks found that many people felt that if the faith is to make any difference in peoples' lives, it has to face cold, hard reality. It also has to get under the surface to a person's real self, to one's sin and pain, and the things one wants to hide. Contrast this with so many leaders' attitudes of "Whatever you do, keep everything positive! Keep it peppy. There's enough bad stuff out there. Why load people down with bad stuff on Sunday morning?"
Unchurched people do not expect perfection from Christians, they desire them to be honest and not pretend that their lives are free of problems and struggles. The reality is that the Christian life is not devoid of temptations, difficulties, and failures. But the church today struggles to become completely honest even as our culture remains incapable of the honesty that it seeks. This in itself helps to create disconnects. The reality is that today too many churches continue to conduct their worship services thinking that discipleship can't take place during those group times. Has this mindset worked over the last 30-50 years? I would say that the evidence shouts out: No! Worship can help people to change their lives. Rather than assume the role of "healer" the church has spent its time unwisely accommodating our worship to people's spiritual, relational, and emotional dysfunctions. The church is supposed to be the healer as meant by God, but it is also the role people in the world expect it to assume and are still waiting for it to assume fully. See, too often, we the church have responded to people's mistakes, hurt, and pain by judging them. We heap more guilt and shame upon them at a time when they neither ask for nor need more of either. Our responses should be more in line with how Jesus responded to the woman caught in adultery, God's standards packaged in grace. "Go, and sin no more."
In our society today, what are the acceptable places for people to express inadequacy and need? Are there any? To admit failure, sadness, grief, or hurt is to be a loser in the eyes of American society. America rewards winners, not losers. But the heart of Christ runs counter to this sort of superficiality. Matthew 5:3-4: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." The church must become a refuge for those who have made mistakes and are in pain. Our worship each week needs to be one of the very first "landing zones" for these refugees, a place where guilt and hurt can be expressed to god in an atmosphere of loving acceptance. Long overdue in our churches are opportunities for biblical lament, heartcry to God of a person in trouble. Why should we be left out of this behavior? Didn't Jesus lament and cry and weep over the state of Jerusalem? Are not almost 66% of the psalms laments? Isaiah 53 describes Jesus as a man "of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." I think that God knows that many of His creatures are hurting and in pain, He won't be offended by hearing us lament. Perhaps He is waiting for us to begin? Maybe we do not engage in laments simply because we do not trust God's unconditional love and mercy? Or we do not think that God can accept and handle the ugly truth about us? But we ignore the fact that the lament invites God and He surely comes to save. Christians need to understand and accept that true worship may result in happiness or high emotions, but it is subject to the entire range of human feeling, including the "broken heart" that is described in Psalm 51:17. Worship is more than praise, thanksgiving, and celebration. It is also lament. It is making ourselves "known" to God and crying out to Him about our fears, questions, losses, grief, anger, needs, hurts, and brokenness of heart. One hot August night back in the 1980's, while working alone all night long, I faced a moment in which to choose to throw my life away to the pavement two stores below or to accept Christ's open hand offered lovingly to me. In the midst of my lament that dark night so long ago I encountered the Living God within my heart and felt the emotional burdens lift from off of my heart and shoulders. Shortly thereafter the sun rose gloriously in the east and a new day dawned for me. Not everyone is going to experience what I did, but everyone can enter into times of lament. God listens and responds. Worship that witnesses makes room, provides space, for the brokenness that exists in all of us. It will also heal by the power of the Gospel as it is spoken corporately during worship.
Lament is not only the heart's cry of desperation and need. It is also the acknowledgement of wrongdoing before a Holy God. It means doing a spiritual reality check of our lives, confessing sin, admitting what we have done wrong, and repenting of it or turning away from wrongdoing. In Psalm 51 we can view the lament of King David after his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. Is David's lament a really negative, depressing thing that should not happen in our worship service? Do we instead think that we can deal with our sin/s all on our own? If so, then some sort of repression or condemnation will be the result. That is not God's Way, that is man's way. We need to really study Psalm 51 to discover anew what it is that God truly values in a person's heart: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart." It is this plus being obedient that puts God's mercy and grace into power mode. God is looking for people who can let go, release and make God Himself their priority. True joy only comes from having been vulnerable with a great, holy, and awesome God and having been loved in spite of who we are. I have been there and have done that! It can't be beat!
That is all for tonight by friends. Hopefully I will not be absent from posting to either blog for such long spells the remainder of this spring and summer. Grace and peace be yours!
~Eric
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Name: E J Rajaniemi
