1Corinthians 14:19-20 Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
We like to believe are believe and practice the best way possible to worship God. Particularly in our public church services. The best illustration of this is what we believe to be unchangeable in our methods. The songs have to be performed with piano accompaniment, or we must be dress in our "Sunday Best"(which can only mean a suit and tie for men, and a dress or skirt for women).
I was listening to an older preacher on Thanksgiving. I admired his bible knowledge and his lifetime service to the work of God in foreign missions. However, I could not help but notice is desire to reach back to a more innocent time in his career. Back then spirituality was measured by large and long revival campaigns and crusades. He pine for the good old days where people came to meetings, souls getting saved was the be all end all. He thought that revival meant society returning to those methods as being the only way to true worship.
As much as I would love to see that also, I have to admit that that method does not communicate to our modern society. We can bemoan, cry and complain about how times were better then (which in many ways is true), it does us no good to deny the reality. These are different times, and we are called by God to serve our generation in the most biblical, and effective ways. The following are three impediments to this goal:
1. To give into our desire to stay the same and make people conform to "our" man made standards of conduct. Believe it or not Godly worship can come from more casual clothes and a non-piano or organ. Not everything labeled worldly really is worldly, we need to be more discerning and flexible to change.
2. To give up and just cut ourselves off directly or indirectly from society. There are places and practices that we are to change from in order to grow in Christ, but to just out of an act of frustration or pride cut ourselves off from sinners in unbiblical.
3. To give credence to the belief that because we change from older methods that are no longer effective believe that the old methods were somehow wrong. The King James Version Bible is the Word of God and has a great history and heritage. But the method of language in this version does not communicate well to this society. That does not mean the KJV was a bad version from the beginning, it just means that the unchangeable message of the Word of God needs to be retooled to communicate better to this society. Music and other elements of worship are the same the message of these elements do not change but the methods do by the priority of what best communicates effectively.
5 comments:
So true. So often churches and people can be so concerned with maintaining a "status quo" or getting their way (according to whatever standard they set, whether progressive or conservative) they totally forget their reason for worship. They may become prideful, bitter, and look down on anyone who does not conform to their standards and abandon what should be their first love, Jesus Christ.
If we are called by God to serve a different generation then why not go out into the streets and contact that generation. Does your church have an active bus ministry that is going out into the nieghborhoods? I ask because alot of churches will talk the talk but they necessarily don't walk the walk. Also, dressing in your Sunday best is giving reverence to the Lord. No , you necessarily do not have to come in your Armani suit, but why not give God all of the praise and glory that He deserves?
saltyjeff, I think you missed the point. (and by the way we have a very vibrant ministry to our community through a route to serve them. But we do think such a ministry should make a long term commitment in the lives of those who come regularly and not only do we look to "get them saved" but also disciple them. We also have numerous other ministries reaching out to our community. I'd say just about every month we have some sort of an outreach, some big, some small, in our community.) When people make looking your best the content of their message, then a problem arises. That is nothing more that the Pharisees who look good outwardly, taking no concern for the inside. The point is we need to be looking deeper than clothing, to the heart of a person. That is more important than any clothing style, preference, whatever you want to call it. If you look in the Isaiah chapter 1, they were going through the motions and giving god their best outwardly but their hearts were in the wrong place and God was sickened by it. Is it wrong to want to "look your best for God", no but where is a person's heart?
Dear Jeremy O.
So, is a sincere heart the foundation for truth?
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