"God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth"
-Jesus, John 4:24
-Jesus, John 4:24
I've been doing a lot of recent reading on corporate worship in the church. Many of you who know me know that I used to be a worship pastor. You may know that a great goal of mine was to be a well-known worship leader with a big band and original songs that would not only be sung in churches but played on the radio. I wanted to be a worship fixture in evangelical Christian America.
As I studied the Bible, God changed the direction of my goals and desires toward preaching and teaching, with no further need to be famous or well-known. I became convinced that the great need in the church in the present hour is individual congregations receiving a steady diet of clear Biblical preaching that shows Jesus as the hero of the story and the one who leads us in our story. This doesn't mean I became convinced that worship in the church doesn't matter, but that I was called to help worship in the church by providing first a doctrinal backbone.
Simple Worship
Over the years of preaching and ministry, I've become convinced of the need for simple worship. I just don't feel the same way about Hillsong, Passion, Jesus Culture, etc. that I used to. That "flavor" of worship seems a little showy, and too much like a modern concert. Concerts aren't bad things, and music is a great gift from God meant to be enjoyed. But I've become convinced that there is a time and a place for that kind of musical expression, and corporate worship among God's people especially on Sundays is not it. You will not find an elaborate use of instrumentation in Temple worship in the Old Testament (and even during victory celebrations and special days, the instrumentation was modest and purely for accompaniment cf. 1 Chron. 15:16, 28; 16:5, 6; Ezra 3:10)*; and you won't find any instruments being used in New Testament worship. While I'm not convinced that these facts suggest that we are to not use instruments, I am convinced that these facts give a persuasive argument that God wants us to guard against overdoing it in our corporate worship. Further, while worship is to be more about what is said than how it is said (since Jesus said unequivocally that God seeks those who will worship him "in spirit and truth", meaning with our hearts, inwardly, and with truth, doctrinally; Jn. 4:24), how it is said can have a definite effect on whether or not the truth sung is truly being sung with one's spirit. Therefore the expression of our truth-filled worship matters a great deal.
The issue in question not only concerns various forms of music in church, but also other forms of artistic expression therein: musicals, dramas, movies, etc. It isn't that I'm saying these things are off limits in church, but I wonder if they're a sign of the church's lack of trust in faithful Bible preaching, and a possible attempt by the church to cater to the entertainment-hungry masses in the world.
The Challenge, Even Seventy Years Ago
In that vein, an illustration might be is insightful. I'm currently reading Iain Murray's magisterial biography of David Martyn-Lloyd Jones, part two. It is almost 800 pages long, and I plan on reading a 4-5 pages a day and finishing it sometime this year. Murray tells us in the section that deals with Lloyd-Jones' first years as pastor at Westminster Chapel in central London (during the tumultuous WWII air raids) of a young American women who was regularly visiting Westminster while she worked in London. In a letter sent home to Pennsylvania, the young woman, Mary-Carson Kuschke, wrote of a church discussion on "how to fill the galleries" (that is, how to grow the church again). Her letter says this:
"The question was admitted for discussion, and members of the group began making suggestions along the lines of more music, livelier music, special music numbers, shorter sermons, sermons not so deep, more variety in the services, etc. I was listening to all this with mounting consternation, and when, in response to the idea that the church members could help fill the galleries by inviting others to the services, someone said that such invited visitors would not return a second time if they did not enjoy the service, I was finally constrained to raise my hand and request the floor. I do not recall my exact words, but I presented myself as one who had come among them as a stranger, had come a second time, liked everything that I saw and heard, and was obviously continuing to come. I said that for my part, no changes whatsoever were needed to keep me coming. Dr. L-J smilingly thanked me for 'the first kind words I've heard this evening!'. He then rose and asked the group what they would say if he told them he knew a way to ensure that every seat in the Chapel would be filled on the following Lord's Day. He assured them that he did, in fact, know how this could be accomplished. 'Tell us, tell us!' they said, and 'Let's do it!'. 'It's very simple', he said. 'Simply put a notice in the Saturday edition of The Times that I shall appear in the pulpit the next day wearing a bathing costume!'. This was followed, of course, by a period of shocked silence. He then went on to expound the biblical basis for proper worship, using as a counterpoint the error, then just beginning to be prevalent, of introducing various forms of entertainment into the worship as a means of enticing people to attend."*
Even 70 years ago, amidst mounting opposition, Lloyd-Jones saw that it is a fool's errand for the church to try and entertain the world. If you make that the end-all be-all, two things will happen: First, the Spirit of God won't be in the church (because the church will have forsaken the source of the Spirit's presence, which is Christ being set forth in faithful preaching, 1 Cor. 2:4, and in loving community, Eph. 4:3). And second, the church, having lost it's identity, will lose the masses even further, because why would people come to such a clearly lesser form of entertainment on a Sunday morning when they can stay home and watch what Hollywood and New York has to offer?
This is by no means my attempt to suggest that all of the old ways are the best ways. Sometimes the church does have to scrutinize it's methods and make them more timely. Sometimes the church is stuck with a worship expression that is just an outdated version of old styles that in their day were up-to-date. And that's no better, if it isn't Scriptural. But I'm convinced that our attempts at modernized music, if we're not careful, might actually be our attempt to shake free from God's tried and true fool-proof method for drawing the masses: Believers sharing the Gospel with their friends and family, and pastors preaching full of the Spirit, expounding the Scriptures.
And I believe that if churches seek faithfulness in these areas, the other stuff will fall into place. Pray with me to that end.
This is by no means my attempt to suggest that all of the old ways are the best ways. Sometimes the church does have to scrutinize it's methods and make them more timely. Sometimes the church is stuck with a worship expression that is just an outdated version of old styles that in their day were up-to-date. And that's no better, if it isn't Scriptural. But I'm convinced that our attempts at modernized music, if we're not careful, might actually be our attempt to shake free from God's tried and true fool-proof method for drawing the masses: Believers sharing the Gospel with their friends and family, and pastors preaching full of the Spirit, expounding the Scriptures.
And I believe that if churches seek faithfulness in these areas, the other stuff will fall into place. Pray with me to that end.
*Peter Masters, Worship in the Melting Pot, London: Wakeman Trust 2002, 55ff. Masters shows that when you bear in mind how many people participated in temple celebrations, the instrumentation was actually pretty modest by many of our modern worship standards.
**Iain Murray, David Martyn-Lloyd Jones: The Fight of Faith, 1939-1981, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth 1990, 111-12.
