When you go to church on Sunday mornings, do you come away feeling as though you experienced the presence of God?
Are you touched deep in your soul with the awesome holiness of God in light of your own sinfulness? And are you brought into His presence in a way where you feel unworthy of His grace, joyful for His mercy, and compelled because of His passion expressed toward all of mankind?
Or are your Sunday morning gatherings more of a drain to your spiritual, emotional, and psychological being than they are an inspiration to them?
It seems to me that somewhere along the way, we have curated a tradition of services that lack the presence of God. I don’t mean that He’s not there, or that the people in the services are not filled with His Holy Spirit. What I mean is that whether by the very order of the service or by something more fundamental in our theology, we too often detach ourselves from our spiritual senses when it comes to Sunday morning.
We execute an event instead of tapping into the Presence that’s there.
We can look out at other church denominations and see how maybe they have fallen in the ditch of pomp and show and argue they’re not any better. But can we stop for a moment and acknowledge that seeing others in a ditch shouldn’t keep us from exploring how we could get out of our own?
I suggest that the general lack of meaningful worship times together and obsession with trivial matters of external appearance at the cost of dealing with deep, heart issues are in fact the two greatest reasons young adults leave conservative Anabaptist churches.
And I further suggest that doing so isn’t unwarranted.
Do you really think one of the primary things God is concerned about when His people gather together is whether they use instruments during their singing, whether someone’s wearing jeans instead of black pants, or whether something outside of the pre-planned schedule takes up a significant chunk of the service time?
People are thirsty. And they’re not thirsty for the world; they’re thirsty for the presence of God.
I’d like to point out three areas we could grow as conservative Anabaptists which would make our times of corporate worship more meaningful, and allow our souls to be touched more deeply by God’s Spirit.
Other articles in this series include:
First of all, we need to practice communion more often.
Perhaps the saddest part about communion is that is has become this time of figuring out whether someone’s allowed into or to continue in fellowship with “the club.”
What was intended by Jesus to be a multi-dimensional experience that (1) forces us to confront the cost of our own freedom and the cost of the calling He has invited us into, and (2) provides us with an opportunity to remembers God’s scandalous grace toward us has turned into a yearly (or bi-yearly) shaming event.[1]
This needs to become if not a weekly practice, at least a monthly practice in our churches. And we need to cut-out the charade. Communion is not about rating our sins against each other. Communion is about remembering our union with Christ. It’s about realizing that none of us deserved God’s grace, and that part of our experiencing God’s grace is by participating in His suffering.
Communion is a somber occasion not because some of us don’t get in, but because grace is costly.
Practicing communion more often is important because it’s one of the few elements of our worship time that is not intellectually based. Western worship has become merely one (perhaps two) dimensional. If you look at both the Old and New Testaments, you’ll see there are numerous activities woven into the worship experience that cause participants to use more than one or two of their senses.[2]
Jesus worshippers hear the Word read or taught.[3]
They see brothers and sisters and fellowship with each other.[4]
They taste and smell through sharing the Lord’s Supper together.[5]
They feel the laying on of hands during prayer times and the deep moving of God’s Spirit as they allow Him to express Himself through the various gifts.[6]
They sing.[7]
They think and reason together.[8]
But how many of our worship times together invite everyone present to use their different senses?
When we fail to do this, we create spectators instead of worshipper.
Secondly, we need to allow our music to change according to the flow of times.
This is a part of Anabaptist history that baffles me, a bit.[9]
I deeply appreciate the gift I’ve been given in knowing how to sing four-part harmony music. But four-part harmony music is not the only music God inspires and moves through.
For the record, I learned this from my parents. Pretty much every church I’ve been a part of has used instruments in some way or another during their times of worship. So, I don’t say this out of rebellion against my church tradition. It’s a testimony of experience.
But too many conservative Anabaptist churches hold to a monolithic view of music, as if spiritual songs can only be sung one way.
When we hold our congregations to one, primarily archaic form of singing, we make ourselves irrelevant to new disciples in the faith. Furthermore, because music styles continually evolve, we inevitably will lose future generations.
If there is only one godly style of music. . .why doesn’t Scripture say so?
Thirdly, we need to rethink what it means to be holy and stop inspecting people’s appearance so much.
Nothing kills freedom of spirit like feeling the pressure to perform to a certain standard of excellence.
When we gather on Sunday mornings and sense that people are inspecting our clothes, the size of our covering, or the style of our hair, we tune-out any connection with God or each other through His Spirit. For some reason, many conservative Anabaptists start with the outward in trying to conform their fleshly body to holiness and forget the inward transformation that needs to take place.
Colossians 2 warns us that while this kind of living looks godly, it’s actually useless in properly dealing with the flesh. We end up with a bunch of carnally-minded, holiness seekers inspecting each other instead of Spirit-filled and transformed worshippers gathering together around God’s throne of grace.
I’m grateful to worship with a group of believers who value worshipping.
We don’t do it perfectly, and I think that’s kind of the point of worship. Trying to “do it perfectly” stifles spiritual connection.
But we realize corporate gatherings are crucial times of connecting with our Head—Jesus—and ministering to fellow members of His body.[10]
But I think we have a long way to go—in our own church, as well as in the conservative Anabaptist church at large. Many might not like the change, but there are some long-held patterns that need to change if we’re going to connect with future generations and converts to the faith.
Question: As you evaluate your worship experiences, do you resonate with the need for these changes? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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[1] See 1Co. 10:16, Luke 22:20, & 1Co. 11:17-34.
[2] Consider the various kinds of offerings which included incense, animal sacrifice, giving of money or produce along with the reading of the Torah, reciting Psalms, and eating together. Ex. 25:1-9, Lev. 6:8-7:36, 14.
[3] See 1Tim 4.
[4] See Hebrews 10:25, 13:1-2.
[5] See Luke 22:29.
[6] See Acts 8:17 & Eph. 4.
[7] See Eph. 5:19 & Col. 3:16.
[8] Luke 24:15 & Acts 6:2.
[9] I have not studied the history of Anabaptist thought concerning music.
[10] See Col. 1:18 & Eph. 1:22.
