Friends,

We remain in 1 Corinthians this Sunday as we tackle the next section—1 Cor 1:18-31—under the heading: What God Ignores. See what you make of this as you prepare by reading and praying through this segment, and then come together with friends in faith and we’ll sort it through Sunday morning. We’ll also be sharing in the Lord’s Supper, so we’re anticipating great things as we gather for worship.

This week I’ve been thinking more about worship. Thoughts about what it means to be the church in our time and place led me there as I reflected on what’s really necessary or essential when we identify a community or gathering of folks as church. Certainly on the basis of the teaching in the New Testament, such a gathering has to be grounded in Jesus Christ as the One who rules and rescues. Such a community takes its cues directly from him, both in the historical witness of him in the New Testament and his continual direction by his living presence among them in the present. This much is the least it must have. But from this comes the idea of self-giving, or service, to God, to others. Service to others is an easier concept to imagine. We’re familiarized to the idea of meeting needs, offering help, providing support, doing a kindness, investing time, mentoring, creating value by doing what’s right—these and more like them are typical features of church. But they’re also not unique to church. Other organizations do these as well. They might well have different motives for doing them, but in practice they look similar. Unique to church is the idea of worship—and this is clearly part of what it means to be church, but what does it mean to worship?

And just here I stumbled into the same trap that most do when considering this question. I went to specific acts or practices of worship and allowed myself to define these as worship. Still my spirit was restless with this, but what else could worship be but our singing, our praying, our giving, our hearing from scripture, and proclamations of gospel? As I wrestled with this, a line from an article gave insight: Worship is extravagant love and extreme submission. In a moment it was clear that worship is first an attitude or disposition from within that then finds expressions or actions to give tangible form to that inward dynamic. For as long as I can remember, I believe I’ve assumed that the specific acts of worship practiced in my historical context, culture, and original faith community  were what Scripture prescribed as what God desired in worship. And, to be sure, scripture texts can be collected that describe all of what we do in our time together: singing, praying, giving, reading scripture, preaching, sharing in the Lord’s Supper. But now my question is this: must these forms or practices of worship be present in the ways I am accustomed to experiencing them, as markers of authentic church community? That is, unless a gathered folk do these, are they rightly “the church?” 

If the definition of worship cited above is accurate—and I believe so—then extravagant love for God and extreme submission (humility, alignment with God’s purpose and desires) could be expressed in a variety of ways that don’t necessarily follow the forms with which I’m familiar (and with which I am comfortable!). Coming to this awareness doesn’t mean that I then jettison all that’s familiar to me (or to us as a community of faith), as there is nothing problematic with them in themselves. They only become problematic if they get in the way of revealing the gospel. This is why we think about new ways of being church in our time and place. For many in our time and place, time-honored ways of worship with which we are familiar and find helpful aren’t to an increasingly secular age and its people. So what are ways of worship that can make sense and be accessible to folks like this who live around us? What must be present in experimental gatherings for them to be church in their own right? How do we make it possible for these new initiatives to launch? These are the questions with which we’re wrestling. And worship isn’t just an ancillary piece—it forms the core of it. What are your ideas? How is God leading your thought? What initiatives are percolating in your conversations or reflections? 

Come and gather this Sunday with hearts filled with extravagant love and spirits open to extreme submission to the One who makes life right and whose plan includes anyone who will allow themselves to be loved by such a good God. What we do in that dynamic is worship, and you are an indispensable part of this expression.  See you Sunday!

Warmly,
—frank