"When I was a young pastor, I was eager to find and replicate worthy ministry models. I was attracted to the church growth movement. I admired the soul-winning zeal of practioners who counseled young pastors like me to fashion their Sunday services so the “seeker” wouldn’t trip over man-made obstacles on his way to finding Jesus.

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While I absorbed many of its lessons — clear communication, ministry excellence, community outreach — I began to have some questions about an approach that shapes the Sunday gathering exclusively around the unbeliever. I say “exclusively” because every pastor should have, in his mind, the image of a lost soul when he steps up to the pulpit to preach. He shouldn’t assume his audience is entirely made up of believers, and his preaching should be clear enough so the lost know how to repent and believe. Paul counseled Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist,” after all (2 Tim. 2:5).

There are, however, three vital questions to ask ourselves about our worship services.


1. What’s happening on Sunday mornings?

According to standard church growth philosophy, the Sunday gathering is the prime opportunity to invite unbelieving friends and neighbors to hear a gospel presentation. To make worship attractive, churches are encouraged to remove barriers that might offend those not fluent in Christian vocabulary.

This isn’t an entirely bad discipline. After all, our churches shouldn’t be contextualized to the 1950s if we’re living in 2016. We should hold preferences loosely in order to reach our communities for Christ (1 Cor. 9:19), and we should dream, plan, craft strategies, and spend resources for reaching the lost. 

But should attractiveness to the lost be our primary guiding principle on Sunday mornings? If so, do we lose the distinct purpose for gathering with the saints? Do we forget that no amount of contextualization will make the gospel inoffensive? In his Upper Room discourse, Jesus warned his disciples of the countercultural nature of his message. And Paul knew, even after making himself “all things to all people,” that the gospel he preached would be a stumbling block, ultimately landing him in jail and leading to death.

What’s more, in our increasingly pluralistic society, I wonder if these church growth methodologies will become less effective. Studies indicate Americans are less inclined to attend worship services than they were in previous generations.
We should ask ourselves: How do we see the Sunday gathering? Do we see it as an inspirational TED Talk with good music? Or do we see it the way the New Testament does, as God’s called-out people assembling for worship and mobilizing for mission? Music styles and preaching patterns will vary, but some elements should remain fixed. Paul instructed Timothy, as the pastor of the church at Ephesus, to “devote himself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching” (1 Tim. 4:13). He also instructed the same church to sing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph. 5:19). And our Lord Jesus entrusted to local churches the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

We should not be embarrassed by the Christian language and rhythms of the Sunday gathering. We should gather with the expressed goal to declare to the world, to ourselves, and to the cosmic powers our worship of Christ as King.

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Also let us continue to welcome outsiders into our midst as warmly as we can even as we chuckle at ourselves.  As the book of proverbs puts it, "A Joyful heart is good medicine."   So why not take your medicine right now!  Watch the awkward welcome the visitor in the video gets when he stumbles into a strange church.
 
(BTW, you'll want to make sure you don't miss the singing of 'All Creatures of Our God and King' at the end... the recollection of this video has often made it difficult for me to remain dignified while singing this hymn in church.)

Shakespeare said, “The man that hath no music in himself...  is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils."  

I’ve never understood people who don’t care about music and I can see what Bill Shakespeare was driving at when he said that such people were better suited for “treasons, stratagems, and spoils.”  There just seems to be something criminal about the kind of person who can sit idly by in a restaurant, chewing a sandwich and carrying on a conversation with a friend all the while being totally unmoved by the Nickelback “song” that has just begun oozing out of the speakers above them.

How can they just sit there????  

How can they be so callous???? 

Why aren’t they on their feet demanding the speakers be unplugged and the radio ran over by a steamroller?    

The solution lies in understanding what these three things have in common:

*  Praise

*  Prayer

*  Proclamation

Figured it out yet?

Ok, fine!  I'll tell you...  In the Bible, music fulfills three roles within the context of worship – the three categories listed above.

The reason we have worship music at all is to engage in one of these three actions - praise, prayer, and/or proclamation.

As someone has helpfully defined these three categories:

            Praise is the lauding of God for His acts and attributes, acknowledging His supremacy in all things.

            Prayer is communication addressed to God (did you realize that the vast majority of the songs you sing in church are actually prayers?)

            Proclamation encompasses any activity that proclaims the Word of God – quotation, explanation, teaching, and preaching.

The author of these definitions concludes:

“I contend that when worship music is properly fulfilling these roles according to biblical principles, discord dissipates, unity increases, and the Spirit utilizes music for it’s highest purpose...”

And I fully agree!

Here is our solution – whatever genre of worship music we choose, let’s evaluate its usefulness and propriety based on the principles of the Bible.  Let’s ensure that our choice of worship music is not rooted in the world, in pop culture, in pragmatism, or in mistaken notions of success...  Instead let’s seek, by God’s grace, to conduct our worship music in such a way that every Christian under our care will be better enabled to fulfill their chief purpose – namely, to enjoy and glorify the triune God. 

            2) IT REMINDS US OF OUR MUTUAL NEED FOR GRACE.    
When God’s people come together and offer a heartfelt confession of sin it is a beautiful reminder that all Christians are  "Indians in the same canoe” so to speak.  Whether a person is the most mature believer in the room to the newest convert in the room,  corporate confession is a powerful reminder that we are all on the same level and all equally dependent upon the grace of God.  It is His grace, and His grace alone that makes us what we are

             3)  IT  ACKNOWLEDGES GOD’S FAITHFULNESS. 
When God’s people come together and offer a heartfelt confession of sin it is a powerful declaration of God’s faithfulness to His people.  Genuine confession of sin does not in anyway excuse or condone sinful behavior, nor does it downplay the seriousness of sin.  It is instead a humbling reminder that God does not treat us as our sins deserve but for Christ’s sake He remembers His covenant of grace and remains faithful to preserve His people – the Church.

4.    The Dragon of Confusion

My friend Alistair Begg often says, ‘the main things are the plain things.’  There is great wisdom in that, you know.  And yet, how confused we often are when it comes to the elements of our worship services.  Someone wants to do a liturgical dance.  A group of young people want to do a drama.  Here comes a man with a gift for whistling.  A cat-lady wants the pastor to add a pet-blessing element to the service once in a while.  A group of old timers suggest a concert of Southern Gospel quartette classics for Lord’s Day worship…. And on and on it goes…

What is a poor pastor to do?

He simply must point his people to the Bible…  to the main things…. to the plain things…

He should patiently ask his people, “What were Christian worship services like in the Bible?”  And together they can discuss the following points:

The Christians sang the Bible.

They read the Bible.

They preached the Bible.

They prayed the Bible.

They administered the sacraments in light of the Bible.

And the God of the Bible was pleased.

“Why don’t we just stick with that too?”  The pastor can ask.  In so doing the pastor is helping his congregants slay the dragons lurking in the shadows of corporate worship.

In my own experience I have heard church leaders say things like:
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“Unbelievers don’t know or understand hymns or metrical psalms – so let’s ignore these things!”


 “Unbelievers don’t understand the Bible – so let’s either keep our readings brief or avoid the book altogether!”


 “Unbelievers are uncomfortable with lengthy public prayers – we’ll keep them short!”


 “Unbelievers are suspicious of preaching – so let’s make sermons short and ‘relevant.’  We’ll talk about … say… hot-       button political issues, heartache, self-improvement, mere-morality, or the challenges of raising teenagers.”

​And so the mistakes continue to multiply until the final product is as strange as my Mc Fillet O’ Chicken.

So how do we correct this?

By starting in the right place – with the first component of worship.

What is it?

Simply this; we must believe that Lord’s Day worship is not about unbelievers.  It’s not about their wants, their musical tastes, their felt-needs, or anything else.  Lord’s day worship is about God, His wants, His commands, His requirements.  The concern of the worship of the Church is to please the Lord of the Church – our Faithful God who has taken great pains to reveal Himself in His Word.  Our prayers, our praise – every element of our worship services – must be in accordance with the Scriptures.  Above all the Word of God must be faithfully preached as the climatic act of public worship.  Why?  Because in faithful, expository preaching the Triune God of the Universe condescends to speak to His people.             

Yes!  Let the unbelievers in the door each Sunday!   By all means, compel them to come in!  But when they do, ensure that they get a glimpse of the glory of our God, a fearful understanding of His might, and a grasp of His wonderful grace in Christ Jesus.  Whatever we do, let’s not stroke the affections of unbelievers, let’s not try our best to put them at ease, let’s not say to them through word or deed, “Now we know that you’re not interested in Christianity or the church so we have something else for you today.”  No!  The fact is, we DO NOT have anything else for them.  If they don’t want our Savior who are we to suggest to them ways of spicing up their marriage?  If they won’t hear our gospel who are we to offer them rules of conduct to make their jobs more satisfying?  At the end of the day, all we have to offer them is a Prophet to teach them, a Lamb to take away their guilt, and a Shepherd-King to guide and protect them.  In a word, all we have to offer them is the One we gather to worship each Lord’s Day – and He is enough.  Yes, of course, we want our worship to be marked by intelligibility and clarity.  But no!  We do not want our worship to feel casual or “normal” to the unbeliever.  Because what happens Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day is anything but “normal.”  The great covenant making God is condescending to meet with His people once more in a special way.  He is meeting with them around Word and Sacrament.  He is renewing His covenant with them.  Here is the Triune God in the midst of a people once dead in trespasses and sins who He has raised to newness of life.   Here is the Triune God calling His people together and graciously giving the unbelieving world yet another sign that the Kingdom of God has indeed come.  This is anything but “normal” and cannot truly be conducted casually if it is to have the ring of authenticity about it

 As British pastor Geoffrey Thomas wrote in and article entitled Goat-Sensitive Worship:

            “If the style and mode of our expression when we meet in God’s presence is just like that which the goats hear in the office or in the schoolyard life then we have failed them. We whom the Lord is seeking and saving are sensitive to their real needs... So our worship will be simple, spiritual, substantial, warm, reverent, characterized by free prayer, great hymns and metrical psalms climaxed in expository preaching and anchored in proven forms that quickly gain familiarity and so become better means of channeling people to the God we are serving, and away from noticing clever servants who are speaking.”

By the way, when I realized my Mc Fillet O’ Chicken was all wrong I exchanged it for a proper one.  I would urge you by God’s grace to do the same.