From the book, “What People Ask About The Church,” by Dale A. Robbins — 61 — In our society, one church may conduct worship in a highly
structured, formal fashion with prescribed liturgies, ritual or ceremony. On the other
hand, another church may worship very informally, with little structure, spontaneous
expressions of praise to God, lively, hand clapping music or even manifestations of
spiritual gifts. Such differences are largely a matter of whether a church follows post
apostolic traditions handed down through the historic church, or subscribes to various
conventions of reform which have sought to return to more authentic, New Testament
patterns. Worship is the fundamental objective of a church service, whose
basic idea is simply stated as "worthship," the act of ascribing a value of high
worth to something. Worship is the esteemed value in one's heart toward God, with honor
and reverence expressed through acts of devotion, obedience and service. In the broad
sense, worship can be displayed to God through such things as attending church, reading
scripture, singing hymns, giving tithes and offerings, prayer, public testimonies of
thanksgiving, receiving communion, offering oral praise, clapping or lifting hands. But in
the strictest sense, worship is pure adoration, lifting up the redeemed spirit toward God
in contemplation of His holy perfection.¹ "God is a Spirit; and they that worship
Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). In the beginning of the church, it is believed that early Christian
worship was a continuation of the traditional Jewish order, combined with the Apostles'
teachings and fervor of the Holy Spirit. According to scripture, the services consisted
of: Preaching or Exhortation (Acts 20:7), Reading the Scriptures (Acts 2:42, 17:2,11),
Personal and Corporate Prayer (Acts 2:42, 4:31, 12:5, 20:36), Singing (Acts 16:25, Eph.
5:19, Col. 3:16), Water Baptism (Acts 2:41), Communion (Acts 2:42, 1 Cor. 11:18-34),
Stewardship (1 Cor. 16:2), and Charismatic Gifts (1 Cor. 14:26). Many of these observances were described of a typical Sunday service
in the year A.D. 140, by Justin Martyr: "On the Lord's Day, a meeting of all, who
live in the cities and villages, is held, and a section from the Memoirs of the Apostles
(the Gospels) and the writings of the Prophets (the Old Testament) is read, as long as the
time permits. When the reader has finished, the president, in a discourse, gives an
exhortation to the imitation of these noble things. After this we all rise in common
prayer. At the close of the prayer, as we have before described, bread and wine with water
are brought. The president offers prayer and thanks for them, according to the power given
him, and the congregation responds the Amen. Then the consecrated elements are distributed
to each one, and partaken, and are carried by the deacons to the houses of the absent. The
wealthy and the willing then give contributions according to their free will, and this
collection is deposited with the president, who therewith supplies orphans and widows,
poor and needy, prisoners and strangers, and takes care of all who are in want."²
(Songs were not mentioned here, but were elsewhere in his writings — Charismatic
gifts are mentioned by Iraneus in 150). Both the scriptures and later historical writings suggest that
gatherings of early Christian worship were organized with some measure of liturgy (formal
order). But the book of Acts shows that the believers also possessed a spontaneous freedom
of worship, not confined to formality or structure. There was remarkable intimacy with
God, with an inclination to worship God any time, any place. For example, while Paul and
Silas were jailed in Philippi, in the middle of the night, they were heard throughout the
prison, singing and worshiping the Lord. They had no song books, no worship leader, nor
padded pews. Their feet were fastened in stocks, and were likely in pain from the earlier
beating — but in the unlighted, stench-filled dungeon, the sounds of their
spontaneous, heartfelt praise were heard. "But at midnight Paul and Silas were
praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them" (Acts
16:25). In the New Testament church, oral expressions of giving thanks and
praise to God were never intended to be restricted to a formal ritual — they were
meant to be personal, continual and spontaneous. "Therefore by Him let us continually
offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His
name" (Heb. 13:15). The services were not confined to rigid structure, but there was
sensitivity to the promptings of the Holy Spirit who might redirect the order on the spur
of the moment (Acts 13:2). And unlike today's well-polished, twenty minute sermons, the
preaching was extemporaneous and the length of services were flexible. "Now on the
first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to
depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight" (Acts
20:7). Furthermore, another unique characteristic of the early church was
that its ministry was not confined to clergymen. The meetings were mainly in homes, and
the laity were not mere spectators — all were participants to what was happening.
They were "...teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with grace in their hearts to the Lord" (Col. 3:16). James even
exhorted the believers to confess their trespasses to each other and to pray for one
another (James 5:16). The trend of whole-body ministry apparently continued through later
centuries, as one of the third-century church fathers, Tertullian, described his church
services: "In our Christian meetings we have plenty of songs, verses, sentences and
proverbs. After hand-washing and bringing in the lights, each Christian is asked to stand
forth and sing, as best he can, a hymn to God, either of his own composing, or one from
the Holy Scriptures."² The original New Testament form of worship is the format that every
modern church should seek to emulate. However, it seems to be a great contrast to today's
conventional service which is sometimes more comparable to the setting of a
"theater." The platform is viewed as the "stage." The ministers on the
stage are the "performers." The congregation is the "audience" —
spectators to the performance on the stage. The order of service or liturgy, is the formal
"script" which directs the performance. These concepts and other perfunctory trends of worship evolved
throughout a millennium of formalism that first began to emerge in the fourth century. For
over three hundred years, the church had structure and order (1 Cor. 14:40), combined with
a liberty that fostered body participation and spontaneity to the Holy Spirit. But now its
focus would shift toward a formal replication of ceremony, ritual and symbolic icons,
largely from the influence of the newly converted Emperor of Rome, Constantine (A.D. 312),
who sought to integrate Christianity with the grandiose paradigms of the empire. It was
during this era, that the first cathedrals for Christian worship were constructed and
prescribed liturgies were imposed upon the churches. Today, liturgical churches such as
the Roman Catholic church, still subscribe to such formalistic views of worship. The progression of formalism, liturgy, and ritual continued for over
a thousand years under the two formal Christian institutions, the Roman Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox churches. But the era of reformation in the 16th century brought reformed
concepts to worship. Two of the principal reformers, Martin Luther and John Calvin, made
significant contributions that would influence liturgical thought for many generations.
Luther's liturgical reform was guided by the principle that if the scriptures did not
expressly reject a particular practice, the church was free to keep it. Consequently,
Lutheran worship retained much of the ceremonial practice of Catholic worship. Calvin
however, argued that only practices explicitly taught in Scripture could be used in
worship. For this reason, churches influenced by Calvin have been less inclined to restore
pre-Reformation practices of worship perceived as unbiblical or Catholic.³ The famed spiritual awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries
brought about further reforms to worship, developed in the revival movements of the
American frontier. Many leaders and groups were instrumental in integrating these
influences into the local churches. One such key figure was the legendary evangelist of
the early 19th century, Charles Finney. When Finney settled down to a pastorate in the mid
1830's, the methods used in his revival campaigns became the basis for a revised approach
to liturgy (called the new measures) which increasingly became adapted by churches on the
eastern seaboard. Finney viewed evangelism as the primary focus in church life, and
integrated the concepts of the camp meeting into Sunday worship. He tried to do away with
what he described as "dead orthodoxy" — prepared and lengthy prayers,
written sermons, ominous psalm-singing — in favor of sprightly songs directed to the
needs of the sinner, emotionally stirring sermons designed to promote repentant response
on the part of the souls for the lost. The focus and content of sermons changed to imitate
the revival pattern as well. With conversion rather than corporate worship as the focus,
the sermon became the most direct means of persuading the unconverted in the congregation
to give their lives to Christ. Altar calls, previously unheard of in a worship service,
became frequent elements of a standard service. This "revivalistic" approach to
worship continued as the dominant tradition of free churches and is today the general
order within the fundamentalist and evangelical churches.³ In the twentieth century, attitudes of worship were again greatly
influenced by spiritual awakenings. The Pentecostal movement of the early 1900's, and the
Charismatic renewal of the 1960's, both emphasized the operation of spiritual gifts and a
return to New Testament practices of worship freedom. The influence of these movements
upon celebrated ministers, Gospel music artists, and media personalities, combined with a
widespread hunger for spiritual renewal, effectuated the birth of what became called the
"praise and worship" movement. This describes a growing, popular worship style
that draws on contemporary choruses, usually in a flowing or connected sequence, and often
features the lifting of hands in praise, ministry through the laying on of hands, and an
inviting and informal worship climate.³ More than all other liturgical reforms, these
more recent renewals have brought worshipers closer to the authentic New Testament
patterns of worship. ¹ Baker's Dictionary of Theology This article is copyrighted © by Dale A. Robbins, 1995, and is a publication of Victorious Publications, Grass Valley, CA 95949. Unless otherwise stated, all scripture references were taken from The New King James Bible, © Thomas Nelson Inc., 1982.You may download for personal use as long as you retain credit to the author. Obtain permission before reproducing copies for any reason, by filling out our simple permission form. For media reproduction rights, or to obtain published quantities of this title, . |
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