Monday, January 10, 2011

The Hour We Spend Together


How should you approach the Sunday morning worship service? Should you anticipate attending and when you leave able to say you were glad you were there? Or is it alright to expect nothing but a star in your crown for having endured another Sunday service?

To find the answer we will look at this from three different directions to get an answer about our attitude and what we should expect from a worship service. First we will look at the church at its birth in Jerusalem shortly after the events surrounding the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Then we will look at six questions every church should answer about their life and goals. Finally we will look at six key elements of worship and how we should approach each one.

The Early church is clearly depicted in the Book of Acts in their worship and daily life. From what we learn in the Acts 2.42-47 we can see five clear elements to their spiritual life together.
  1. TEACHING: This is the sharing of the LOGOS or word of God. They were the ones who could say about the word, "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—" 1 John 1.1 They were being taught the truth that would be taken with them when the persecution of Acts 8 scattered them all across the pagan Roman empire. Without written records or the apostles with them they were able to share. Each Sunday we need to be learners who are preparing to take the message with us into what is a pagan world.
  2. FELLOWSHIP: This is the KONONIA of fellowship that includes the presence and worship of God. People form fellowship over a variety of items or common bonds. They may do it around a sports team, a political party, a hobby or any variety of reasons. Yet the bond that Christian believers share is because of the relationship they have with the risen personal savior. The Goal should be to share "what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." 1 John 1.3 The fellowship or kononia of believers is why we worship together.
  3. BREAKING of BREAD: This is about the fellowship and sharing that comes between close FRIENDS. It can be at the church during a fellowship time or a dinner. It can be in the home over a meal or a game night. It is the reason that John was able to end his short letter by saying, "Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name." 3 John 15 Christians are suppose to be friends who enjoy being together.
  4. PRAYER:  The POWER of God at work in life of the fellowship of believers is often centered in their prayer life. Knowing that "All things [we] ask in prayer, believing, [we] will receive." Matthew 21.22 This ability to know that no matter how difficult, impossible, or far the request may be we are in contact with the only power that is capable of answering.
  5. SHARING: The RESOURCES of believers should be willingly shared. What we have should not be seen as ours but as what has been given to us by Jesus to share.  "When He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves." Luke 22.17 Even as the cup of communion comes from Christ for us to share so our resources come from Christ for us to share. Even the help we give to others come because we have first been helped. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." 2 Corinthians 1.3-4
 Here we have a picture of the early church and their life together as believers.

Paul Nixon in his book "I refuse to lead a dying church" outlines six critical choices every congregation must make. I contend that these choices directly relate to how worship on Sunday is prepared by the leadership and approached the church members. Though I could not agree with his theological application in the 21st century I do agree that every church needs to consider these questions.
  1. Every church has to choose between LIFE or DEATH. To choose life the writer contends that we have to consider what keeps those who are between 16 and 35 awake at night. When you learn that, you have a focus to help the church in choosing LIFE. Many churches today face a slow death because they are not willing to look at any needs but their own.
  2. Every church has to choose between COMMUNITY or ISOLATION. To choose community is to look at the needs of your surrounding community. We will answer to Jesus for how we respond. We do not want to find ourselves unable to answer when he asked about feeding him when he was hungry or giving him something to drink when he was thirsty. We need to know that we gave him clothes when he was naked, or medicine when he was sick. That we visited him in prison. We may isolate ourselves from or community but we cannot remove our need to answer to Christ about why when given the opportunity we did not respond.
  3. Every church has to choose between FUN or DRUDGERY. "The joy of the lord is your strength." Nehemiah 8.10 Church should not be a place of drudgery, being a Christian believer is a positive joyful experience. We are told to "REJOICE ALWAYS!" 1 Thessalonians 5.16 Yet many churches choose drudgery. They approach worship without joy and miss a real opportunity to celebrate the complete FREE GRACE of God.
  4. Every church has to choose between BOLD or MILD. You have to see the difference between the church and the world and the church and any other church. If the church chooses to be bold it will be different and find that it is filled with the power of Christ. see Ephesians 1.15.23
  5. Every church has to choose between FRONTIER or FORTRESS. This is the difference between being innovative and historical. Are we going to be held in place by the traditions of the past or are we going to break new ground. Even if it is only new ground for us we need to look around and see what is working and is cutting edge. Jesus called us to Go, Baptize and Teach. Matthew 28.18-20 This is about going out onto the frontier and finding those who need Jesus.
  6. Every church has to choose between NOW or LATER. What is the church waiting for? This is why when we read the book of Mark we should pay attention to the word IMMEDIATELY. It appears 39 times and shows we are to choose Now over Later. Changes that need to be made need to be made now. We cannot wait for new people to come to make changes we have to be ready for them before they get here. Like the disciples we need to respond when the opportunity comes. "Immediately they left their nets and followed Him." Mark 1.18
 That bring us to our local worship service and how we approach it. There are six elements that are part of our worship service each week.

  1. MUSIC must be familiar & fresh. The music we share in our worship service should be better than what is playing in the background in any store you visit. We cannot allow our music to be bad if we are going to be a vital and growing church. If the music at Taco Bell is better than in the church something is wrong.
  2. MESSAGES must be contemporary & meaningful. They need to speak to modern needs and answer questions that people are aking.
  3. FAMILY NEEDS must be met in innovative & relevant ways. Meeting the needs of families with young children so that worship is enjoyable for the whole family is vital. The church must avoid being a baby setting service for people who are staying home and sleeping in. The church should strive to get the whole family and not focus on the children and lose the parents.
  4. FELLOWSHIP that is open & spontaneous. You cannot fake this. Either you like the people you attend church with or you don't. Visitors will feel the difference. We put a 10 fellowship break right in the middle of the service over four years ago during the summer. This time together has continued and become a key point to interacting with each other and with visitors who have a cup of coffee in one hand and a cookie in the other.
  5. OFFERINGS that are sincere & shared. Do the members of the church believe in the mission (outreach) and ministry (inside the church) enough to make sure it has the needed funds? Everyone doing their part to make sure that the financial needs of the church are taken care of.
  6. PRAYER that is supportive & consecrated. It starts on Sunday morning but it has to last all week if it is going to cover the needs of the local church.
The hour that is shared by a church on Sunday morning is vital to the ministry and mission of the church. It will also tell you a lot about the commitment and the direction the church is taking. At the church in the book of Acts it was in the temple (church) and in their homes that they shared together. The end result was that "the Lord was adding to their number." Acts 2.47 When you leave service on Sunday you should be able to say, "WOW, I am glad I was there."