David Anguish
For years, I have heard some Christians lament "dull" worship services. In files now twenty years old, I find articles on "Exciting Worship." There was no question in those days that the "excitement" had anything to do with the various externals which have generated so many articles which have crossed my desk in the last few years. The concern was over the fact that so many people went through the motions, that too many did not enter into our services with enthusiasm. In responding to the concern then, I both questioned and did not question the status quo. Would some changes help? Yes. Could some congregations derive more inspiration from their shared worship assembiles? Yes. Did the necessary changes require wholesale abandonment of what we were doing, or even a total surrender to songs (whether Stamps-Baxter or "camp" songs) which cause feet to tap and hearts to pound? No. For true worshipers, "Peace, Perfect Peace" can be just as "exciting" as "Salvation Has Been Brought Down".
In a recent article, Jimmy Jividen brings into focus the the issue as it existed in the 1970s and it exists on the verge of 2000. He writes:
It is time to stop talking about the color of song books, overhead projectors, special singing groups, arm raising, hand clapping, and a multitude of other "isms." The discussion should be about the nature of worship, the source of worship, the means of worship, and the purposes of worship. If these things are understood, then the factions of the worship wars could declare peace. Everyone should make his own worship all that it can be without cluttering it with human traditions of the past or the contemporary fads of the present. Restoration of the spirit as well as the forms of New Testament worship practicies should be the timeless quest. It is time to stop talking about cold, meaningless "church of Christ" worship traditions of others and start examining self to see if our worship is with the spirit and understanding. Nothing is bad just because it is old, and nothing is good just because it is new. A person is fighting a straw man who talks about unmoving worship exercises so drab that there is no emotional experience. An orderly, rational, heartfelt singing of traditional songs is not necessarily foreign to genuine worship...Not every worship assembly and not every worshiper can be rated as a number 10. We all need to learn to worship as the disciples of Jesus wanted to learn to pray (Luke 11:1). (Jimmy Jividen, "The True Nature of Worship," Gospel Advocate [September 1999], 17.)
What was needed twenty years ago, and what is needed now, is for disciples to realize that worship is about worshiping. Where Christians miss that point, the emotionally charged efforts of the '90s will fail them just as the Stamps-Baxter songs failed to solve the matter in the '50s and the camp songs failed in the '70s. To again cite Jividen, "the objective of worship is to please God, not to entertain an audience." We wonder if some we have met, whether among the critics or their respondents, understand that form -- whether called "correct", "conservative", or "progressive" -- does not in itself constitute acceptable worship (see Amos 5:21 ff). That does not mean that any way will do. You are hard pressed to read the Bible with an open mind and come away thinking that form makes no difference to God. It does mean that the problems so many have in finding "exciting worship" will be solved when they understand that they are called to praise God and that genuine excitement is found in the heartfelt joy of received salvation.
"Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 6:1, NASB).