Worship and Change

TROWEL & SWORD

Resources - Leadership

June 2000

SWORD - DEFENDING

Worship and Change

David Groenenboom

Don’t ask me why, but a few days before I left for Synod my thoughts turned to worship. What implications are there for worship following this Synod?

With the incalculable amount of time and energy we have devoted to the question of worship over recent years, we really need to ask whether our understanding has actually advanced. My observation is that in most cases such discussions have been difficult, often leading to heartache and division. It reminds me that in church history some of the most bitter battles have been waged over things which should be the focus of unity and praise. Think of the inability of Luther, Zwingli and other protestant leaders at Marburg to come to an agreement over the meaning of the Lord’s Supper in 1529.

So what will help us with worship? First, make the assumption that how we do worship will undergo development and change. It has always been this way, and there’s no reason to think that our age will be any different. Then, we need to consider where the points of resistance to change lie. Make no mistake; there should be points of resistance. It’s where they lie that makes all the difference.

In recent years the points of resistance seem to have been located in traditional things: “we do things this way” and “we’ve never done that before”. There have been points of resistance in preference: “I don’t like it that way”, “I got nothing out of that” and “that changed the whole service for me.” Points of resistance have also been found in what we think it means to be reformed.

I would challenge every one of these with a simple question: what gives these things the right to determine what is good and proper in the church? We have always taken issue with the Roman Catholic Church for being ruled by tradition. We reject the self-centred relativism that places personal preferences at the centre of faith expression. In my Forum 2000 papers I have questioned whether we have a clear understanding of reformed identity – can we ever be unified in what it means to be “reformed” when it comes to worship?

Yes we can. But before we go on, we need to understand that this places a hefty challenge before the church. Only courageous Kingdom people rise to it. Okay! So what is the way forward with worship?

The way forward is to realise that before we even talk about worship as dialogue, the place of various components, or whether to concentrate on more traditional or contemporary songs, there is a more important question. It is this: does our worship serve the Gospel? Does it make the Gospel clear? Does it enhance our understanding of what the Lord had done through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the basic question of worship. If we do not get this right, our worship will be bent and or broken from the outset.

It was this question that drove the reformers to strive for the sufficiency of the Word and the centrality of Christ. They knew that the Gospel – Jesus Christ and what he has done – was God’s power for change in the hearts and lives of men and women. If worship did not make that Gospel clear and give people a context to praise and honour the Lord for the Gospel, it simply wasn’t worship.

The central question, then, is whether the things you do every Sunday make the Gospel clear and gives you clear reason to give thanks for it. This question keeps us focussed on the central reality of our existence: to preach Christ and worship him alone. Do the songs you choose efficiently communicate this reality? Are they easily understood by the people who gather? Do your songs focus on Christ, His Kingdom, His work? Do the various components of your worship (what is said, the prayers, etc.) efficiently promote this reality? Settling for anything less is a choice not to proclaim and advance Gospel and Kingdom. If that happens we undermine the very thing the Lord wants us to do.

Here the point of resistance to change is shifted from tradition, preference, and perception to the Gospel. Not that the Gospel keeps us from change, rather it demands that we make the right changes for the right reasons. This is the reality that shapes all things, and what we do in worship is no exception. Jesus promised that when we keep things in this perspective, everything else will assume its proper perspective (Matt 6:33).

Believe it, live it, and worship will soon be a place of peace and positive challenge.

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