‘Assembly and Worship’ by Nick Clube
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
These are the opening words of Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, spoken by Duke Orsino. Shakespeare is poking fun at his obsessive lovesickness, but which of us can say that we too have not turned to music in the emotional ups and downs of life, to find solace and express our feelings?
Music is a language of emotion and mood. It can make us feel happy or sad, lonely or loved. There is music that captures the dramatic and breath-taking or the delicate and beautiful. It can make us dance and come together in common outpourings of fun and joy, or sit in quiet contemplation. I have always been surrounded by music and never thought for an instant about not playing music or singing. Orchestras, choirs, rock bands and church groups – they have all been a big part of my life. My record collection is extensive and I still buy CDs and LPs. In my project music studio, I can lose myself for hours in the creative joy of writing and recording; it is my greatest relaxation.
In a previous church therefore, some found it difficult to understand the caution with which I approached the use of music in church services. Why did I actively discourage and dislike certain songs? And why was I was troubled by the way music was sometimes used or emphasised in our Sunday meetings?
Surely, they reasoned, the Bible contains a huge amount of song and praise to God. For example, Psalms and the Revelation. Indeed, congregational singing is a great gift that Lord has given. Christian people are singing people as they respond to his word and his promises. African Christians singing spontaneously in rich harmonies, their bodies full of rhythmic movement and smiles shining form their faces is a wonderful thing to behold. So why my caution? Good question.
One Man’s Music is Another’s Headache
In this article I hope to share some of the thinking behind this reticence a ‘music nut’ like me has about music in church. Rather inevitably the foundations of it are tied up in the purpose and nature of Christian meetings, in the purpose of the Church and its gospel outreach. How do we avoid displeasing our Lord with the incorrect use and application of music? How do we evade a report card like that delivered through the prophet Amos?
“Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.” Amos 5:23
Church Meetings
Early in 2000, Marcus Honeysett , the founder of Living Leadership (livingleadership.org/ ) came to speak at Living Word in Letchworth. He delivered a superb exposition of Ephesians chapter 2 that included two interlinked applications from the passage.
The first application was that a church building is just a building
The second was that, "You do not go to church to worship”
The issues are location and activity. Let’s consider each in turn.
1 Worship and Location
Worship is not dependent on a physical location.
We all have experience being asked the question, “where do you worship?” It is common way of inquiring which church you attend. The difficult with this phrasing of the question is its inherent implication that we need to go to ‘God’s house’ to meet with him. It’s as though we go to a particular time and place where we flick a switch and start worshipping and then switch it off when we leave. As Marcus Honeysett said, that is old covenant religious thinking. The OT Temple and the Tabernacle are both destroyed, and God resides physically in his people through the Holy Spirit.
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:19-22 (ESV)
Our bodies have replaced the Temple at a Jerusalem and now make up God's new temple.
In John 4 Jesus says this to the Samaritan woman:
“Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…... Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:21-24 (NIV)
Therefore, we do not need to go anywhere at all to worship for we are always in the place where worship takes place. It takes place all the time, whenever and wherever we happen to be.
The next time someone asks where you worship, perhaps we answer with a wry smile, “Wherever I happen to be!”
2 Worship and Activity
Worship is not confined to a church building and neither is it confined to the typical activities done in a church building.
Worship is the whole of the Christian life. Paul tells the early Roman church this:
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1 (NIV)
Unfortunately, the English language has not really given us the labels to make a clear distinction between the life of worship and an act of worship. Paul is telling us that all activities of the Christian are worship that serve and glorify God and his purpose. We can just as easily worship God in our work and our homelife.
Furthermore, many congregational leaders are sloppy in their use of the word worship; so much so that it’s become commonplace to imply it is limited to congregational signing.
The constant usage of the word in that context encourages the misconception of attendees that worship constitutes congregational singing and that singing is the centrepiece of worship.
Why Not?
Isn’t it odd that we leaders don’t talk about worshipping God in prayer, or word ministry when introducing those segments of our services? And why don’t we exhort everyone at the end of the service to go out into their daily lives to worship God?
Being Pedantic?
Those of us who encourage the wider use of the word worship have often been told we are making a mountain out of a mole hill and that we are being plain pedantic. It is supposed that our dry doctrinal attitudes hide a loathing for church music and celebration. But this could not be further from the truth, especially for a musician like me.
Worship is a God word. Worship that does not have God as its object is not worship. Furthermore, it is central and vital to the Christian message and to God’s purpose. We abuse the word at our peril.
Satan’s first attack on humanity in the Garden of Eden used the ploy of abusing the meaning of a word from God. “Did God really say that? That’s rather unfair. You won’t fall down dead the moment you eat the fruit.” Satan omits to tell them that they will suffer spiritual death in that moment and bring a later physical death upon themselves. It was a subtle semantic deceit that had big consequences for its hearers.
Likewise, our misuse and abuse of the word worship has repercussions that can lead to big problems for the unwary hearer.
Let’s list some of the common phrases that churches around the world use up front:
“We’ve come to (church to) worship God” which suggests the building is somehow special.
“The worship section” meaning a section of two or more songs.
“The worship band” or “the worship leader” again meaning the serving musicians.
“A programme of worship” when the only thing on offer is music and singing.
It is surely incumbent on leaders to ensure they apply the words of God accurately, not to make them less than they are or more than they are.
“He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” Titus 1:9 (NIV)
False Expectations
Human community and relationship are based on communication. Effective communication is built on trust. Trust comes from telling the truth and doing so consistently. When this chain is broken, so community breaks down and the embers of conflict and hatred are sown.
When speaking to others about what you have done in the past is one thing. It can be verified. However, when talking about the future things get tricky. Telling the truth becomes a matter of setting accurate expectations. During my professional life delivering projects to clients in all walks of life, from charities to industry and central government, the main lesson I learned was never to set false expectations.
Even if my message was disappointing or downright bad news, I found that customers appreciated the honesty and responded well. They shared the issues and helped sort it out constructively. When false expectations were set, events would always reveal the truth. Then our customers would react very badly indeed. Sometimes the projects would “go legal”.
Churches too can fall foul of false expectations amongst their ‘customers’. Marcus Honeysett has not been the only Christian teacher to have spoken of false expectations of Church services. Setting correct expectations will pay big dividends and get the job done. If left unaddressed, that job will be hard and very difficult to achieve.
A Simple Question?
To set expectations correctly we need to establish and agree the answer to a simple question; what is the point of meeting together as Christians? Until this is clear then we can make no progress.
First step
Jesus established his church for a purpose, and understanding that will help us answer how the public meeting fits the picture.
Jesus’ prime ministry was to teach the word of God. His apostles too prioritised teaching people the Word of God. The early church modelled in Acts 2, ‘devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching . . .’ That is the foremost task. Out of this teaching grow the other activities they adopted, ‘…to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.’
Only a few verses later do we find the mention of common ‘praising God’, which presumably included singing.
Some years later, Paul wrote much to the troubled church at Corinth. In his second corrective letter he says to them, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” (2 Corinthians 5:20)
Likewise, to the Romans he reminds the early church that God’s word is an external revelation and unless it is proclaimed then it cannot do its great work.
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? …. faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:14-17 (ESV)
In Scripture’s first verses we read “God said…” and in the final verses of the Bible we find a severe warning not to add to or detract from God’s word.
Let’s draw these ideas together. The task of the church is clear: it is proclamation and teaching God’s revelation.
Proclaim God’s word to the non-believer
Teach the Bible to the believer
Cause and Effect
These tasks require word communication. There are two main ways of doing that; through the spoken word and through the written word. God has provided one medium for face to face teaching and another for remote teaching. There is a place for both and the church has indeed embraced both.
What then occurs is all consequence and reaction, rather than primary cause. Changed and growing lives, prayer, praise, fellowship, evangelism, thankfulness, obedience, generosity: all grow out from the seed of God’s word. They are all responses.
Back to our question: what is the point of Christians assembling on Sundays as a local congregation?
It is for edification. This must be our focus before everything else.
Healthy Ingredients
All the elements of our meetings need to serve the edification of the attendees. The sermon rightfully takes its place as the centrepiece. The children’s activities, prayers, the leading and the music must be edifying too! At minimum they are best used to support the sermon rather than detract from it. As such, none must be given special prominence over and above teaching and none should stray from the pattern.
If we do not feed each other with high quality teaching of God’s word then nothing else will survive, at least, not in good health. Hospitality and friendliness, good music and a busy coffee time will all help attract people to our meetings but it is doctrinally sound, engaging teaching and preaching of the word that keeps people coming back and committing themselves to the work. All the other things they can get elsewhere.
In John 21:1-14 there are two allusions: one to the original calling of the apostles and the other to the feeding of the 5,000. You will note the apostles are again on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus poses a question and gives a command to Peter, and by him to all of us. The question is, “Do you love me?” In other words, is your calling sure, are you really committed to me as your Lord? That alludes to their original call to become fishers of men
The command is, “Feed my sheep.” This alludes to John chapter 6, where Jesus explains the miraculous feeding and provision of resources to his followers to feed the assembled crowd of humanity. He exclaims, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35 ESV).
The whole scene harks back to Deuteronomy; “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3 ESV). We are not a charity or NCO, but a church, Christ’s ambassadors called to teach and train.
In an age of technology, are things different?
In a world before electronics, computing and the internet the only ways to meet the proclamation and teaching tasks of the church was through meeting people in the same physical space or, through the written word in books and smaller publications. Now, new dimensions have been added.
In biblical times the written word, on papyrus, wood or leather, was an expensive business. The extent of literacy and the use of the written word are hotly debated, but a single copy of Romans is estimated to have cost about £2,000 to produce. Delivery presented more expense. The church relied heavily on oral teaching. A privileged circle of literate men with access to written Scriptures and teaching developed, vulnerable to manipulation themselves and the temptations of abusing those that relied on their learning.
We might assume however that the oral transmission of the Scriptures and its teaching in common physical spaces has remained very much the primary means to reach people. Being social beings, it is still our preferred model. We like the human interaction. Its visual clues and emphases differ from those of the written word, and it is arguably a more effective medium for conveying biblical truth. But let’s not downplay plain text.
The printing press was a remarkable and revolutionary technology for expanding literacy at a much more accessible cost that could reach the poorer in society. It helped lead to the Protestant Reformation, allowing the democratisation of Christian truth and undermining the corruption of the privileged echelons of the Roman Church. The gospel underwent a process of individualisation that freed people from manipulation and empowered them to put the leadership structures under scrutiny and accountability. Church and individual had to learn to walk together in service to Jesus. For the first time, the preacher had parishioners who could follow along his words and the text of Scripture simultaneously.
Something to ponder. Do we see the hand of God in the Reformation? Some say history is only rightly understood when it is seen through the lens of God’s dealings with humanity. It is HIS story.
Our own technological age has given us the means to meet virtually, sound an vision combined. It is another revolution for the Bible and gospel teaching to reach ever greater numbers of people at lower cost than before. If there were qualms about large scale printing back in the 15th and 16th centuries, now we have another upheaval to try and gauge, and perhaps God’s hand is once more at work in history.
The church at large has been somewhat slow to adapt to audio and video, to the internet and all its possibilities in comparison to other sectors of society. It has taken a pandemic that has stopped our physical meetings to wake us up to this issue.
Thinking Caps On – what does it mean to be in assembly?
Christians have some thinking to do about preaching, teaching and proclamation in this new medium. Audio and video recordings which are one-way communications have been generally regarded as supplementary materials that fulfil much the same role as the written word. The advent of internet conferencing applications like Webex and Zoom have however, introduced a two-way communication technology providing a prime (rather than supplementary) means of immediate communication that impinge on the concept of assembly and what is means to be in assembly. Thus, during the Covid lockdown, this technology has quickly been adopted for common activities that hitherto only took place in person.
Virtual Church: Relaxed or Anxious?
Some are relaxed about meeting virtually under lockdown because the primary work of the church is carrying on. Meeting together in assembly has not been hindered, and we are seeing greater attendances than in our physical meetings.
Music is problematic because of copyright issues, and the sheer challenge of producing it to a high enough standard for broadcast. So, some have dispensed with it; in fact, dispensed with everything except the sermon and prayer. Keep the main thing the main thing has been the argument.
On the other hand, some groups are incensed that politicians are denying church to gather physically and are calling for special dispensation to meet. They claim the church is a special case and that there is something peculiar and indivisible about church meetings in the same physical space.
One claim is that only such meetings satisfy the requirement of “Ekkelsia” or local assembly, a word used by Paul and John in the New Testament to help explain to Gentile converts something of the nature and purpose of Christian gatherings. Virtual assembly, to them is an imposter and will not do. It is understandable and surely few would say there is not something preferable about the physical meeting over the virtual. First however, we might ponder if that is our animal instinct driving the thought or some higher doctrinal need. No answer here on that one; that’s for you. It is worth pointing out however, that physical assembly being intrinsic to church is not unique to it alone. For example, team sports, orchestras and music groups also qualify.
Others place a high value on the communal breaking of bread. For them the importance of this rite is that we do it together and it is wrong to be separated physically. The breaking of bread at mealtimes in individual homes and the celebration of communion in those same separated homes over the medium of a computer screen doesn’t achieve the Lord’s requirement in a visceral sense. Certainly, for the person sitting on their own it has no reality of community.
Doubtless, music and singing are also missed and regarded by many as an inviolable part of church meetings too. At least their absence has struck a chord of disconnect and discomfort.
The question is, if the virtual meeting is not the same does that automatically imply that it is necessarily wrong? If it misses out music or prayer, or a children’s section or communion, is it to be condemned as long as it teaches Bible truth?
In fact, and quite shockingly perhaps, the same question can be asked of when the church physical assembles.
Risks and Benefits
Here is a short list of 7 risks and 7 benefits offered by virtual meetings: you can doubtless think of more. These are to get you started.
Risks
Not everyone has the technology
It can disadvantage the technologically illiterate
It does not provide the means to mingle
There is no opportunity for touch: hugging, shaking hands or a gentle hand on the arm to reassure
The practise of communion is arguably weakened for we no longer share wine and bread from a single source even if it is only symbolic
We would all rather share a common space because God made us gregarious by nature
It recorded nature does not encourage discipline and commitment like a scheduled service
Benefits
It meets the Lord’s injunction to meet together
It can and does build community
It facilitates word ministry and provides a human visual element
It reaches much further than physical meetings
It is culturally in tune in our age (when in Rome)
The risks are secondary issues when compared to the church’s main task
It lends itself to modern quick bite medium and can be fitted round a busy life – if you’re not there you don’t miss it.
Clearing the Minefield
Whatever our own deliberations, the issue of virtual meetings and how we deal with our current lockdown predicament as well as our future activity in this area, it provides fertile ground for disagreement and raising peoples’ temperatures! We have to deal with this sensitively and do our best to remind people of the basic essentials of Jesus and the Apostles’ agenda, to concentrate on those basics and leave the secondary issues aside for further deliberation.
How swift we are to make little idols of music and buildings, and of the myriad other things that we like. How often it is these secondary issues and personal emotions drive wedges between us. To return to where this article came in, my caution over church music is quite simply that it can become an idol of habit that does not always serve biblical teaching well. However attractive and wonderfully uplifting is might be it is not basic and necessary. And it’s not always praise. We so often place the bulk of it before the sermon and thus it struggles to be a heartfelt response to Jesus and all he has done. It risks becoming little better than noise in a spiritual sense. This may sound punchy but it is meant to try and focus how we think about and how we use God’s wonderful gift of music and singing to support our main ministry.
Culturally Contemporary
A last thought on this whole subject is making our gospel appeal culturally relevant. In a well-known passage in 1 Corinthians, Paul makes this admission of his evangelism:
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
If it is the word that saves, then to allow that word to be heard, to be thought about and to do its work, Paul realized that the packaging in which you presented it was critical
The word may be unchanging but people move with the culture and the way we communicate culturally is important to keep reassessing. If we fill our services with organ music and beautiful choral singing, then today’s younger people generally just won’t be interested and the dwindling numbers of church attendees will become ever more grey-haired.
We can include all the wonderfully spot-on liturgy we like but if it doesn’t speak to the real-life culture of the teenager, the young adult, and the young couple starting a family with a language they are at ease with, then it will be discarded every bit as much as highbrow arts and a treatise on nuclear physics. Game over.
Services should be something people enjoy and which will help outsiders come to know and worship God in their lives. Christians all too easily diverge from the culture as they walk in their new lives, and innocently but surely make their meetings and their habits alien to those outside. Instead of building bridges for evangelism and providing real welcome, we erect fences, draw up the defences and retreat into a protective holy huddle. At least we feel safe and comfortable we think.
An unexpected reaction
I remember a church leader speaking on building bridges with society to a church congregation one day. The reaction was astonishing and the shock of it sticks clearly in my memory to this day. It was like watching a hundred tortoises pull back into the safety of their shells. The open discussion time was dominated by issues of protecting the “ekklesia” (the local church) from the nasty world outside that wished to see its demise. Building bridges into it was the last thing on their minds. It was at that meeting that a brother from humble working-class origins found himself feeling alienated by what he saw as middle-class coldness and indifference to the outsider who was not ‘one of us’.
I wonder what would happen if we repeated that session today in our local churches. My suspicion is that the reaction would be the same shameful one. We all understand the instinct but we are not called as servants of Jesus for our own comfort and our own earthly protection. Like the servant in Luke’s Great Banquet (Lk. 14-24), we are meant to be going into “the streets and lanes of the City”, out to “the highways and hedges”, and we are to bring back with us by any means, “the poor and crippled and blind and lame”.
This is where Paul’s wisdom and advice comes into play. If we don’t adapt to the culture, to its ways of communicating, to its issues, it won’t come. Our proclamation message will have no ears to hear it. As much as I dread the very idea, what if rap music is now an appropriate form to use to attract people to a gospel address? Certainly, the internet with its short, sharp YouTube videos, with a magazine approach are important. We have much to learn about how we present not just our virtual meetings but also our physical assembles. Our culture is accustomed to sharing events over media to others. Perhaps we should be video-capturing all our services and making them available to share; or we should be producing internet material alongside our services.
Given that last thought, with the lockdown enforcing us to come to terms with internet technology, with what it means to be assembled, what is effective 21st Century communication and cultural relevance, perhaps this is the hand of the Lord, the banquet master, shaking us up, waking us up and asking us to get a better grip. Get out there into all the highways and hedges, streets and lanes!
NMC (June2020)
