Church Worship:
Circus or the Real World?
When was the last time you went to an old-fashioned circus? One where
there were rings in which animal acts were conducted and daring aerial
demonstrations were carried on high in the arena. For many of us that
is at best a very old memory, and for a huge percentage of Americans
that is something they have seen on a TV movie, but have never
experienced. People went to the circus because it was great
entertainment. The performers were skilled and they put on a good show.
When you left the circus you were a happier person because you had been
entertained royally and everything always turned out well and was
positive. The lions roared and pawed, but they never ate the trainer.
The aerial artists seemed to defy death, but they always came out
alive. It always seemed the elephant would crush the performers around
them, but they never did. In addition to the skilled performers in the
ring, there were wonderful clowns who joked and played pranks on
everyone and made everyone laugh. The circus was a wonderful escape
from the problems of everyday life. You could forget your troubles and
for a short time live in a fantasy world.
As we enter the twenty-first century, many of us in and
out of the
church see the church in very much the same way we saw the circus in
the old days. Skilled performers are paid to entertain us. Some of them
tell us wonderful stories that take our minds off of the problems we
face. Some of them sing to us and do it so beautifully that we are
taken to a fantasy world by the beauty and quality of their song. Some
amaze us with their acting ability as they take us to a fictitious
place away from the challenges we face. Some use clever psychological
methods to charge us emotionally and free us from our melancholy and
depression. Some make us laugh with funny jokes of all kinds that make
us forget our problems. We are massaged with great special effects of
both a visual and a sound nature in all kinds of ways. The ultimate
objective of all of this is the same as it was with the old circus. We
hope to leave church feeling better--relaxed, relieved by our temporary
freedom from life's problems, and ready to go out and face life again.
The question that we need to ask ourselves in this
discussion is
whether this is what God wants us to experience and do? Critics of the
church have long maintained that religion is a crutch. Their
understanding of what the church is about is totally what I have first
described, and their response is "I don't need it." I have to agree.
For me personally, the best way to get my batteries charged is to get
to an island by myself where no one can touch me--free of TV, expensive
gasoline, newspapers, and crabby people. That time with God's beautiful
creation around me, a Bible to study, and no distractions from humans
is sacred. Jesus frequently separated Himself and withdrew from even
the closest of His disciples. It was this special time in prayer and
closeness to God that seemed to fuel Jesus in His work.
As we look at what the first century church did in its religious
practices we see activities of involvement. Singing was an activity
that everyone was encouraged to engage in. History tells us that much
of this singing was what we would call chants. Psalms and other
familiar verses were used and chanted. There was no entertainment
quality in this action, but rather a participation. The communion was
another participatory activity that everyone engaged in. The
consideration of the death of Christ and the breaking of His body and
spilling of His blood was a regular part of worship. Reading of
scripture and preaching was not done to entertain. Paul tells Timothy
"Preach the Word;...reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all long-suffering" (2 Timothy 4:2).
The emphasized words are not words of entertainment, but
a
motivation of action. It is important to note that many of the
techniques described in the second paragraph of this article can be
used to motivate and to teach and admonish. The use of technology and
of drama and stories is not the issue; the issue is what the objective
of these tools and devices is.
Church worship is not a time of fantasy and escape. The world needs
to see that we come together to serve, not to be served. James tells us
"Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this, to visit
the widows and orphans in their affliction and keep one's self
unspotted from the world" (James 1:27). When Jesus describes the judgment scene
to His followers in Matthew 25:32-46 the basis of judgment is clear, "I
was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I
was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me, sick and
you visited me, in prison and you came to me."
Heaven is not the direct goal of our worship. Whether we go to
heaven or not is not determined by how well we do our worship on Sunday
morning. Passages like this one do not base judgment on how well we
preached, sang, prayed, or directed worship. What preaching, singing,
praying, and the rest of our worship activities should do is to
motivate us to feed the hungry, visit the sick, clothe the naked, and
visit the prisons.
As a person raised in a home where there was no church attendance, I
can testify that attending a church as a nonmember is almost always a
negative experience. When I realized that there was good scientific
evidence that there was a God and that Christianity, as it was
presented in the Bible, made a lot of sense I started looking for a
church that practiced what I read about in the Bible. Walking into most
churches was like walking into a circus tent. There were lots of
entertaining things to look at and worship leaders frequently put on
quite a show. It was an alien world to me as an outsider, and I saw
nothing happening in the lives of most participants that indicated that
they were doing any of the things that I saw the Bible describing.
Eventually I stumbled into a group of Christians who did make their worship a launching
point to making real change in the real world with Jesus Christ being
the focus of their motivation to serve. It was this action in the real
world that motivated me to give my life to the Lord.
The world in which we live is in desperate need of Christians whose
worship and lives glorify God and radiate Christ. The most eloquent
description of this is what Jesus demonstrated as He washed His
disciples' feet in John 13:5-17. After washing their feet Jesus says, "Do
you understand what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord;
and you speak well for I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have
washed your feet; you should wash one another's feet. I have given you
an example that you should do as I have done to you" (vs. 12-15).
Let us strive to serve, glorify, and worship God by our service--not by
creating a circus atmosphere in our worship.
--John
N. Clayton
Back to Contents
Does God Exist?, JanFeb05.