This is probably only interesting to Christians. Sorry about that. My physics work is all classified at the moment so I can’t write about that…
I was thinking about the different churches I’ve been to, and particularly the Sunday services, normally called worship services.
In general, in the UK and maybe in the wider Western world, there seem to be two main approaches.
The more traditional worship service has lots of individual items, such as hymns, songs, prayers, liturgy, Bible readings, a message, all led from one to the next either by a person (often called the Service Leader in modern contexts) or by a pre-existing format (such as a known order that is regularly repeated, or a written order of service).
The more contemporary (fashionable?) style of worship service has most of the same items, but generally in larger blocks with no explicit leading through. For example, the songs are all sung one after another, led by a musician (often called the Worship Leader), with little or no spoken word in between.
As I was thinking about this today, I was thinking of some blog posts I wrote recently about individuality. It seems to me that the more traditional services emphasise corporate worship, in that everyone is carefully led so that they all experience the same thing at the same time, and the overall feeling is that we’re all in it together. On the other hand, the more contemporary services emphasise individual worship, in that space is made for people to individually relate with God, that different people’s experiences might be very different and that’s ok.
Romans 12:1–2 is often quoted about worship:
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. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)
I think that the main point of worship is to bring glory and fame to God. We can do this through a huge number of different ways, but two important ones for a worship service as opposed to everyday worship are adoration and transformation.
Adoration is about communication from us to God, or about God, and it’s why we sing so many songs about how great God is! This brings glory to God through expressing who he is and what he does. Transformation is about communication from God to us, and us allowing ourselves to be changed for the better by encountering God who is best. This brings glory to God by making us into more God-like people to reflect some of his glory in his world.
I think there is a place for both the corporate and the individual in both aspects. Is it fair to say that we are generally good at corporate adoration and individual transformation? If so, is there some intrinsic link here, or is it something in our culture that makes it easier for us to communicate in these ways?
Some churches I’ve been in are in fact very good at individual adoration within a corporate setting, either by allowing people to speak/sing out personal prayers or praise to and about God, or by allowing space in silence or in noise for people to have individual conversations with God.
Some churches I’ve been in are in fact very good at corporate transformation, such as repenting together, sermons with corporate responses, and that’s not including what goes on in the week in being a community who together seek to be transformed day by day.
However, I’ve rarely experienced a church that manages to balance all four aspects here—corporate and individual adoration and corporate and individual transformation—in a worship service. Is this too much to expect? Perhaps the services themselves are better for some things, and other ways of doing church are better for other things.
Anyway, all this has really challenged the way I think about leading worship, and encouraged me to be less two-dimensional in my worship planning.
I’d love to hear what you think. Please comment below or on Facebook.