There’s a lot of questioning out there in books and blogs- do we really need “sermons?" Should they really be so central to what we do as the church? And I’m fairly convinced that question comes out of a misunderstanding of worship.
For all our talk of moving away from the consumer model of church, it has to be said that one of the biggest underlying motivations in critiquing the sermon is this: I don't like it.
Oh, I know, I know... the real issues are its "pagan" roots. Or its non-interactivity and irrelevance.
But rather than simply asking- how can we be more interactive? or how can we aid people in connecting the truth of Scripture to all of life? the question seems to center more on, "do we even need to do this at all?"
Yes- At its worst, a sermon is dull, boring, impractical and just plain painful to sit through. I've sat through enough boring sermons to know. And here's an insight- preaching a boring sermon is no picnic either. Trust me... we know when we are fouling one off.
But here's the thing: At its best? It moves us, it's used by God to change and rearrange us, and if I understand it correctly, that's worship.
When we willingly forgo other things to come together as a community and put ourselves under the Word of God- when we listen to Him, and allow Him to speak to us, push us, challenge and change us- that’s worship. When we respond in inwardly and outwardly in prayer and song saying, "Yes God- You are more worthy than my job, than my possessions, than my hobbies and than myself of my love and devotion," we worship.
Worship is trusting God, not myself, and it’s loving God- not my idols. It’s actively pulling my focus from myself and my wants and putting that focus on Him- His desires for this world. I think about who God is, what He’s done for me, and I am moved.
The whole point of worship is to “move us.” But when I say that I’m not talking about simply whether or not we had an emotional, charismatic-like experience. When I say “moved” I mean: If we don't find that our hearts have been moved from idols, whatever they are, toward God, we haven't worshiped.
Worship is finally being hit with the fact that what I am putting my heart on- my idols and functional saviors, cannot hold that weight, cannot give me true, lasting happiness... but Jesus can. And it’s being moved to respond- in my emotions, in my will, and then finally in my actions. And if worship is what moves us from focus on ourselves to focus on God, you can see that a lot of what we want to call worship, might not count- including singing, if in our singing our whole focus is on what we like or don’t like- whether the style, or the lyrics, or the band meets our approval.
At Evergreen, we try to give freedom to worship in the way that feels comfortable for them, in an effort to help people worship. You want to stand, stand, You want to sit, sit. Raise your hands in expressive worship, fold them in your lap in contemplative worship.
BUT… the danger is that you or I would begin to intuit, to feel that worship is somehow about me- what I like, what I don’t. If the music is right- I can worship. If it’s lame, I can’t. If the person leading talks too much, or not enough, or if they ask me to stand up, or if they don’t ask me to stand up, if this or that isn’t right, I can’t worship. And the problem is, right off the bat, that’s completely backwards- because worship- true worship, is about moving from self-centeredness to God-centeredness, and if I’m the one laying out all the conditions that have to be right for me to really “enjoy worship”, then I’ve completely missed the point.
And as someone said in our gathering this last Sunday... anything can be worship, but nothing automatically is.
So- yes, we can worship through song. We can worship through giving. We can worship through serving. And check this- we can even worship through the very act of being present in and to a community that is coming together for a guided time of meditation on/hearing from Scripture…
Also known as a sermon.
Should we strive to be more interactive and all the rest? Absolutely. But... if the point of worship is to focus more on God and less on us, I can hardly think of a better tool than a community, together, exploring the truth of Scripture.
Thank you Bob, this one was for me. After yesterday’s funeral service I sunk into deep depression. I wont go into all the details but I’ll give you a brief outline.
Hosting & officiating a funeral for a family we’ve know for many years and a fundamental church comes with “The Shepherd”. It’s all good so far. Open with Kool and the Gang’s chart toper “Celebrate” and getting most everyone standing, clapping and maybe a little hip action here and there, and you have a potential core breach. Yeap, I’ll just leave it at that and ask for prayer for all of us.
The family that asked us to host, loved the up lifting and joyous service, it was just as they wanted. See, “Celebrate” was Melba’s favorite song and she IS a follower of Christ. We’ll miss you Melba, look forward to seeing you.
Thanks for the Monday morning blues therapy and well written timely article.
Posted by: Larry Diehl | March 10, 2008 at 08:17 AM
2 Timothy 4:2-4 :)
2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Posted by: Aaron Stewart | March 10, 2008 at 08:25 AM
There's no doubt that sermons can be worshipful. I guess where my frustration comes in is not from the fact that I don't like them (I love a good preach) but from the fact that they limit growth (not spiritually but numerically). The fact is that if the church is to multiply it needs to be easily reproducible and not every community is going to have someone talented enough to preach. What you end up doing by demanding a sermon is limiting imaginations as to how church can exist and function.
It is of course an act of worship to listen and mentally interact with Scripture but there is also worship in the group that reads Scripture aloud and discusses it together.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against sermons. I listen to quite a few in fact (especially via MP3). I just don't think that every (or even many) churches should have them. I don't think we should limit ourselves to sermons.
Posted by: Matt Kingsley | March 11, 2008 at 12:49 AM
the problem is when the sermon or the sermonator becomes the idol/in the way of God
Posted by: matybigfro | March 13, 2008 at 01:40 PM
opps hit post to soon
was gonna go on to say i'm not sure the serman = a community, together, exploring the truth of Scripture.
anymore than worship singing = the coming together of voices in community to lift their gaze and song from idol's to the lord and saviour of all
personally i think it's perfectly feasable for a health christian community to function with a sermon as it is to function without singing or the reading of prayers.
I'm diggin ol st frank when he talked about preaching at all times and using words if neccassary, i'm not sure it just aply's to evangelism.
It can be just as easy for the sermon to be the high quality dished out consumer product as it is the music or worship experience so i wonder wether every community would benfit from some serom or music or liturgy free time or services.
I think it's interesting that we seem to focus more on peoples freedom to express themselves freely and not so much on how we can or don't allow people to think or learn freely
Posted by: matybigfro | March 13, 2008 at 01:55 PM