God will die if you don't sing...

The fact that God doesn’t need our singing is obvious. In fact, he doesn’t need anything from us. (Acts 17:25) He doesn’t need our sermons, our communion taking, our prayers, or our bible classes. In short, He doesn’t need what we call “worship services”. It is vital to come together, but not because God needs it, but because we need it. This is not humanistic. This is just a cold hard fact. God doesn’t need us to do it and we shouldn’t walk away from a Sunday morning gathering feeling good about ourselves because we gave him a sacrifice of praise. Again, I am not saying we shouldn’t praise or sing, but we should understand where it fits in the broader canopy of worship. While singing and such can be called worship, it is just one small part of the bigger picture. The problem is that our so called worship services are the main product of most of our American business model churches. Having a worship service (and doing it the right and biblical way for some groups) seems to be the primary focus of modern Christianity. We use them to market, attract and grow our businesses. I propose that this wasn’t the focus of Jesus’ teachings nor of that of the rest of the New Testament. (or really, for that matter, what God was after in the Old…read Isaiah 58)

First of all, Jesus didn’t even talk about our gatherings…at all. The closest he came to it was when he told the women at the well in John 4 that (my paraphrase) “soon it won’t matter where you “worship” God. This mountain or Jerusalem means nothing. What matters is that you worship God with your very life (pnuema pronounced nooma which means spirit or breath) – your very existence and that you do it truly or authentically.” Jesus is concerned with how we live. That is why he so often hammered the Pharisees. Like in Matthew 23:23 where he basically says, “big deal, you gave a tenth of your spices…you did a religious act…great. What I am really after is the tangible display of justice, mercy and faithfulness.” He could say the same to us “Great. So, you “anthemed” my name in a song that you sang in a building.” Again, gathering together to participate in singing, sharing, learning, praying…is all vital to spiritual formation, but spiritual formation has a purpose. It is not an end to itself. On Thanksgiving Day we wake up, skip breakfast so we will be really hungry, eat a ridiculous amount of good food when it is time and then lay around our houses stuffed and unmovable. Our churches are full of people filling up on “spiritual food” week after week only getting fatter and pickier because they are not using the food to fuel them as they engage in the real work. The real work is not coming to a “worship service”. The real work is that of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

Secondly, Paul doesn’t even call them “worship services”, but our NIV headings do. Paul calls them “meetings” or “when you come together.” In fact, in 1 Cor. 14:26 he says “all these things should be done for the strengthening of the church” and he says basically the same thing in Hebrews 10:24-25. We often paint what I believe to be this inaccurate picture of God sitting on His throne on Sunday morning soaking up our worship services that we pray are done in a “pleasing manner unto Him” to avoid the fate of the likes of Nadab and Abihu from Leviticus 10:1. Puh-lease…read Hebrew 9:11-15.

So here is the point if I haven’t already made it. Worship is the way we live, not a series of acts done in an assembly (Romans 12:1). Our assemblies are for us to be spiritually formed because God doesn’t need them. Gathering together to sing praises, pray, learn and all that comes with it is good, but it is not an end unto itself. Gathering together to be spiritually formed is done so that we may possess His qualities in increasing measure to keep us from becoming unproductive and ineffective in our knowledge of Him. (2Peter 1:5-9)

The conservative vs. progressive worship wars miss the point. I am progressive and I think most of the rules we are held back by are short-sighted. I am for more freedom and authenticity in our gatherings, but, frankly I am past all of that. I am at the point where I believe we spend way too much time being spiritually formed as opposed to putting the product of our spiritual formation to good use. Yes, our gatherings should change and many of the “rules” that come with thinking that is grounded in modernity miss the point, but the bigger question is can we move our “worship services” out of the center of our focus and into a position that allows our gathering to more effectively play their role in the larger picture of living the way of Jesus?