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Strange Worship
How much of what we say and do is understandable to the "outsider"? Today's WORSHIP QUOTE addresses this important question. STRANGE WORSHIP We must expect some of Christian worship to seem strange, even unintelligible, to people who do not know Christ. Certainly all people are worshipers by nature, the impulse to worship is universal. But Christian worship is the worship of those who have died and risen again to a brand-new life and way of living. In this new community where Christ is head, things are different. Here people are less concerned with finding their life than with losing it for Christ. Here meekness, not muscle, is the mark of greatness. If the church is not radically different from the world, something is radically wrong. To be salt and light in the world implies a marked contrast between the way of life in the world and the way of life in the church. Peter says that Christians are "aliens and strangers in the world" (1 Peter 2:11). It follows, then, that Christian worship will have its peculiarities. --Emily Brink, editor, in AUTHENTIC WORSHIP IN A CHANGING CULTURE, by the seven-member Worship Study Committee for the 1997 Synod of the Christian Reformed Church, CRC Publications, 1997. For information, call 1-800-333-8300. [Highly recommended for worship planners, ministers, and church musicians.] Have a great week, Chip Stam |