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How Weird Is Christian Worship?
use a "language" that is quite similar to that of the world around us ("all things to all people"), or one that is distinctly "not of this world." In today’s WORSHIP QUOTE the authors make an argument that Christian worship is and should be VERY DIFFERRENT, even odd or weird when viewed by nonbelievers. What do you think? HOW WEIRD IS CHRISTIAN WORSHIP? True worship will be odd and perhaps even weird to the watching world. This oddness is not lamentable but essential to the church’s faithfulness and witness. For is the gospel is foolishness, it is foolishness only to those who do not believe. The church may use a human tongue as its language of worship, it may use worldly time to determine when to meet for worship, it may even use electricity drawn from state-run utilities to heat the building and amplify the minister’s voice. But when the church assembles for worship she is not at all like the world. She invokes the name of Christ. She prays and sings to a God who cannot be seen . . .. She eats a holy meal whose portions are tiny, but which, by the blessing of Christ, nourishes God’s people for eternal life. In all these ways the church at worship is different from the world. All elements of worship look weak and foolish to those outside the house of God. But to God’s people they are manna that sustains for eternal life. —D.G. Hart and John Muether, WITH REVERENCE AND AWE: RETURNING TO THE BASICS OF REFORMED WORSHIP, Phillipsburg, New Jersey: R&R; Publishing Company, 2002, p. 34. ISBN 0-87552-179-7 Have a great week! Chip Stam Director, Institute for Christian Worship School of Church Music and Worship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky www.carlstam.org www.sbts.edu |