Sunday, March 1, 2009

Worship, Not Evangelism, Is The Most Important Task

"To worship God - that is the primary reason why the Christian should go to church. In today's church climate this is a radical idea. Nevertheless, Christians should go to church, not to evangelize, not to provide a comfortable "consumer-friendly" setting for the unchurched, not even primarily for the benefit which fellowship with other Christians provides, and definitely not just for lectures and devotionals, but in order to worship God.

"Christians should also understand that evangelism and the missionary task are not the most important tasks the church has. Such efforts exist among the nations, as John Piper argues in his Let the Nations Be Glad, only because worship of the true God among them does not! ...Anyone who will take the time to study the matter will have to conclude that worship in evangelical churches in this generation is, speaking generally, approaching bankruptcy. There is neither rhyme nor reason, much less biblical warrant, for the order of and much that goes on in many evangelical church services today. The fact of the matter is, much evangelical "worship" is simply not true worship at all.

"For decades now evangelical churches have been conducting their services for the sake of unbelievers. Both the revivalistic service of a previous generation and the 'seeker service' of today are shaped by the same concern--appeal to the unchurched. Not surprisingly, in neither case does much that might be called worship by Christians occur. As a result, many evangelicals who have been sitting for years in such worship services are finding their souls drying up, and they have begun to long for something else.

"Accordingly, they have become vulnerable to the appeal of the mysterium of hierarchical liturgical services. This is why some today are "on the Canterbury trail" of defecting to Greek Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Others who have been simply spectators for years in their worship services are getting caught up in the people-involving worship of charismatic services."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you have "COMMENTING RULES." Don't you know a blog should be run by relationships, not rules?

hymns that preach said...

Anonymous,
This blog IS governed by two, three-way relationships. The first three-way relationship consists of me, myself, and I. We think alike, we like each other, and we never argue.

The other relationship consists of my ideas, my beliefs, and my pleasures.

So the rules are my rules. If you don't like them, go write your own stinking blog.

I say that in love.
Ralph

Anonymous said...

What's up with that?

Your blog, your rules!

No question about it.

Anonymous said...

I don't think anonymous gets it. Stan is right. Rules are good, especially if you speak unity.

Jesse Albrecht said...

Good quotes.