Worship renewed - January editorial

In his article, Matthew Roberts draws our attention to some glaring deficiencies that have crept into some of our evangelical churches.

He writes: “We offer no connection to God. We accuse liberals of removing God from the gospel – often with considerable justification – and yet in our worship we have peculiarly fallen into the same trap.” We have lost, he says, “what should be a towering vertical encounter with God”.

Roberts is correct. Too many of us will have sat through “evangelical” services where the almighty, transcendent, holy God who we claim to worship barely seems to get a look in. There are notices, there is singing, there is an (often short) Bible reading, a talk and a prayer – but scarcely any conscious and deliberate recognition of the presence of our great and glorious God Himself!

This should not be. As Roberts goes on: “We gather as God’s people on the Lord’s Day so that, as the body of Christ, God may meet with us by His Spirit”. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said: “Our coming together in public worship should be a foretaste of heaven.” But, as Roberts says, too often it is more like a stamp collecting meeting. It is perhaps not as new a problem as he suspects. Spurgeon commented (in “The Blessings of Public Worship”, 1887) that we should not go to the “house of God merely to get comforted and cheered. That is a very sweet result from hearing the word; but it should not be our main object… We should meet together that we may draw near to God.”

So here are a few practical suggestions. What about starting each service with a prayer acknowledging the greatness, character and presence of the Lord? What about explicitly encouraging those present to consciously direct their hearts and minds to focus on this great God – rather than just announcing the first song? Parts of the psalms may help us with both those things. What about having more than one Bible reading? And prayer interwoven throughout the service? Also pausing to prayerfully reflect on what has been heard before rushing on?

Roberts’ article deserves reading and re-reading. And then action. Let us banish “meetings” which are too often man-centred, irreverent and dry. And let us remember, Sunday by Sunday, the great, glorious, holy and majestic God, whose presence we are in! To Him be praise, now and forever, amen.