Dear Sir,
Stephen Kneale’s article on ‘The surprising problem of freedom’ (en Feb. 2020) provided three examples of where Christian practice seems to be based on tradition and/or personal preference, namely Sunday evening services, quiet times (I’m glad he used the plural) and attending a church near one’s home.
He argued that none of these is biblical and therefore are not mandated, but rather are imposed by tradition. If he intended to give a metaphorical black eye to those who ‘encourage’ others with ‘I missed you at the meeting yesterday evening … have you had your quiet time today? … why do you drive ten miles to that big church when there’s a small church near you?’ then I am right behind him. I’ve had some of this aimed at me in the 55 years I have been following Christ. Sadly there are some folk in church who seem to take pleasure from making others feel guilty. So if Stephen is arguing against a mindless rigid legalism which imposes patterns of behaviour inflexibly irrespective of changing culture, then I would agree. It can produce stress and guilt, especially if accompanied by heavy shepherding. But I have important caveats. To take these in turn:
Firstly, although Jesus said: ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’ (Mark 2:27), nevertheless He and His disciples attended both synagogue and temple services – a customary practice continued by the apostles after Jesus had ascended (e.g. Acts.17:2). There was a profound awareness of the Fourth Commandment to keep the Sabbath Day holy i.e. set apart for God. Even today, many Jewish communities hold Shabbat services on both Friday night and Saturday morning (and sometimes also on Friday afternoon and on Saturday afternoon and evening). When I was a young Christian we had services on Sunday morning and evening, afternoon Bible class and finally young people’s group after the evening service. Our growth in Bible knowledge and how to apply it was tremendous and built a firm foundation for later life. Surely Sunday worship (as often as we can) is a basic minimum – a freedom we have taken for granted, unlike our fellow saints in many other countries. In Acts 2:46 we find the believers going to the temple every day to meet together. Were they all unemployed with nothing better to do? I think not! No, they loved one another and it was a delight to meet together.
Secondly, Jesus often withdrew for quiet solitude to commune with God (Luke 5:16) and not just in the early morning (Matt. 14:23). It is the call into experiencing God daily and stay close to Him in the press of daily life. American theologian Henry Nouwen says: ‘If there is any focus the Christian of the future will need, it is the discipline of dwelling in the presence of the One who keeps asking us: ‘Do you love me?’… This is the discipline of contemplative prayer – communing with God (not just presenting a list of requests). By taking time to draw near to God, confidently believing His promise that He will simultaneously draw near to us (James 4:8), we gain spiritual power so that we can then build others up and encourage them in their faith (Heb.3:13, 10:25)
Thirdly, the discipline of attending one’s nearest gospel-preaching church is surely based on the practice of the early church. The first Christians gathered together locally in their home towns, to which Paul addressed his letters. Nowadays we have easy transport and can fall prey to consumerism, changing church to suit our preferences, just whenever we encounter something (or somebody) we don’t much like. How can we grow in love, graciousness, forbearance, acceptance of others with different personalities and from different backgrounds, if we up sticks and remove ourselves? How can depth of fellowship and trust grow if we never get to know one another – warts and all?
So, to balance Stephen’s provocative and welcome piece, here are some thoughts:
1. Certain ancient practices are excellent and ageless. For example the Rule of Life. This has been used for hundreds of years by monastic and church communities. The discipline of a morning, noon and night Rule of Life can help us be meek and, as we hunger, to be filled. In NT times there was temple worship early morning, noon and mid-afternoon (3pm). In today’s culture of pressure and rush, punctuating the day thrice provides times to gather all of our distracted thoughts and tasks and re-orientate our hearts. Just a few minutes, well spent! This is embedded in the life of some thriving evangelical churches today e.g. St Aldgates in Oxford. Putting on our spiritual armour is best done first thing in the morning, but it can slip during the day! Is this just legalism? No, it is aiming to love the Lord our God with all our mind, strength and heart. Malachi in ch.1 rightly warns against second-rate lukewarm formal worship. Rather let us delight in the discipline of daily frequent worship of the lover of our souls.
2. In the Great Commission, the command is not to ‘go’, but to ‘disciple’. Richard Foster’s classic Celebration of Discipline is subtitled The path to spiritual growth. The first four chapters deal with the essential disciplines of Bible-based meditation, prayer, fasting, and study. Are these a threat to personal freedom? Surely not! If freedom is placed above discipline then we are not disciples. And Christian leaders who do not emphasise this are not discipling.
What we need in the UK today are strong disciples, standing firm for Jesus, witnessing to the gospel, ‘overwhelmingly overcoming’ temptation and evil (Rom.8:37 in the Greek is a verb in the present continuous tense). What we do not need in the UK is a future Christian snowflake generation who attend church just when they feel like it, do not know the Bible, or understand it, nor how to apply it to godly living. This would be a national disaster.
