One Life of Worship
My upcoming book, The Worship of God in the Real World: the Interlacing of Gathered and Scattered Worship, needs to consider Jesus as an example of one who lives out a life of daily worship on earth. As a Jewish man he attended the local synagogue. Did Jesus allow the worship practices of this gathering to be reflected in his everyday life? It seems that he did, and Scripture seems to support this.

Jesus regularly gathered with people and seemed to do so with the intent of engaging them with the message of God. We know nothing of his singing, though it is likely that he joined in the singing of the gathered congregation at the synagogue. We do know that before he left with his friends to go to pray in Gethsemane that they all sang a hymn. We do know that he prayed and taught his followers to pray. We know that he read and recited Scripture. We know of his preaching through both his words and his deeds. We do know that he praised those who lived generously, though we do not know that he gave money to any cause other than taxes that were due. Of course, he instituted the rite of Communion with plans to celebrate it again in a great day that is yet to come. We do know that he left good words for life�s journey that were meant not only to commission his followers, but to comfort them as well. It would seem that as a person who went to the synagogue, as a person who gathered for worship, Jesus allowed his worship practice to be reflected through his daily life.

How can follow his example? Perhaps the apostle Paul�s notion our being �in Christ� could be helpful here. Paul�s call is for all people to be in Christ, even as Christ is in us. This relationship defines the meaning of the word Christian.

Is it possible to somehow be �in Christ? According to Scripture it is. The seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John declares Christ�s oneness with God the Father, and that Jesus prayed that this same oneness would be realized in all who would later come to believe in him. This oneness with God was to extend from those who would come to believe in Christ through those who shared the message of Christ. Then, this oneness extends from God though Christ by the Spirit to those who believe, and it is reflected back to God from those who hear the word through those who share the word by the Spirit who proclaims the Son to the glory of the Father. By this all who believe in Christ become one in Christ.

Why is this oneness so important? Because Christ the Son does the work of God the Father in the power of the Spirit, and Christ calls all people to join in this work of God. Rather than fighting among ourselves -- or within ourselves -- we are to be doing the work of God. And what is that work? Jesus comments throughout the Gospel of John regarding his call to do the work of God, and how that this was the reason he was sent to earth. He came to complete the work of God. When people asked Jesus, �What must we do to perform the works of God? Jesus answered them, �This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent�� (John 6:28-29).

Human division fights against the work of God. It fights against the oneness that God is calling all human beings to embrace in order to enjoy the real world. The oneness of God is not some idealistic common agreement on all things. God created diversity. Creation rails against homogeneity. Oneness is found in the response that comes from all of the diversity of creation as it worships the One who created all things. The worship of God is only possible by the Spirit of God. The Spirit calls us to life in Christ and enables all life to offer worship to God.

One way to be one in Christ is to allow the actions of our lives to be reflective of the worship of our lives. Our worship is offered to God in Christ by the power of the Spirit. Our lives should reflect our belief and practice. Our lives should become the practice of our belief.

Gathered worship provides us with an overview of life and how we are to live it. It should be a template for how we live: gathering, singing, reading, hearing, sharing, receiving, all going in a continuous cycle of gathering and scattering, scattering and gathering, in order to integrate a cycle of life built on the purpose of knowing and enjoying real life which is enjoying our relationship with God and each other in the real world.

The connection of these �two parts� of our �one life� is the connection between the life we find inside of us and life we experience outside of us. Much of humanity ignores what is going on inside of them. This often seems true particularly for men. They seem to stay purposefully unaware of their feelings, a sort of non-conscious form of living. Perhaps women do the same. The integration of these two parts is sometimes referred to as spiritual formation, making our many selves one. This is often part psychological, part philosophical, part spiritual, part physical, and perhaps other parts as well. All of these make up the �us� that we are in two parts, one body and one spirit, and even these are totally interlaced: body in spirit, spirit in body.

Joining all these parts into one is a holistic understanding of the real world of life as it is supposed to be lived. Lived apart, each of these parts is a nice discussion point, points that we sometimes objectify. This �objective� distance is an attempt to stand back and look at these parts, ponder them, talk about them, and treat them as if we can stand outside of ourselves and see ourselves �objectively� apart from the very things that make us us. However, all of us is bound together in our bodies in this present moment. We are not only material, we are also spirit. Scripture reminds us that we are but dust and vapor, thought and action, cause and result, all of these wrapped into what we call a person. Sadly, there are 6 billion plus us-es who tend to live in isolation alongside each other until we discover that it is God�s plan to unite us into one family in Christ, an interdependent family of God.

We are called to be one people, called to worship God, the One who created us to be one with God and one with each other. This making our many selves one is big stuff comprised of lots and lots of little stuff, all interlaced through each other. This is the stuff of the real world. And it is all to be found �in Christ.�

The basis for life in the real world is interrelatedness with the One who created and sustains all life and who calls all life into relationship with the Creator and with the created. On a biological level, all created things are interrelated. It is intended by God that all things would also be related on a spiritual level connecting all life holistically. The best way to do this is through living a life of worship.

Hospitality in the early Church

We are strangers in this world. This was a world view that many early Christians held. In Ancient and Postmodern Christianity: Paleo-Orthodoxy in the 21st Century (2002. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press) Amy Oden wrote a chapter titled “God’s Household of Grace: Hospitality in the Early Church.” She wrote: “Many Early Christian texts insist that Christians understand themselves first as strangers in order to then extend hospitality as strangers in the world” (39).

Christians today should be sharing fellowship in homes where they show up as guests but end up serving as hosts. This is the way Christians should behave. If so, why is this often not the case? What forces or influences push against such notions? Jesus shows us the way in stories like the one found in John 2. Here we read that he shows up at the wedding in Cana as a guest and ends up providing an important element for the wedding celebration, an element that is the best of all that is served up until the point when Jesus provides this best wine from common water.

Oden notes that this practice of hospitality, this gracious way of living, “is sometimes accomplished through the deliberate confusion of roles of host and guest” (39). This “stranger” notion in Christianity has its roots in biblical history, not the least of which is that the people of God once found themselves as strangers in Egypt. This history made them more conscious of the stranger, made them more aware of the needs of the stranger, and called them to be the agents of God who were to provide for the stranger. Some of this call to provide for the stranger is found in Leviticus 19.

Perhaps, the Church in contemporary practice has forgotten this, or at least has moved away from such a notion. I believe it has. Current worship practice often displays this as its creates worship services for “home” folks, almost mindless of guests in the midst, strangers who are present. This needs to change. None of this is done without the gracious initiative of God, but it also needs the gracious response of God’s people.

We are to be strangers who recognize the needs of others who can only be provided for through the cooperative venture of God and God’s people. We are called to be servants in the household of God, strangers in this world who purpose to host the stranger to the feast. Oh that we might become stranger hosts who are responsive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit who are living out the example of Jesus.

On Friends and Friendships

In the book Christian Friendship in the Fourth Century, Carolinne White serves up a basis for understanding what may have been what the early Church thought about the concepts of friend and friendship. Along with this, we may accept from White’s book, and in particular her chapter on Aristotle’s concept of friendship as found in Nicomachean Ethics (Chapter two of White: “Classical Theories of Friendship”), that Greek culture would not have prohibited self-love as a valuable part of friendship. From this, then, we can support a view that includes the notion of love of self along side of and as a valuable part of loving God and loving people. Such a view would likely have been part of the understanding of the early Church in regard to friendship with God and other people.

Aristotle’s influence on early Greek culture affected the culture into which the early Church was born, even though its birth was almost four centuries later. It is easy to accept that the culture in which the early Church began was part of the shaping influence of the Church. It affected the way the members of the early Church thought and behaved. We may conclude that these concepts included an understanding that self-love was retained as a value in the way the Church lived out how to love God and other human beings. Such a view holds that self-love is healthy, as it is proportional to love for the other.

The Scriptural context for a view of Christian friendship can be found in the law of love as provided in the Gospel of Luke. The lawyer of Luke 10 summarized for Jesus what was found in the Law regarding the answer to the question of how one might “inherit eternal life” (Luke 10:25). The lawyer’s answer included the co-alignment of texts from Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might,” and Leviticus 19:18b, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and along the way added the phrase “with all your mind” into one verse that now reads: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). This verse became and remains the standard for holy living.

In current practice, as perhaps it has been in the past, the last phrase of this verse, “as yourself,” often seems to struggle in a tension of being over emphasized or under emphasized in the life of the Church. Self-love is not a concept of constant, equal proportions. It should be understood as a continuum in which love for the other is sometimes greater than love for the self – promoting sacrifice – and at other times love for the self is greater than love of the other – promoting health, which can lead to life! To love God is to love the other (Matt 25:40). To love God without the love of the other is empty ritual and life which is unacceptable to God (Rom 12:1). To love the other without loving God is idolatry – loving the created apart from loving the Creator (Ex 20:2-6). The interlacing of these three is life lived abundantly.

This tri-parte way of living – living lovingly toward God, others, and self – is the form that Jesus offers as the pattern for the Church to live in the real world. It is a pattern in which human beings are to be shaped in order to be conformed to the image of the Son as they experience and live out the love of God. For Christians, living out this loving pattern is done through the rituals of their daily life. These rituals are reflections of the very pattern of the gathered worship of the Church. This worship is meant to be extended from the gathered experience as the Church scatters and becomes a benefit to the world as well as a benefit for those who live these patterns.

A daily worship which is lived is composed of the various elements of gathered worship. These become the rituals of the daily living. It is living out the creative worship of God. This is a pattern to which all humanity is invited to join every day throughout the day as the Spirit of God incessantly woos all people everywhere, inviting all to join in response to the love and friendship that God offers to all, love that is best exemplified in Christ who came to be our friend even while we were yet enemies of God! How can the Church do less than offer such daily, scattered worship, and in the process offer friendship both toward those in its ranks, as well as to all who fall under its influence?

Interlacing Gathered and Scattered Worship as an Evangelistic Enterprise

Alongside the issue of developing an understanding of interlacing worship between gathered and scattered worlds is the issue of whether gathered worship embraces the people variously noted as “seeker,” “non-believer, “ or “first-time worship attendee.” Discussing what has sometimes been called the “target” group for ministry is an on-going issue in the life of many local congregations.

Also to be considered is the importance of using clear and inclusive words versus ambiguous and exclusive language in the Church, another issue that is discussed in many Church and academy circles. Like target groups, such discussion has been heard within the Church Growth movement gatherings and writings, particularly when it has talked about barriers that the local church either consciously or non-consciously creates when it uses a too highly developed “church language-speak” in its worship services. Such barrier language uses words that often are unfamiliar to those outside the church, words which remain ambiguous unless someone at some point provides clear definitions of those words.

Now if words like sanctuary, pulpit, hymnal, and the like are the issue, little is lost if the words remain somewhat ambiguous, at least for a time. Besides, those are relatively easy to explain and can been seen physically. However, if the words are the words that are often heard in worship, words like grace, sin, communion, and the like, those new ones who have gathered for worship and now knowingly or not are hearing the story of God and the response of God’s people are without the ability to understand how important such words are to the gathered worship of God. These newly gathered people remain outside the gathered experience spiritually, even though they may be present physically.

As a side note, it is interesting to me, in this day of general biblical ignorance on the part of some members of many congregations, that the stories of Scripture, the very stories which over the years have done much to shape the Christian faith – stories which now are often unknown by those members – themselves present a hurdle for relating concepts of worship like community, covenant, faith, sin, grace, etc. within the gathered community! Such concepts cannot be adequately understood apart from telling and re-telling the story of God and God’s people. Thus, a narrative theology approaches the Scripture itself in ways that re-tell the story. This is likely more useful in conveying the meaning of concepts like Trinity, sin, human depravity, etc., than the creeds of history, unless of course the creed becomes a launching point for relating these beliefs to the stories of Scripture. Another plus is that stories are just plain more interesting and inviting than dogma. Perhaps it is because people can often find themselves within a story. This moves them toward feelings of connection (or disconnection) versus only toward a mental assent of spiritual concepts.

Larry Hurtado has written along similar lines in considering how to deal in a university setting with students of various faiths. He notes: “I propose as a good test of clear thinking by religions is whether they can present their beliefs and practices with clarity and some cogency to interested non-adherents” (Larry Hurtado, 1999. At the Origins of Christian Worship: The Context and Character of earliest Christian Devotion. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., p. 99). Though his focus in this telling regards the community that is found within the academy, and though he is focused here in dealing with non-Christian religions (Islam and Buddhism, for example), this is not too terribly different from reaching and integrating people who are new to gathered worship. Some church leaders begin to ask questions like: How do we worship with these people present apart from telling the rather exclusive story of God and risk alienating them? Or, what words should we use that will be understandable to all?

Also, there are competing worship issues that lie between groups, groups sometimes identified with markers like “mainline” denominations and “free” denominations, or Reformed groups and Holiness groups, and other such divisions. Belief issues developed within these rather closed communities sometimes (often?) draw various conclusions, which lead to the development of different expectations and practices. For example, something as central to gathered worship as to who its leadership should be (ordained or lay, male and female, etc.) can create walls of separation not only between these various groups, but also within local congregations, and can unintentionally create a dense mystery for those who find themselves outside those walls. More than one member of some Christian denominations has jokingly asserted that it is often harder to join their particular denomination than it is to become a Christian.

To think of such issues and now to add what is seemingly another concept of worship, a worship that is practiced both inside the walls and is interlaced with worship that is practiced outside the walls may be just too much to consider. Even more, such a concept could be an obstacle for some denominational groups or local churches. That may be true unless this lifestyle of worship can be seen not as some innovation, but as a stream the roots itself in harmony with the practices of the early Church.

Being able to clearly delineate the distinctions and cogently apply theological/Scriptural bases for a practice of interlacing gathered and scattered worship is essential. Hurtado has suggested an important ingredient for such conversations: “[I]t is good for religions to conduct their reflections on their beliefs and practices ‘out in the open’ so to speak, inviting auditors and visitors as well as adherents to respond” (99). This is right thinking. However, even more important than “inviting” people to come to this conversation is to hold this conversation in the world where people live, and to hold it in a manner which invites all people to join in the conversation. It is essential for Christian worship to be a living entity among those who are being invited to join in it, to be “enfleshed” so that it can be seen as well as heard. This worship in the world, this scattered worship, provides a great invitation for investigators and investigations everywhere and at all times. Alongside this daily living out of the worship of God comes the extending of intentional, living words of invitation. Words like those of early believers in Jesus who invited people to “Come and see” (John 4:29), and then began to tell the story of what they had both seen and heard. These are spoken words. These remind me of the words 13th century Francis of Assissi, “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.”

Such a scattered worship practice invites an investigation of the daily lives of those who live this worship life. It opens doors of opportunities for members of a congregation to speak of their belief(s) about God and God’s work in the world, and most importantly, to not only believe and speak of these things about God but to live them and to do them in their everyday, ordinary lives.

Many members of congregations feel inadequate to join in the evangelistic task of the Church, so they simply don’t do it. Why is that? Is it because they believe only “gifted” people do such things? Is it that they believe that they do not possess such gifts? More importantly, do they believe, or has current worship practice taught, that daily worship is optional, since they do their worship “at the church?” What if they were taught that evangelism is not so much a set of prescribed words and a prepared methodology as it is the extension of the worship that they share each time they gather with their spiritual brothers and sisters at the local congregation? What if they were told that all they need to do in order to be an evangelistic force is to live out the pattern of responding to the call of the Holy Spirit in worship, a pattern that many of many of them have been following for many years?

As far as developing church outreach ministry goes, wouldn’t it be a better approach to have living worship be the invitation for people to “Come and see” than spending so much time dreaming up and empowering events that the Church imagines may be interesting to people outside the life of the Church, events that the Church often creates so that it can invite people to come join in the life of the Church, events which often remain the exclusive possession and experience of those who are already gathered in the Church?

The interlacing of gathered and scattered worship is based, in part, on a presupposition that people who see something interesting, something inviting, something of which they would like to be part, something that arouses awareness of need in them, something which can meet that need, something that they might just seek out, something which they may very well respond to (and note here that such response lives in the world of worship!), something that might allow for a “Yes” to bound from their lips when the question is actually asked in words, “Won’t you come and see?”

Following in the Spirit of God in leading Christian Worship

In the preface of the second edition of his book, In Search for the Origins of Christian Worship, Paul Bradshaw notes, “What we do know about patterns of worship in that primitive period points towards considerable variety more often than towards rigid uniformity” (X). This should not be discouraging to liturgical leaders. Rather, we should be reminded that all worship of God is led by the Holy Spirit, the creative energy who is part of bringing all things into being, and who enlivens all things. To be unable to unlock past worship practices without confidence pushes us in the direction of increased dependence on the present Spirit who first led the early Christians to the worship of God in Christ, and who now leads us. As such, we are not on strange new ground. Rather, we follow the practice of the early Church as we hear and follow the voice of the Spirit. Our prayer should be then, “Allow your Spirit to lead us, O God, teaching us as we follow ever more closely each day in what it means to worship You with all of our lives, as we are being conformed to the image of Your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.”

Interlacing Worship Worlds

“[T]he New Testament bears witness that from the beginning believers saw their humble worship gatherings in small groups in houses as events with this transcendent significance and character” (At the Origins of Christian Worship, Hurtado, 113).

The importance of interlacing a “this-world” thinking with a “that-world" thinking should be obvious for interlacing the gathered worship experience with the scattered worship experience. Perhaps part of the reason that many people in the Church have come to believe that the practical world is more valuably different than what is often described as the idealistic love-oriented gathering of believers for worship is central to the problem of interconnecting these worlds.

Practical Christianity must engage practical living or it is valuable only as a fairy tale is. A fairy tale contrives a world that we wish were true, but which we acknowledge is not. Faith is not a fairy tale. It is an expectation of living in the world that is not yet, but a world that will be. Christian worship should reflect such faith. Worship that is divorced from everyday experience will struggle to be more than a hoped for life, and will never be the reality that people will embrace cogently and in everyday practice.

Gary and Jenny in NYC

Worship with Two Halves

The focus of this book I am writing is worship, specifically a theology of Creative Worship. I am not an expert on liturgy, though I have been engaged in what can be called liturgical practice for thirty years, as I have served as a pastor of worship ministry in local congregations. My observations about developments in worship over these years, as well as my own conclusions, right or wrong, about many current worship practices have drawn me to research and write about a particular form of worship practice, which I think is not only valid but is necessary as we enter what has been called by some a post-modern / enlightenment world.
Some of the conclusions that I have been drawn to are because of recent events in my own life which led me to become deeply enmeshed in providing educational assistance, specifically tutoring, to thousands of children in the United States who are enrolled in underperforming schools, in lower and poverty income cities. From New York to California I have observed these students and found creative ways to help partner them with young college students who are interested in becoming teachers. Even as I did this, I imagined myself in the tradition stream of John Wesley who cared earnestly about children working in mines with little hope of escape without an educational foundation, a foundation that he helped to create and fund.
Along the way, I picked up some new insights about education that have deep resonance with church worship practice. The simple word hands-on became a mantra for me, as I learned about learning and helping children who had lost sight of the purpose and love of learning. Re-engaged and empowered, they began to flow in new ways that not only improved their grades, but I believe is a step in improving their lives. The many young tutors that I recruited and trained came from various universities around the country. They taught me the importance of relational learning, a topic I would one day like to write about, but this book will not provide that opportunity. Key to all of this learning process was a statement made by Chris Widdle (sp?) of Edison schools in the early stages of the development of the nation-wide tutoring service we began. Paraphrasing what he said, I remember “Two things have not changed in the last 400 years: Schools and Churches.” Chris was about changing schools, but it struck me as being very on target about churches. The Reformation provided impetus for vast realignment intended to reach back to the early Church with a view to re-connecting to its purity and ideals. It also created a world view about worship practice in the church. What the Reformation longed for, a more engaged – hands-on—laity became an ordained-minister-led worship practice which changed the Reformed message from a trajectory toward greater involvement by congregational members to one in which church members consider that worship practices are those which the minister does, and does them only when the congregation gathers for worship at the local church.
This has effectively created an environment in which much of what is done in the worship of God is left at the door of the church as the congregation departs to live in the real world. This divorcement of worship and real worlds, I believe, has been caused in part because those charged with worship leadership have ineffectively communicated the relationship between worship practice – the rituals of worship – and daily life. Another part of the reason for this separation within worship life is because when worship does occur in the gathered worship moments of the church, there is little for the congregation to do. In many local churches, congregational participation is left to singing songs – and at times this is half-hearted at best because of wars caused -- in part -- by the introduction of new songs which are often introduced poorly, versus familiar and loved songs that are left behind. The congregation is invited to give money to support the work of the Church, but often this is practiced as more of a utilitarian device rather than the continuation of worship. The actual gathering of the church is often understood as waiting for people to take their seats, or pews as the case may be. Prayer is mostly led by ordained clergy. The absence of Scripture in most congregations is due to the thought that the preaching pastor will present the Scripture – sometimes thought of as the topic of the day— the meaning of which will be explained to the congregation in a lecture format where the preacher stands at a desk and the congregation sits, like students aligned in rows. (Such learning practice is seldom used in effective classrooms these days because it is understood that most students learn by doing rather than solely by hearing.) The heart of early Church practice – the Eucharist or Communion or whatever name you are familiar with – in many churches has been relegated to a monthly observance, rather than what seems to be a New Testament standard being shared every time a congregation gathered. The congregation is sometimes “dismissed” from worship. Nothing should be further from the truth if, as the Scripture calls us, we are to go into the world to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). Rather, as I propose in this book, worship is to be our life lived in the daily routines – or rituals if you will – of our lives, living out the practices that we practice when we come together. When we scatter, are not to be dismissed from worship. We are to be commissioned to go worship with our lives, as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God which is our spiritual worship (See Romans 12:1).
Reconnecting the gathered worship of the Church with a theology of scattered worship is the goal. Along the way, as these thoughts are developed, we may find new ways to make the gathered moments of worship more hands-on, or at least begin to teach congregations that the worship they enjoin is not dismissed when they leave. Rather, as a good friend, pastor, and boss that I served with liked to say, “We now go to the second half of the service.”

Everyone worships every day.

I've begun this new blog as I begin work on a new book about worship. It is meant to offer what I am learning and thinking about as I share this journey with friends.

Worship is something that everyone does, whether they know it or not. Worship is composed of the rituals that people do everyday, whether they are conscious or non-conscious of them, as they gather with with friends and family, share meals together, give to others from resources that were given to us, do deeds that match our words, offer moments of intentional -- and sometimes unintentional -- prayers to God, sing songs of thanks and encouragement -- and sometimes correction for those around us, and as we leave good words as we part from friends -- even if they are only "good-"bye.

Christian worship is focused on God and includes those who God loves (which, by the way, includes everybody -- even those we may not like.) Christian worship is distinctive in that it is led by God's Spirit who influences this worship -- again in both conscious and non-concious ways.

So, if worship is something that everyone does in some form or another everyday, perhaps we should give our attention to how this worship affects us, others, and God.