Chapter One

In which the author admits his frustration

PLEASE UNDERSTAND from the beginning that the writing of this book was a frustrating experience for me, and the revising and expanding of it wasn't any easier.

At first, I blamed my frustration on the breadth of the subject, and I wondered if any writer was capable of dealing with so vast a theme as Christian worship. Besides that, certain aspects of worship are not easy to define or explain. At times I felt like a man trying to lay sunbeams in a row while evening was marching inexorably in.

Then I decided that the problem was not the vastness of the subject but the narrowness of my own experience. After all, most of my worship experience has been in the fundamentalist "independent church" tradition, where the word worship was found only on the cover of the hymnal. If not by word, at least by example, my peers taught me to be suspicious of "liturgy" and to major on winning the lost and sending out foreign missionaries. Even my ministerial training added little to my appreciation of Christian worship.

Imagine my surprise years later when I discovered that every church followed a liturgy, either a good one or a bad one, and that I could learn a great deal about the worship of God from churches that I had excluded from my fellowship. What a rude awakening!

In recent years I have participated in worship experiences in many and varied settings: mission stations and churches in Africa, South America, Central America, and Europe; English cathedrals; Brethren assemblies; churches of one denomination or another across the United States and Canada; house churches; camps and conferences; and even a few denominational conventions. At the same time, I've been closely studying the lives and ministries of the great preachers and missionaries of the evangelical tradition, people as far apart on the religious spectrum as Charles Haddon Spurgeon and John Henry Newman, and I think I have developed a sympathy with and an appreciation for what is best in their ministries.

Believe me, it wasn't easy! More than once I longed for those days of comfort and security, when all truth was safely tucked into my notebook, every question was answered, and every Christian was accurately identified and pigeonholed. The writing of this book has reopened old wounds in my heart, recalled painful growth experiences, and forced me to find the courage to say what I think needs to be said, even though some of my best friends might disagree with me.

No, this book isn't a "spiritual autopsy" in which I confess my past ministerial faults and announce that I am making some dramatic theological or ecclesiastical change. I still hold to the fundamentals of the faith, and I plan to continue worshiping in the "free church" tradition. But I want to enrich my experience of spiritual worship, both in my private devotions and in congregational service. And I want to be able to appreciate the worship experiences of my brothers and sisters in Christ, even though we may have our minor differences when it comes to matters liturgical.

In fact, you and I may disagree on some aspects of Christian doctrine, but I am sure there is one thing we definitely agree on: You and I personally, and the church collectively, are desperately in need of transformation. We are weary of "business as usual." We need and want a transforming experience from the Lord, the kind of spiritual visitation that will help to heal our broken homes and our split churches; that will strip away our religious veneer and get us back to reality; that will restore true spiritual values and replace the cheap counterfeits we've been foisting on ourselves and the lost world; that will, most of all, bring such glory to God that the world will sit up and take notice and confess that "God is truly among you" (1 Cor. 14:25).

I love the church. I devoted nearly a quarter of a century to pastoral ministry in three churches. In my present ministry, I often speak to local congregations, pastors' conferences, and denominational meetings of one kind or another. My wife and I have tried to be faithful members of the local church where we hold our membership. In my preaching and writing ministry, I have attempted to encourage pastors and church leaders and to emphasize the importance of the church. If I have a quarrel with the church, it's a "lover's quarrel."

However, my love for the church has not made me blind to her spots and wrinkles. I have no intention of listing here all the things that are wrong with too many churches today. It would be too painful for me and not too profitable for you. Churches are made up of people like you and me, and we both know that churches can't change until the people change—until you and I are transformed by the Spirit of God to become more like the Son of God. Two statements from Paul keep coming to mind, statements that I have turned into prayers for my own life.

I sincerely believe that the transforming experience Paul wrote about is the result of the right kind of personal and corporate worship. We have tried everything else. Now it is time to return to God's way and try worship.

Substitutes for Worship

If you've watched the religious trends over the years, then like me, you've been alternately encouraged and discouraged. In the early years of my ministry, I was told that separation was the secret to a successful church. But then I saw "separated churches" fight among themselves, split and splinter, and sometimes hurt the testimony of Christ in a community. While I believe in biblical separation from sin, I don't believe that it automatically produces spiritual blessing unless it is the by-product of true spiritual worship. It's not enough to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit" if we're not "perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 7:1). Separation apart from worship can—and usually does—become a brittle piety that breeds arrogance, legalism, and an unbiblical isolation from both the world and the church.

Then I was told that personal evangelism was the main thing. If each church member would only start witnessing and winning the lost, our churches would be transformed. So we began to teach classes on soul winning and to structure our public services so that it was easy for the unsaved to make decisions for Christ.

In the midst of directing one of these programs, I was asked by a discerning church officer, "Pastor, if God gives us any converts, is our church ready to take them in? I mean, do we have the kind of spiritual atmosphere that will encourage them to grow?"

Another rude awakening! I began to realize that evangelism divorced from true worship can become merely a program tacked on to an already overloaded ecclesiastical calendar, or, even worse, it might become a struggle for statistics and "results." Isaiah became an evangelist after attending a worship service in the temple and seeing God "high and lifted up" (Isa. 6:1). Evangelism is an essential part of the church's ministry, but it must be the result of worship or it won't glorify God.

No sooner did the personal evangelism fad start to fade when somebody suggested that world missions was the key to a spiritual church. We were admonished to preach missions, to give more and more to missions, and to challenge our people to go out themselves into the whitened harvest-fields of the world. But nobody explained to us that missions, like separation and evangelism, must be a product of worship; otherwise it is only a new gimmick to motivate the church, and the motivation will not last.

In one sense, Abraham was the first foreign missionary named in the Bible. He was told to leave his home and go to a distant and unknown land, and there to bear witness for the true and living God. How did this missionary venture begin? "The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham," explained Stephen (Acts 7:2). It sounds a good deal like Isaiah's experience in the temple! In fact, it's worth noting that even Paul's missionary call came to him while he was sharing in worship in the church at Antioch. "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, 'Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them'" (Acts 13:2). The Greek word translated "ministered" is leitourgeo and refers to priestly service rendered to God (see Heb. 10:11). Paul was probably praying, fasting, and worshiping God when the heavenly summons came.

When missions is divorced from worship, the human need can become more important than the divine glory; and the strategy used might be the result of human observations rather than a God-given spiritual vision. It's when we worship God that we discover afresh that His thoughts and ways are far above ours and that whatever we do will have to be guided and empowered by Him.

And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Sunday school contests, bus ministries, youth rallies, discipleship programs, church growth seminars, liturgical renewal movements, ecumenical programs, and denominational promotions, all of which promised new life for the congregation, but none of which really did the job. Why? Because they had been divorced from worship and therefore could not produce fruit and glorify God.

Please do not misunderstand me. Many of these things are good and important to the local church, but they are not good in themselves. They are good only if they are by-products of spiritual worship. This explains why success in these ventures often creates more problems than it solves, for the emphasis is often on human techniques and achievements, not on God's power and glory. "In whatever man does without God," wrote George MacDonald, "he must fail miserably—or succeed more miserably." The church today is starting to suffer from success, and the only remedy is to return to worship.

Churches in Conflict

When this book was first published in 1986, we didn't have what today are called "worship wars." Occasionally we'd see a skirmish or two as local churches began to have serious disagreements over styles of music, and as pastors were hearing complaints from both the older and the younger generations. Some churches tried to solve the problem by scheduling both "traditional" and "contemporary" services. The strategy seemed to work in some places, but in others it not only divided families but eventually divided entire churches. The enemy was bold to use the one thing that should bring us together, the worship of God, to pull us apart and keep us at war.

During these intervening years, I've had many opportunities to chat with different people about the problems we face in this strategic area of worship, and I've done a good deal of observing, studying, think' ing, and praying. It's been my privilege to speak on the subject of worship at various conferences and to deal with it while teaching as a visiting instructor at different seminaries. When Real Worship first came out, there weren't as many books available on the subject as there are today, and I think I've read most of the new ones. But my basic text is the Bible, because I still believe that in the Bible God tells us what we need to know so that we can worship and serve Him acceptably.

Invitation to a Pilgrimage

When I first wrote this book, I discovered a surprising thing: worship is supposed to be at the center of everything that the church believes, practices, and seeks to accomplish. In order to understand worship, I must also understand more about God, God's creation, myself, the church, and the ministry I'm trying to fulfill. This book has been a "spiritual catalyst" for me, forcing me to examine and evaluate my own spiritual life and the priorities that help to direct it. No doubt that is where some of the frustration has come in. It's not easy to admit wrong thinking and wrong serving!

I've experienced a growing vision of the greatness of God—not as dramatic as the vision Isaiah had in the temple, but a blessed experience just the same. My Bible shines with new light. I'm no longer analyzing texts in order to organize sermons; I am meeting God in His Word and discovering the reality of a song I have sung often but little understood:

Beyond the sacred page, I seek Thee, Lord;

My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word!

—Mary A. Lathbury

I've learned afresh that preaching is an act of worship and that my message must be a sacrifice placed on the altar to the glory of God.

Not only has God become more real and the Bible more exciting, but all the things God wants me to do have become joyfully more natural: praying, witnessing, loving the "brethren" (especially those who disagree with me), giving, ministering, helping others bear their burdens, handling interruptions, caring for my body, and worshiping with God's people. To be sure, I still fail and often have my share of struggles, but the new emphasis on worship has begun to take the strain out of the Christian life.

I even find myself interrupting what I am doing and just lifting my heart in worship to God. There are times in public worship when what we're singing gets to my heart in a new way, so I stop singing, bow my head, and (sometimes with tears) just worship the Father in heaven. Have I seen any "special results" in my ministry? No, but I must leave that with God. I am not worshiping Him because of what He will do for me, but because of what He is to me. When worship becomes commercial, it ceases to be worship. R. G. LeTourneau used to say, "If you give because it pays, it won't pay." That principle also applies to worship: if you worship because it pays, it won't pay. Our motive must be to please God and glorify Him alone.

As we walk together through the pages of this book, you will be sharing my personal pilgrimage as I have rediscovered worship and the transforming power it can bring to our lives and our churches, to the glory of God. At some points in our pilgrimage, you and I may disagree; and I welcome this, because we must be honest with ourselves and with each other. All I ask is that you give me the courtesy of staying with me and completing the journey. I recall, with shame, how early in my "worship pilgrimage" I violently disagreed with authors and tossed their books aside, only to discover later that my immature fear was robbing me of the opportunity for growth. My personal "book burning" experiences said nothing about the books but a great deal about me!

When we get to the end of this book, it's not important that you and I agree on every jot and tittle. It is important that we expand our vision of God, deepen our experience of worship, and broaden our love for God's people and our ministry to those who need Christ.

"God is trying to call us back to that for which He created us," wrote A. W. Tozer, "to worship Him and to enjoy Him forever!"

Let's heed that call together.

And let's begin now.

Father,

Thank You for Your patience with me!

When I think of how many worship experiences I have wasted—and how many worship services I have criticized—I feel very ashamed.

Thank You for inviting me on this "worship pilgrimage," and for those who are going with me.

Guide us.

We have so much to learn!

More than anything else, we want to learn to worship You.

In the Name of]esus, Your Son,

Amen.