It isn’t by mere coincidence that I moved our conversation from Spiritual Practices to a Martian Colony, no, that was by design. Come to think of it, this is a natural progression of thought from individual to corporate worship. Having gone though so many different practices that are individual in nature, moving on to worship within the Body of Christ is a crucial component of the Christian life, for God’s eternal purpose is wrapped up not in the individual, but rather in the entire Body of believers.
Some of us have a hard time with that notion, and we can see that beginning to emerge in some of the comments that are bring posted. Please don’t assume that because I mentioned it that I have a problem with any of the comments; that isn’t at all the case. As I see it, it’s a healthy conversation, and the fact that we have diversity of views and ideas being brought up just says that people feel safe enough in our midst to be honest, and that is kind of a rare thing these days, a good thing, to be sure.
Some have wondered why a Martian colony, and the simple answer to that is that it’s just a little different way of asking what you would do differently if you could go back to the beginning and start over with the lessons we’ve learned over the centuries. Our conversation thus far has reflected that pretty well. Yet no conversation of this sort can go on for very long without running headlong into a discussion of the nature of corporate worship itself, and when that happens then we run into the natural friction between the first century model that emerges from Scripture, and the cultures, customs and traditions that have sprung up since then. The more we look into this, the more we will come to realize that there is a huge difference between what was going on in the first century church and what we are doing today: Whether that is good or bad really isn’t for me to say, God will be the judge, not me.
If we go all the way back to the very beginning of the church we will see that “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). If you continue to research, you’ll discover that this remains pretty constant in the New Testament. Thus, we have four elements of the Sunday assembly of the church that we can be certain of in the New Testament: The “apostles’ teaching”, fellowship, the “breaking of bread” and prayer. Since the Twelve are no longer with us, we have a message from the Word of God, commonly called a sermon or homily. We have fellowship among the members of the Body, or at least we should. Then there is the breaking of bread, which I read as what we would call Communion or the Eucharist. We also know that they sometimes had a congregational meal along with it. Finally, there was prayer.
If we just look at that list, many will be amazed at what was not mentioned: Music. Yes, Paul mentioned “singing spiritual songs”, but it wasn’t in a context of the Sunday assembly. Another thing that is interesting is that the word “worship” appears 75 times in the English (NIV) New Testament, and not one of those times is it used in connection with the Sunday assembly.
If you are interested in more info, please check out my Sunday Sermon Notes for March 4 and 11 of this year, just click March 2018 on the archives at the right and scroll down…
So, what do we have in all of this?
As I see it, every component of our Sunday worship other than these four components I’ve pointed out, derives from either culture, local custom or tradition; not from Scripture. Please understand, I’m not even coming close to telling you that any of those things are wrong or bad, and I never will tell you such a thing− who am I but a humble servant of Christ?
That’s probably enough musing for a Friday, it’s a lot to think about; of course your comments are always welcome. Most likely I’ll add some background on worship and the Sunday assembly next time and then toss out another question to the colonists; see you then!
Life Project Blog 
It is true that music is not mentioned in that piece of scripture you use as a picture of the Assembly of the Saints in the New Testament Church. But who is to say that the apostles teaching did not include songs or that the fellowship was not a time of singing. Just because it is not mentioned does not mean it is not there.
Music was critical all the way through the Old Testament. I can understand why anybody would think it would not be a part of the New Testament Church. Musical instruments are not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament and some use that to say that we should not use musical instruments today.
I like where you’re coming from and I love all the discussion but it has been a fun experiment so far. I sure will be interested to see where it takes us as we continue to discuss our views on various aspects of our worship on this new colony.
As for me when it’s my turn to share there will be singing
Pete, I like music, I’m listening to music right now in fact, but we need to learn to ask if something we do spiritually is from Scripture or from tradition. That is not to say that a tradition is bad or wrong or negative, but we do need to know the difference if we want to build up the Body of Christ, rather than tear it down. So sing on my friend and be happy; you won’t get any arguments from me.
🙂
Yes, yes, yes. When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper the night he was arrested, he and his apostles sang ONE hymn. Today, all the singing and carrying on has crowded out prayer. We can’t show off our “God-given talents” in prayer. Further, we have to get rid of our ego and think about others in need of prayer. What about the neighbors? People at work? Well, in the case of Mars, what about food and water? What about exercise and falling and breaking a bone while scaling one of Mars’ hills? What about one of us coming down with a fever and we don’t know what is causing it? What about praising God and thank him for Jesus’ sacrifice? What about asking God to help us overcome Satan’s temptations to “do great things for the glory of God” and just be humble? What about reading the beatitudes and praying about them? Prayer has been pretty much choked out of our worship by singing, singing, singing, sing….
And here I thought I was radical ! 🙂
I thought about this today in church when our worship team sang a new song about the altar. Growing up I remember when we had altars and we actually knelt down and prayed there many times after the preaching. Jesus quoted the Old Testament saying “my house shall be called a house of prayer.” I remember when we used to have “prayer meetings” and gathered and really prayed. Now we have singing, preaching, potlucks – but where is the praying? His house has just about everything but praying. Oh I know we say a prayer before the offering, maybe before the sermon and at the end of the service, but not real heart-touching praying I knew as a child growing up. So – we must make sure we include praying in our worship plans.
As a church musician (organist and pianist) of over 50 years, Don, I have to point out that “psalms” were part of the worship in the early church – that is, words sung while a stringed instrument was played. Music was a part of New Testament corporate gatherings (see Ephesians 5:19, I Cor. 14:26), whether they took place on Sunday or other days.
I’m afraid that context is a little tough in both of those verses, particularly the Eph. 5 verse. Whether they sang in the Sunday assembly or not simply isn’t mentioned, although they probably did, at least some of the time, nobody thought to mandate it in the NT.
“… God’s eternal purpose is wrapped up not in the individual, but rather in the entire Body of believers.” Perhaps that is why I cringe when I hear something like, “If you were the only person in the World, Jesus would have come and died for you.” (I’ve heard this on multiple radio programs and in a couple of overheard conversations, and have traced it back to C.S.Lewis, though it probably originated before him.) What is the purpose of such a statement? Ever since “The Fall” there has been more than one person needing salvation. It’s a unnecessary consideration. Just one of many passages, that I think of, relating to this is John 3:16: “God so loved the WORLD…”
Stepping off my soapbox (for now).
Of course I get what people mean when they say that and I agree that it is important for each of us to understand how much God loves each one of us, but if you ask me, I think it’s even more amazing that God’s perspective is that He loves the world full of millions, for it is only when we see that, that we will fully recognize how big and all-encompassing His love really is…
Yes, each one is *included* in his love, in Jesus’ gift of life through his death, burial and resurrection. The emphasis, as I see the offer of salvation, should be on inclusion rather than uniqueness. He is the unique One, we are the included ones. An old gospel song expresses it, “‘Whosoever’ surely meaneth me.” That rings of inclusion to me; I’m fully as special to God as everyone else. Indeed, His all-encompassing love is beyond human comprehension (but not beyond acceptance.)
Something in the comments (and Don’s words) with this move “back to basics” troubles me. The “basics” came from somewhere – were influenced by something – and were a preference for someone.
In other words, this getting back to the worship of the early church is a good thing … has a lot of assumptions and, I think, misses where the early church had its roots.
After a little googling, I came upon this (below). Only the intro and conclusion are copied/pasted here – with the link to the full article below that. My own thought is we see the early church as the beginning – therefore it is good. Good it may be, but “back to basics” and the best worship can get … ? I think that conclusion merits a conversation:
Introduction
The early church was comprised mainly of Jews who had accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah and Lord. Therefore, to best understand the origins of Christian worship, it is necessary to look at the history of Jewish worship, for it was this past manner of worship that helped to shape the worship of the early church.
….
Conclusion
It appears that the manner of worship seen in the early church was originally just a continuation of what the Jews had been doing for the previous 500 years (adding only the agape feast and Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week). This was followed by further gradual changes and variations, but the basic fundamental aspects of historical worship (music, prayer, instruction, Lord’s Supper) remained constant. Perhaps this is close to what Jesus had in mind when He stated that worship would not remain confined to specific places, but should always be done in spirit and in truth (John 4:21-24).
Origins of Christian Worship
Written by Bob Williams
http://www.biblelessons.com/origins.html
Any thoughts?
Yeah, so many thoughts, so little time…
Mr. Williams is coming to you from the point of view of the non-instrumental Church of Christ of which we have spoken. In one of my posts (at least I think it was a post and not a comment) I mentioned that I come from a background that began as a unity movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I also mentioned that in the late 19th century it split. The Church of Christ was the splittee. That’s important to know if you want to follow Mr. Williams’ logic.
That split happened for 2 reasons, first because they were in the South, and the South had recently lost the Civil War and their economy was in smoking ruins. Second, there was a theological issue. Early on, our Movement was based on a premise that was first penned by a guy from Britain named Alexander Campbell who wrote, “Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where the Bible is silent, we are silent.” That was taken to mean that on those things that the Bible clearly teaches, we will hold to them, but on the vast number of areas about which the Bible is silent, we will allow diverse opinions: That is the ‘unity statement’. You will note that this is how I approach things on this blog.
In the mid-19th century there was a guy named Tolbert Fanning down in Tennessee who came up with another presupposition to add to Mr. Campbell’s which reads, “All things not specifically permitted by the New Testament are unnecessary, hence sinful.” That statement means that if the New Testament doesn’t tell you to do something, then you may not do it. That’s where non-instrumental music came from, since musical instruments aren’t mentioned in the NT. The result of this was to take Campbell’s unity statement and to turn it into a legalistic disunity statement. (super-short version)
Look carefully, Mr. Williams is justifying non-instrumental worship in his piece. So, what do I think? I think I must remind myself that I don’t debate any more.
Thanks Don.
Don’t know if I am missing the obvious, because what jumped out at me was nothing of what you write (and hold so dear for good reason) – sorry! 🙂
It was the drift in this conversation of “let’ get back to basics” – when the “basics” in early church times (which is what this article was saying as far as I could see) was that the basics were grounded in the style of what “the boys” were all used to as well.
Seems to me that we have the same dilemma here. There is a great familiarity with what we are all used to, and nothing here is much more than that. We are evolving in this conversation just as the early church did. Which makes me wonder whether this drift back to basics and early church is simply a dropping of current “dislikes” by another route.
And are the basics and early church really the pinnacle of corporate worship – or just another “because the bible says so” approach?
“Yes, yes, yes. When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper the night he was arrested, he and his apostles sang ONE hymn.” Really you can create worship theology from a few minutes of a ministry? King David instituted 24/7 worship with words and music but hey 1 hymn is enough?
God deals with us as individuals but wants us to be united. Have you ever studied the difference between Individualism and Collectivism? Individuals tend to gravitate towards anarchy whilst Collectivists tend to gravitate to the hive (tribal) mindset. Anarchists tend not to be united whereas collectivists will unite behind anything no matter how stupid. Corporate worship is a way for individuals to unite. Simple really.
Clearly, ancient saints sang their praise and petitions to the Lord or we wouldn’t have the Book of Psalms. I’m sure when we met corporately that we will naturally spend some time singing. But, I agree with Katheryn that we need to bring back more time for actually praying for one another in our meetings.
I’m glad I finally ventured back here. A lot of wonderful thoughts are brought up in the comments that make one wonder how we should shape your worship, since this really is what Don has begun this conversation for. One says more prayer, another says less structure and still another likes the music (I would be in that group). Back to basics could mean back to the model given in Acts, or it could mean the basics of the church as it is today.
I love what Barbara said, and completely agree that we have lost our passion for prayer. Perhaps it has been replaced by music, since it seems music is a prevailing force in our services these days. Many of the worship choruses that are being written are prayers in a sense and They can carry us to a place of deep intimacy with God. But there is still nothing that replaces that time kneeling at the altar before God. I’d love to see more of that in my church, that’s for sure. Perhaps I should be the one to start heading to the altar during that last song.
i also like Paul’s comment. We do all have our own likes and dislikes and will almost automatically try to form this group in a way that placates both. Even if we go back to the Acts model, we are doing so. It will be very hard to drop any preconceived ideas about what worship should look like and feel like.
So where does that leave us? Back at the beginning, I think. In all our musings and conversations, which have been wonderful, we have not gotten far in our quest to develop our worship service here on Mars. I’m thinking that if I found myself in an unfamiliar place and started to meet other Christians there, the first thing I would want to do is share testimony about Christ in my life and ask the others to share their story. I would give thanks to God for bringing us together and would ask the others if I could pray for any specific needs they might have. I might suggest we sing a song, but that would depend on what I have heard in their testimonies. This is how I would see this Mars group coming together.
There’s my pennies worth. Next?
I think you’re on to something Pete. You are certainly correct in that we’ve gotten exactly nowhere, except close to part of these conversations where people start to yell at one another. The object of the lesson is to see the difference between what the Bible says about the worship assembly on the first day of the week, and what we think it must have said… somewhere. After that, we are left with likes and dislikes, or so we think. You see, there are 2 other little minor issues that we usually don’t think about: 1. What does “worship” mean in Scripture, and 2. Is there a difference between corporate and individual worship? (There most certainly is) So… we might want to give those things a little thoughts to see if our answers might have an effect on what we do and don’t like.
There is no doubt a difference between individual worship and corporate worship. When I worship God on my own I have to admit it’s mostly singing. I pray in song I praise him in song I bring others before him in song. I lift my hands sometimes I dance even though my feet don’t work that well right now. My individual worship is connected by the spirit to God on an individual level. I love my times of individuals worship and they are many.
Corporate worship we have to take into account that there are others around us. Since we are not alone I wish it becomes tempered in some ways. We may not be as loud, we may not raise our hands or dance, and we might not sing our own song but those that are being sung. In other words difficulty in corporate worship we go along with the crowd. Even if the crowd isn’t what we really like we tend to blend in. I was in a church ministering last Sunday where they did not clap or raise their hands when they were singing worship songs. I was so touched by the spirit that I wanted to raise my hand but did not simply because it was not the way they did it in that church.
How’s your question of what does worship mean in Scripture I have not taken the time to look up the word. Just on my own I would say worship Is Lifting God up. This involves praising him and humbling myself. Prayers fits into worship because when we lift one another up Jesus says we are lifting him up as well.
I guess I’ll have to study the word out a little bit to see what I find but I don’t have time to do that this morning. This is an excellent discussion you have brought us into. I pray we’ll keep it going although I doubt in the end will all agree on exactly how I corporate worship should look on the planet Mars.
Or on the planet Earth, for that matter. I’ll be giving you a fair amount of info to help you research and save a lot of time, so don’t worry about that part. 🙂
Ok. Thanks Don. You have started us on an interesting journey