Replay: Edification as Worship
“The church gathers for worship.” That seems to be a given these days. And, by the term “worship,” people typically mean singing, listening to singing, praying, listening to praying, preaching, listening to preaching, and perhaps giving.
I examined some of these ideas three years ago in a post called “Edification as Worship.” The post is actually as response to a lecture given by one of my favorite authors, David Peterson. The primary point in the lecture/post is that, to quote Peterson, “It’s silly to make artificial distinctions between the vertical and the horizontal,” and “Edification is the lost factor in alot of our discussions about worship.”
When we are building up others, we are worship God. If we are not building up others when we come together, we are not worshiping God, regardless of what activities are going on around us.
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Edification as Worship
JT at “Between Two Worlds” points us to several lectures concerning worship in his post “Lectures on Worship“.
I was delighted to see that the first few lectures were given by David Peterson, author of one of my favorite books Engaging with God: A Biblical Theology of Worship (IVP 2002). (If you haven’t read this book, you should.) I was also delighted to see the title of Peterson’s fourth lecture: “Meeting God in the Gathering of His People“.
Then, as I started listening to this lecture – hoping to hear what I had read in his book – I was thrilled when Peterson says at the very beginning, “Edification is the lost factor in alot of our discussions about worship”. Yes!
Later in the lecture (around the 34 minute mark), Peterson begins defining “edification”:
And in Christian terms, “building” means founding, maintaining, and advancing the church in God’s way. Now that definition needs to be set aside of what I think are some fairly common misapprehensions.
First of all, a lot of people think that edification purely has to do with education – that it’s a purely intellectual activity. And so you say, “Was that an edifying sermon today?” “Yes, I learned alot”. hmmm… well, that’s not exactly what the Bible means by edification as we will see.
Or, I’ve heard people come out of a symphony concert, “That Beethoven was very edifying tonight”. And what they mean is, “I felt good about that Beethoven. My that was exciting!” I feel good. That’s not edification either.
Edification is a corporate concept. It has to do with founding, maintaining, and advancing the church in Gods way.
Peterson goes on to exegete several passages of Scripture to demonstrate that edification means both adding to the church in number, and also increasing the maturity of the church corporately. Edification of a process of growth and development for the whole church. He says, “Edification is a corporate motion. It occurs when Christians minister God’s truth to one another in love, seeking to express and encourage a Christ-centered faith, hope, and love.”
At one point in the lecture, Peterson talks about the blurring of distinctions between the vertical aspect of worship (between God and us) and the horizontal aspect of worship (between us and other people). He says (around the 21 minute mark):
So the three things can be happening together: 1) God can be speaking to us. 2) We are ministering to one another. 3) And we are responding to God. It’s silly to make artificial distinctions between the vertical and the horizontal…. Is not worship also listening to God, ministering to one another, declaring his greatness, preaching, testimony, singing. The whole thing needs to be thought of as intricately interconnected – the vertical and the horizontal… That’s really at the heart of what I’m trying to say to you this afternoon.
As John told his readers (1 John 1:3), our fellowship with one another is truly fellowship with God the Father and the Son. Its time for us to recognize that we usually demonstrate our love for God by loving others, and we serve God by serving others – especially in a corporate context.
As we build up one another – as we exercise our gifts to serve one another and as we speak to encourage, instruct, and admonish one another – we are worshiping God. The horizontal aspects of worship and the vertical aspects of worship become blurred. However, if we fail to edify one another, then we have neither the horizontal nor the vertical aspects of worship – regardless of what we do or say.
As Paul told the church in Corinth, whenever we come together as brothers and sisters in Christ, everything we do should be for the purpose of building up one another – that is, seeking to express and encourage a Christ-centered faith, hope, and love. If we are not edifying one another as the church, then we are not worshiping.
Helping people who are relying too much on a leader or leaders
Sometimes, people become too dependent on one or more leaders among the church. Sometimes people expect leaders to do specific tasks or answer certain types of questions. This kind of dependency is not healthy for the leaders or for others.
In his post “Raising Up Leaders in House Church,” Keith at “subversive1” offers some good advice when this is happening. Keith’s post is actually an email that he sent to someone in reply to a question about “raising up leader.”
While Keith’s answer is given in the context of “house church,” I think he offers some good advice for people meeting in different ways, assuming that any of the questions or interaction is allowed.
For example, at the beginning of the post, Keith writes:
[T]he secret, if there is one, I’d say is to get out of the way and allow the Holy Spirit to do as much as possible. At first our house church always looked to me or to my wife to do everything – answer every Bible question, lead the communion, baptize the people, etc. So, sometimes I would just leave the room during prayer or after worship to let them figure things out together. Other times if someone asked me a question about the Bible I would lean back and say, “I don’t know. What do you guys think?” and allow people to discuss this question without my interference. Sometimes I would ask another person, maybe even a child or a teenager, to lead us in communion, or to read a scripture to everyone. You can do this on the spot, or you can ask them ahead of time if they would do this when the time comes. That way you don’t have to be the one to ask them but they will just do it because you’ve already asked them in advance. The hope being that, eventually, they will feel confident to read scriptures on their own and to take initiative when it’s time for communion, or prayer, etc.
This is only one part of Keith’s post, so I would recommend reading the whole post.
When people are specifically looking to one person or one group to do everything for the church, Keith’s advice is sound: the leader(s) may need to get out of the way. Stop doing what others think you should do. Give others opportunities as well.
What do you think about Keith’s advice? How do you think it would be beneficial to the church and the leaders? Could their be any problems?
Examples of Christians working together in spite of disagreements
We disagree. It’s a fact of life. If you spend time with someone else, you will find something that you disagree with them about.
For too long, the church has allowed disagreements that are not gospel related to separate brothers and sisters in Christ from one another. In his prayer in John 17, Jesus said that the world would know that the Father sent him because of our unity. I wonder what our disunity tells the world…
Anyway, Felicity at “Simply Church” has written another excellent post called “Blurring the distinctives.” In this post she talks about Christians working together in spite of their disagreements.
Here’s part of her post:
Another set of distinctions that is increasingly blurring is that between simple/organic church and legacy churches. It used to be that legacy churches viewed those in simple/organic churches as rebellious, rejecting authority, unsubmissive. In turn, those in simple churches tended to view others as not really on the cutting edge of what God was doing.
Thankfully, this is no longer the case. Small and large churches are working together. The Kingdom has become more important than what we ourselves are doing.
Imagine that. These people still disagree with one another over what form and structure the church should take, but they are willing to set those disagreements aside, accept one another in Christ, and work together for the sake of the kingdom.
What is this world coming to…
It is easy to talk about New Testament church life. It is much harder to practice it.
This morning, I was minding my own business when I ran across a new post by Dave Black. Once again, in a few sentences, he directly expresses something that I’ve been trying to express for months – maybe years.
In my previous post, I wrote that life in Christ together as the church is not about being perfect. Instead, it’s about continually changing and maturing as we seek Christ together. Dave’s post is a great example of this:
Aren’t you amazed by the book of Acts? I am. Its principles for Christian ministry and church structure are so radically different from what is taught and practiced in so many of our churches today. (Can you really see Peter and his wife on a rooftop promoting their new book on sex?) Here’s the problem. It is easy to talk about New Testament church life. It is much harder to practice it. I am very grateful for pastors at Bethel Hill who have taught us the major themes of Acts, including biblical eldership. It gives me renewed hope that things can actually change. So what if we fail? It’s better to try and fail than to sit around and do nothing. Acts has so much to say about church planting, missions, evangelism, church polity, and so much more. No book is more relevant for our times. But with knowledge comes responsibility. Obedience to Christ must be wholehearted. Jesus cannot work through disobedient disciples. If we want to see a genuine Great Commission resurgence in our day, we must get serious about obeying our risen Lord. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we sin either by commission or omission and are not quick to repent. The first Christians sought not only to understand as much as they could the “apostles’ doctrine” (Acts 2:42) but to obey it, whatever the cost. If they were here today, I imagine they would be watching Bethel Hill Baptist Church very closely. They would tell us not to be afraid of the Holy Spirit, of His sensitive touch, of His guidance and power, of His desire to empower the church so that we might believe and obey. Their example stands like a lighthouse to us in our drifting. They would remind us that obedience is not a luxury. It is a top priority if a church is to grow and prosper.
Will you agree with everything they are doing? Probably not. But, hopefully, you can be excited, like me, that they are seeking to follow their Lord, even when it means changing their practices. (I’d prefer they seek to follow Jesus than to follow anything that you or I might say, right?)
In fact, the point here is not about agreeing with the changes they are making even. I don’t even know what those changes are. But, it’s exciting whenever any group of believers recognizes that they are not perfect and that there is room to grow closer to patterns and practices that we see described in the New Testament.
Like I wrote at the end of my previous post: “There are no perfect churches. But, there should be no static churches either.”
A great example of denying self in order to love others (even enemies)
Last week, I read a great story by Chad at “Captain’s Blog.” The post is called “The Forgiveness and Reconciliation Train.”
I don’t want to say too much about this story. It’s filled with heartache and pain, and forgiveness and love. Plus, it’s a story about giving up something that’s important in order to care for and demonstrate the love of God to someone else – even someone who may consider you an enemy.
I’m not even going to quote from this post. You need the read the whole thing. Trust me.
Wait… God can use kids, too?
I recently ran across a blog written by someone named “Little Miss Blogger.” The blog is called “Shawnee Home Church,” and the “Our Story” and “About Home Church” tabs offer some great information about this group of believers.
For this post, I want to point you to an article on that blog called “When Kids Do House Church…” To be honest, I get very tired of hearing things like “Kids are the future of the church.” Kids (who are in Christ) are ALREADY part of the church, whether we recognize it or not.
But, the post above does not make that kind of statement. Instead, the author makes a great statement about kids as part of God’s family and how God can use them as part of the church:
Kids have assigned gifts and a calling from the day they’re born. Why is it they don’t realize it until they’re in the throws of adolescence or when they’re in their 20’s or 30’s? Because they don’t have a VOICE in their church or parents who know how to look for those gifts in their kids.
All too often we can end up silencing our kids just because they’re kids. It’s really important, no matter what setting your services are in, to give them a chance to be used by God. Over the years I’ve seen Nate go up to total strangers and strike up a conversation, not bat an eye while telling some one they’re wrong (not kidding!) and find his way into just about every home on the block.
He’s an evangelist and a prophet. NOW, right now, that gift is affecting another child down the street and he’s learning he has a ministry NOW!
hmmm… I wonder how much different our churches and children would be if they were taught that God wants to use them NOW, and they were actually given the opportunity for God to work through them NOW while the church gathered together. (And, I’m not talking about handing out bulletins or taking up the offering.)
That man is your pastor?
(Please don’t get tripped by the title of this post. This post is not about the use of titles like “pastor.” I don’t like titles either, but many among the church use them. And, in the post below, one of the people uses that title…)
Joe (JR) at “More than Cake” wrote an excellent post recently called “Paparazzi Pastors Leading a Celebrity Church.”
In his post, Joe tells the story of a man he met while manning a booth at a conference:
Tim turned to me, a captive audience at the booth, and proclaimed, “That man is my pastor.”
Tim’s “pastor” leads a popular church in Seattle and since I had recently moved from that area, I was interested to know if we had some friends in common, so I asked, “Oh, so you are from Seattle? What brings you to LA?”
Tim’s answer surprised me, “No,” he said, “I live here in LA.”
Now I was intrigued. How could Pastor X, be Tim’s pastor if he lived 1,200 miles away? So I asked, “Did you recently move here from Seattle?”
“No.” Tim replied, “my church meets in my house and we watch Pastor X’s sermon every week on DVD.”
Make sure you read the rest of Joe’s post. He makes some good observations about Tim and his relationship (or lack thereof) with “Pastor X.” He uses this story as a jumping off point to talk about “celebrity pastors.”
But, in reality, for many among the church in the West, the “pastor” is just as much of a stranger and just as much “out of reach” as a person speaking on a DVD.
If you do not know someone – or are not growing to know someone – and if you never see them in a context other than speaking in front of a group of people, then that person is not shepherding (pastoring) you, regardless of what title the person may take for himself or be given by others.
Missing an opportunity to serve…
Have you ever looked back at your life (perhaps to the recent past) and realized that you missed an opportunity that God had given you to serve someone? Unfortunately, that happens to me often. Many times, I try to justify the missed opportunity, but in reality it is just that: a missed opportunity.
I thought about many of those missed opportunities when I read a post by Bobby at “Deconstructing Neverland” called “Smoking in the boys room.”
While the title of his post is also the name of one of the all-time great classic rock songs, that is not what his post is about. Instead, Bobby replays an incident from his childhood in which a church leader missed the opportunity to serve him and his family.
Here is a small part of Bobby’s post:
I had it all worked out. I had friends who were in on my secret and they would be my lookout. I had the schedule memorized and the optimal times to sneak away for a smoke all figured out. It was not a flawless plan. Once an adult caught wind of nicotine in the air, the hunt was on and eventually I was the marked target. I would now have to pay for my sins and be put away from the flock. As they say: little leaven leavens the whole lump.
I vividly remember the pastor bringing be into a private room, taking out my delicious pack of Marlboro Red’s and going completely mental as he broke every one with veins pulsing in his forehead and the look of pure disgust on his face. “I’m doing this because I love you” he tells me. Huh, I thought. Strange love.
After he took out all his emotions on my helpless pack of cancer sticks he escorted me out to the pool where all the other kids were playing. He got everyone’s attention so that I could obey his command to confess to everyone my addiction to cigarettes and let them all know that I was leaving. It is my most embarrassing memory to date and I owe it all to the Pastor who “loved” me enough to put me through it.
Whenever I return to this time in my mind the feelings come flooding back. Embarrassment, shame, fear, guilt, rejection, anger, sadness all coursed through my veins simultaneously. A sweaty little teenage boy hoping to find someone who would accept me in spite of my failures.
You know, I’ve found that there are many little teenage boys and girls – and many older men and women – who are hoping that someone will accept them in spite of their failures. Often, when these failures become apparent, we have an opportunity to accept and serve the person in the love of Jesus Christ.
This is where we often “drop the ball”…
I’m praying for opportunities to serve people, and at the same time, I’m praying that God will give me the grace and humility to love and accept them in spite of their failures, just like he loves and accepts me in spite of my failures.
This is NOT what I signed up for…
Most of you know that I’m currently in a PhD program. Actually, I’m in the last stage of that program: writing my dissertation. My PhD mentor is Dave Black.
For those who are considering entering a PhD program, I must caution you to consider who you choose as your PhD mentor very carefully. That person will (probably) have a great influence on your life. Hopefully, your mentor will influence you academically and spiritually.
So, how is my PhD mentor influencing me? Check out his blog post (at the link above) from Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 9:26 p.m.:
Personally, I’m not all that eager to raise up a new generation of leaders. I want to raise up a new generation of butlers and scullery maids. A generation of nobodies who are content to be obedient to the simple teachings of Jesus. A generation of Christ-followers who die to family, fame, fortune, success, patriotism, and the American Dream. A generation of Dietrich Bonhoeffers who realize that “when Jesus calls a man, He bids him come and die.” I want to raise up a generation of men and women who give without counting the cost, who deny themselves, who willingly take the cross as the path of union with Christ, in whom there is no trace of triumphalism, who put their lives at Christ’s disposal with unconditional surrender, who place Christian allegiance over their national allegiance, who act as though they were part of an upside-down kingdom, who die to all claims of the self-indulgent life, who refuse to lionize success or repudiate pain, who “share in suffering as good soldiers of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:3), who stand high and lift their drooping heads because the Son of God inhabits their lives in the power of His resurrection.
When I first came to seminary, this is not the path that I signed up for. But, it is definitely the path that I’m on now.
I’m not bragging. I have nothing to brag about. But, this is where Jesus Christ has led me. And, I thank God that he has brought me into contact with Dave Black, his wife BeckyLynn Black, and many, many other people who not only exhort me toward service in the name of Jesus Christ, but, more importantly, they model it.
The Church without the Holy Spirit?
Dan at “Cerulean Sanctum” has been writing some very good posts lately. His latest is no exception: “The Spirit-Led Church Is the Only Real Church.”
It seems like Dan makes two points in this post. First, he’s saying that it’s possible to do certain activities without the involvement of the Holy Spirit. Second, he’s saying that a “real church” (as demonstrated in Scriptures) cannot operate without the Holy Spirit.
For the first point, Dan says:
We can sing songs without the Holy Spirit.
We can recite lines of liturgy without the Holy Spirit.
We can talk with others about life without the Holy Spirit.
We can prepare sermons without the Holy Spirit.
We can listen to those Spirit-less sermons without the Holy Spirit.
We can offer prayers without the Holy Spirit.
We can partake of a thimble of grape juice and a tiny cracker without the Holy Spirit.
We can run through our optimized order of service without the Holy Spirit.
As to the second point, Dan says:
The church assembly of the Bible was led by the Spirit from beginning to end. It depended in the Spirit for everything. Without the Holy Spirit, the charismatic gifts would cease to function. There would be no prophetic words possible. No words of knowledge or wisdom. No healing. None of the functions of a normal assembly of Christian people filled by the Spirit coming together to share their individual giftings in a public setting.
The order of the church would vanish without the Holy Spirit. What would those assembled do next? No one would have a psalm or spiritual song to bring because the Holy Spirit would not be there to inspire its singing or bringing. What inspired-in-the-moment message would be possible? Who would lead?
The people in the church assembly, those equipped by the Spirit to use their gifts, would have nothing to do, their reliance on the Spirit shattered by His absence. They would sit passively, lost.
A real church without the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide, equip, use, and mobilize would cease completely to be what it is supposed to be as depicted in the Bible.
Interestingly, the Holy Spirit often leads us to do certain activities that can be done without him or apart from him. So, how can we tell the difference between doing certain activities WITHOUT the Holy Spirit and doing them WITH the Holy Spirit?