You walk into the auditorium…everyone gets seated. Someone gets up to welcome everyone. A song leader leads some songs. You sing along. A 30 minute sermon is given. You listen. Communion and offering is passed. You participate. A final prayer is prayed. And all of this can be found in the “order of worship” on your bulletin.
To be fair, there are “worship leaders” who spend a lot of time praying for this moment. They are seeking to be led by God in what they are doing. Preachers spend time in study and prayer for this moment.
The leadership wants God to guide what happens on Sunday…often as long as God tells you what needs to happen enough days in advance to make it in the bulletin.
Now, God can and does use all of that. But I think we are still missing something big.
When you get more than 50 people in a room, things start to shift in not so good ways:
- From spiritual family to spiritual acquaintances
- From intimacy to publicity
- From share to show
- From action to reception
The longest chapter in the New Testament on the assembly is 1 Corinthians 14 and in that chapter you don’t find several things:
- No order of worship
- No sermon/monologue
- No opening/closing prayer
- No clergy/laity divide
- No elevation of those who lead (physically up on a stage and perceptually in our thinking/minds)
As things grow, control becomes more of a priority to keep things on track. And in doing so, some really important things are lost because fewer people are participating, fewer people are using their gifts and the few do the work of the many.
What is more, that mentality of the few doing the work of the many bleeds over into Monday-Saturday where the church body is not equipped to live out their faith in the world. They don’t believe they need to because they hired someone to evangelize, preach, share their faith, disciple, counsel people, etc.
My belief is that what happens on Sunday communicates something that goes far beyond Sunday. The control and limited participation on Sunday has led to an impression or understanding that showing up for others to do the work is the way things operate in the kingdom.
What is the result?
- People don’t know or use their spiritual gifts
- People aren’t equipped to serve – because you don’t need to be to keep the system going
- People depend on the leaders in unhealthy ways
- People aren’t growing into maturity even after decades “in church” because of all of the above
What is the solution?
It won’t be the same for every church body but I will say this – there are a few things to consider. It isn’t a path. It isn’t a new plan. These are principles to consider and seek God’s direction on how to move forward in your congregation.
1 – Is there anything we need to confess before the Lord and the congregation and repent of (control issues can be a lack of faith)
2 – Surrender to God’s lead, even if it looks different or makes people uncomfortable in what results
3 – Seek God’s leadership
4 – Devote yourselves to prayer – ask God for wisdom, to show you the way and for the courage to make the changes
5 – Don’t shift to a new control system thinking you fixed it
I believe if we humble ourselves, introspect, ask God to show us what is going on in our hearts to see what needs to change then we can surrender fully to God, submit to God’s leadership and prayerfully enter into a new way of gathering that is more participatory, more in tune with the Spirit, less controlled and more messy. That last part will prevent many from ever considering this.
Do we have a control idol in churches today? Why or why not?
