Introduction
Corporate worship is the chief means of Christian discipleship (WSC Q.89). By “worship,” the Westminster divines included the reading, preaching, and singing of Scriptural truth, together with the fellowship of the saints. Corporate worship on the Lord’s Day is the climax of the Christian life; that is until our Lord Jesus returns in triumph upon the clouds. Until that great day, corporate worship is the day each week when we get nearest to heaven while on earth. Worship on Sundays gets us ready for worship in eternity.
What We Worship Forms Us
Even if one disagrees with the high priority I’ve placed upon corporate worship, at the very least we should all agree that worship is “formation.” Worship, if it does anything at all, forms us more and more into the image of the One whom we worship (2 Cor. 3:18).
King David’s words concerning the worship of idols equally apply to the worship of the one true God, “Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them” (Ps. 115:8). If we exchange “the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” we will die (Rom. 1:23). Worshipping that which is mortal begets mortality, and that forever. But the good news is that if we worship the immortal, invisible, and only wise God, we know “that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). The rule of worship is that we become like what we worship. (1)
How We Worship Forms Us
The object of worship, however, is not the only thing that forms us. How we worship matters. And if we reason backwards from the spiritual complacency and passivity that characterizes many in the American evangelical church (e.g. to riff on JFK a moment, a “What can my church do for me?” attitude and not a “What can I do for my church?” attitude), I am inclined to say that passive worship is partially, if not largely, responsible for this decline in spiritual vitality. However, this isn’t a problem limited to the broader evangelical world. It’s a problem in our Presbyterian and Reformed corner of the world as well.
Characteristics Of “Passive Worship”
But where is this the case? What are some indicators that a church’s worship is forming, or could form passive Christians?
For starters, it looks like a church where the vast majority of its people simply mouth the words or, even worse, don’t sing at all when the time comes. Singing is delegated instead to the guild of gifted musicians who lead worship from the front.
While I’m not saying that four-piece bands or church choirs necessarily violate the regulative principle of worship, I am saying that they certainly can. Anything (including exquisite music) that hinders hearty congregational singing—which is one of the greatest rediscoveries of the Protestant Reformation—should force us to stop and consider whether our musical accompanists have moved beyond assisting to replacing the collective voice of the people.
I have seen this play out firsthand; I expect we all have. It doesn’t take much for worship to develop into a spectator sport when those in the pew who can’t read music (like me), can’t carry a tune in a bucket (also me), and who haven’t played an instrument since the recorder in fifth grade (hey, me again), end up becoming passive and disinterested observers of those who can “really” worship.
As soon as thoughts like, “I can’t sing like him (or her). Nothing is really gained or lost if I don’t sing along. I’ll just listen to them, they’re the worship leader,” enter into people’s minds, the worship service has been reduced to a worship experience, and a passive one.
To be sure, I don’t think churches intentionally aim to make their worship passive. I have no delusions of worship leaders and members of the pastoral staff meeting in the church’s dimly lit basement—like World War II generals strategizing how to storm the beaches of Normandy—plotting how to keep their people from worshipping. By no means! Nevertheless, no amount of sincerity, good intentions, or musical excellence excuses churches from the responsibility of ensuring that worship activates the whole congregation, not just a select and skillful few.
Striving for Active Worship
Several years ago, the church where I serve underwent its first building renovation. It was long overdue. The popcorn ceiling, red-upholstered pews, and blue carpet weren’t pug-ugly (so ugly that it’s cute), they were just plain ol’ ugly. Updating the facilities proved to be an excellent decision for our church, both in terms of stewarding the Lord’s resources and putting our best foot forward with visitors.
Yet, there was one item that needed zero renovation; that was the church’s singing. For this, I claim no credit. They were stellar singers long before I arrived on the scene. It still gives me tremendous joy as their pastor whenever I hear visitors remark,
“Man, can your people sing! I heard them walking in from the parking lot.”
“I know!” I’ll say, “They can’t help it. The joy just comes pouring out.”
This vibrancy is due in no small part to the way our church has structured its worship to make it as participatory as possible.
The layout of our church building affords us the opportunity to have our musicians play from behind the congregation rather than in front. Properly speaking, this is only a circumstance of worship (e.g. the time of worship, the place of worship, the constraints of a particular church building/meeting space, etc.). It does not make or break a church’s worship. But because our on-the-ground circumstances allow for it, our church aims to communicate even via its sanctuary layout that the congregation needs no earthly intermediaries to effectively worship God. There’s no one to whom our people can look and worship vicariously through them, even if they wanted to.. Neither our pastors nor the ruling elders who assist in worship are mic’d for sound. It’s every one of us, shoulder to shoulder, worshiping God as one.
Another way our church encourages greater participation in singing is by making use of the Trinity Psalter Hymnal. Once again, I am fully aware that singing out of a hymnal is a circumstantial consideration. Not every church can afford hymnals and some circumstances may make them impractical. By no means do I want to shame those whose situations don’t allow for them. But allow me to explain why our church uses hymnals and why we believe they are effective in engaging all the members of the congregation.
Every Sunday morning, we read from one of the ancient creeds or historic Reformed confessions in the back of the hymnal. All are encouraged, whether young or old, to recite these creeds in unison. On Sunday evenings, we read responsively from the Heidelberg Catechism as a nod to our Reformed catholicity. We sing a psalm from the psalter in every service. The hymns we select are rich in content and beautiful in style.
Having members physically handle a hymnal versus projecting song lyrics on a screen offers several advantages:
- It creates a sense of ownership. By actively picking up a hymnal, the individual has a physical prompt that they’re supposed to do something; a tangible reminder that they have a part to play in the worship of God.
- Words projected on a screen are displayed one moment and gone the next. This is, incidentally, a reflection of the modern attention span (or at least it is of mine). The advantage of singing from a hymnal is that the worshipper can see the thought-flow from stanza to stanza, see how each line builds upon the others, and feel confident that the words they’re about to sing are sound and orthodox (and in the right key). When words are projected on a screen in real time, there is no ability to read ahead and prepare for what comes next (especially when someone on the media team stayed up too late watching college football the night before, nodded off for a moment, and forgot to move to the next slide. But of course this is purely hypothetical.).
- Screens are a device that our culture instinctually associates with passivity (viz. television). A screen, by it’s very nature, signals to me, “Put up your feet and just watch.” A book requires effort on my part to read it. And while I’m putting in the effort to read, I might as well sing. Everyone else is doing it! In a culture where visual media dominates our waking hours, our people (and especially our young families) have found it refreshing to unplug, handle something tangible, and sing the same songs that saints have been singing for hundreds and thousands of years.
Conclusion
But lest we think that “worship” only includes singing, in the next article, we’ll consider how the way that we handle the Word of God and how church leaders lead in worship staves off passivity, and forms our people to be more like the one they worship, the living and active Christ.
(1) For an understanding of this biblical theme, see G.K. Beale’s book We Become What We Worship.
