March 7, 2006

We are living in an hour of great change even in some churches.  It appears that some are not certain of what they believe about the church and even less certain what an authentic worship service should be like.  For the record let me list the basics:

·        The church, by definition, is the redeemed that God has called out of the world by His Spirit unto salvation.

·        The highest priority of the redeemed is the glory of the One Holy and Sovereign God.

·        The emphasis of the New Testament is God’s eternal purpose to save the lost.

·        God has ordained that His redeemed are to take the gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth.

·        Since the highest priority of the redeemed is the glory of God, saved people are motivated to pray for and share the gospel with the lost because lost people cannot glorify God.

·        When the church meets, it does not meet primarily for the unregenerate.  It meets as the redeemed for the worship, praise, glory and pleasure of God.  Lost people are not able to do what we come to church to do. God is our audience.  Every redeemed person who worships through song and affirmation of truth is a participant. This is done most effectively when the Bible is taught verse by verse in its context.  The message (content) must be true to scripture and the manner it is taught should not violate the spirit of the message. What is the intent of our worship?  Are we there to worship a living sovereign Lord or are we there to entertain an unregenerate soul?  Can a pastor honestly call sinners out of the unredeemed world unto saving grace when his medium of sharing the gospel sounds and looks like the world where the lost man is already living?  Can we honestly show movie clips as a part of our message if the movie is one that the lost man knows has vulgarities within it?  Is the pastor not blowing an uncertain sound on the trumpet?  Does this not send a message to the lost that you can become a Christian and not be concerned with the movies you attend, the music you listen to, or the verbiage you use?

I am not particularly concerned whether one wears a white shirt and tie when they preach.  When I was in my first pastorate in 1981, I never wore a tie on Wednesday night due to the nature of the rural community where I served.  I would have been greatly overdressed.  I would have never imagined twenty – five years later there would be some preachers who would attempt to make a ministry statement by their casual clothing.

I am concerned that there seems to be in the minds of some pastors an unwritten requirement that an effective pastor should wear casual clothing, sit on a stool, use a PowerPoint presentation, sing choruses that repeat the same words 137 times, and should never ask the people to use a hymn book nor ever read from a Scofield Bible.

One well-known Southern Baptist pastor is reported to have said that the reason we are not reaching people in many of our churches in America is because we are singing songs out of a book they do not identify with (a reference to hymns) and reading from a Bible they do not understand (a reference to the KJV).  This line of reasoning is at best asinine.  Is our motive that of trying to get a crowd or are we trying to be faithful to the Bride of Christ and the Christ of the Bride?  When I started to elementary school my teacher did not care one bit that I could not “identify with” a noun, or a verb, or an adjective, or an adverb.  I tried my best to convince her that these terms were outdated.  She insisted that the time had come for me to get with it.  No teacher that ever taught me was interested in reaching new students by changing their antiquated terminology.  They were motivated to teach me what I needed to know, not what I wanted to know.

One pastor in Georgia is reported to have said that if we don’t change we’re going to die.  What’s going to die? Is the church that Christ died for going to die? Never!  Our selfish little kingdoms and carnal empires may die. The church that is faithful to the preaching of the Word in its community will always have a ministry.

I have noticed that when a pastor lives by a certain standard the people always adopt a lesser standard.  Hence, this explains in part why some people come to church looking as though they are headed to the lake.  You may ask, “What’s the problem with that?”  My concern is that an overemphasis by the pastor on casual dress produces a casual attitude in the minds of the people toward the God we’ve come to worship.  Our houses of worship are filled with those who seem to be there to serve penance on Sunday morning but embarrassingly few return for anything else.  For them, serving Christ in the context of a local redeemed family known as the church is far-fetched.  There is no responsibility, no accountability, and little evidence of true conversion but all is well if the pastor has made a name for himself by drawing a crowd on Sunday morning. 

Last year I saw a photo of a well-known pastor who is known for his informal attire at his worship services.  In the photo this pastor was shaking hands with President George W. Bush.  I found it odd that he was dressed in the photo wearing a suit and tie.  I wondered to myself, “Does George W. Bush deserve more respect at the White House than God does at His house?”

Why would a pastor want to dress down for a worship service but he cannot wear blue jeans at his local country club?  Why would he major on dressing casual for a preaching service but he is required to wear a shirt with a collar at his local golf course?  I hasten to say that if a man only has overalls to wear to church, I have no doubt that God is as well pleased with him as if he were wearing a $1,000.00 suit.  My question is, “Why would anyone, particularly a pastor, offer God less than his best?”

I want to encourage every preacher and layperson to be faithful where God has called you.  Your work is important because it’s God’s work. Give it your best.  God gave his best. Stay faithful. If you do, there is a “well-done” in your future.  As the hymn writer said, “It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus.”

I Love You!

Brother Wayne