Recently we've been looking at the wholeness of our faith. We've done a sermon series entitled "Fit for Faith" where we talked about having a fit mind, spirit and body such that we are better able to live out our lives in faithfulness. The coming series is going to focus on proven movements in your faith life that will help you take a step closer to God.
With that in mind I've recently read about churches doing these sorts of things (read story here) and I wonder about the advisability of this. Let me preface these remarks by saying that I know the pastor quite well. He was one of my mentors in the ordination process and I respect him. I'm not offering a critique of him as a pastor, but rather a critique about this practice.
Let me share some background thoughts on this. In my faith maturity there have been several ideas that have been my guide. Each of them is built around the idea of having a holistic faith. The first was when I went through confirmation in the 7th grade. I was asked by my pastor if I would support the church with my prayers, presence, gifts and service? That's a rather holistic understanding of how to live your faith. In recent years the United Methodist Church has added witness to that list and I appreciate the addition.
More recently Rick Warren published the book Purpose Driven Life in which he encourages us to live out our faith through worship, fellowship, discipleship, service and evangelism. Then United Methodist Bishop comes out with a book entitled, The Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, in which he outlines the following practices of congregational life; radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity. Both of these illustrate for us a more whole understanding of what it would look like to live a life as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Right now there is a team at Good Shepherd that is seeking to come to grips with how we respond to our recent participation in the REVEAL study. This study has important implications for how a church assists a Christ Follower to deepen their faith. The study reveals that there are five main areas that a person needs to work with in their faith life. When a person engages these areas at appropriate places in their faith journey they will find they are moving to deeper areas of faithfulness. I won't flesh these out right now, but they are; a deepening of biblical knowledge, practicing personal spiritual disciplines, engaging in spiritual activities with others, learning what you believe, and serving others.
All this is to say that I think there is a danger to the practice outlined in the news article. (Danger is a strong word, maybe concern would be better.) The practice of cancelling worship in order to do service seems to suggest to your constituents that there is an either/or option here. "If you don't want to worship, just go serve." The bible doesn't set up such a dichotomy. John Wesley even warned against setting up such a conflict when he instructed that if you happen to be in a small group meeting and learn that a worship service is going on, cancel your meeting to go to worship.
I also struggle with the hospitality aspect. Last Sunday we had 11 first time visitors at Good Shepherd. Imagine if they had arrived at church to find it locked up. Maybe we've left a sign that says, "We've gone to serve people in need. See you next week." Generally, first time visitors show up to your church because they are in need. Not that all are in crisis, but a that moment, they needed to worship and your church failed to provide opportunity.
I recognize the problem. Most of those in worship attendance spend only one hour a week with God. If they even go to worship at all. Another segment in worship will give you two hours, but then they have to decide if it will be in a leadership position, or a learning opportunity, or serving in some way. Even though this is the case, do we really need to make it easy to get in that one or two hours? God doesn't ask for an hour, God demands our whole life. A holistic faith isn't one that is lived an hour a week. It is one which is lived out in a variety of ways, throughout the week, and includes spending time worshipping the One who gives us our life.
{As a side note, in two weeks I'll be running in the Susan Komen Race for the Cure. It's on a Sunday Morning. The race coordinators came up with a campaign to encourage churches to cancel worship and have a "sacrifice Sunday" instead. Racing as a sacrifice rather than worshipping. It's no different than cancelling worship to serve, is it? I wouldn't be doing the run if I didn't have the opportunity to attend Good Shepherd's 5:30 pm service Sunday evening. Worship isn't what we should be sacrificing.}
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