Of Service Order and Staleness
One of the great concerns I have for youth in the church today has to do with a staleness I see in their faith. So many who have been raised in church, who know the answers to the main questions (or think they do) and have basically been-there-done-that, often display a lack of passion. Since I have an almost obsessive habit of analyzing things, I have wondered this summer about how to help with that.
After five weeks of camp, four in which I preached all week, two in which I brought a wonderful band to minister with me (and by the way last week was AWESOME guys), not to mention a lot of time studying the youth culture, I wonder whether we should rethink some of our categories. Not on the big theological issues (authority of Scripture, deity of Jesus, etc), but on how we frame some things in life. Here is one example: service order. I am part of a free church tradition which thankfully gives much emphasis on the authority of Scripture and the primacy of preaching (which is a distinctive of Christianity). Thus, in our corporate services we begin with a call to worship, include the singing of songs, and hymns, and spiritual songs (see Eph. 5:18f), and conclude with the preaching of the Word. The preaching comes at the end at least in part because we are saying it is most vital. I do believe the preaching of the Word is the climax of a service of worship. I wonder, however, whether putting the sermon at the end is a requirement of such an emphasis. No doubt another reason we do this is to lead toward the invitation where people decide what to do for God as they leave the service and step into the world. Again, I affirm that.
But I am always tinkering with things, because I believe one of the great enemies of discipleship is to take the wonder of the cross and our walk with God and make it stale. Sameness in doctrine matters. Sameness in practice leads to staleness in devotion. Jesus said to make disciples not clones, after all (that is a subject for another day). So this summer I tinkered at youth camp. It helped having amazing worship leaders in the time of singing. It helped working with youth pastors willing to do things differently. It helps being with a generation of youth who love corporate, participatory worship. So this is what we did:
First night, typically pretty standard—worship through music, then message.
Second night, about half the corporate worship before the message, about half after.
The third night, a song or two before the message, then lots of worship after.
The last night, no songs, just me getting up to preach. Then, a lengthy time of corporate worship after.
What about an invitation? Those last nights the invitation was best. In fact, this approach actually made it easier for adults to talk one on one with some hard heads (spiritually speaking), with the result that we have seen some seriously lost teenagers receive Christ with great joy. In addition, as camp tends to be tiring for students, preaching earlier and calling for a response helps to connect with students while their minds are fresh. Having capable musicians who really work well with me helps greatly here. We moved into a song during a time of response. After that, we moved into a time of lengthy corporate worship. I have to say the last two nights of camp last week were some of the greatest times of corporate worship through singing I have experienced ever. Last week a former gang member got up on stage and helped lead the singing in a spontaneous display of the joy of having met Jesus. I sort of like that kind of worship . It has been like that all summer.
I have always been of the mind that the singing in worship opens people’s hearts so the preaching can fill them with truth. True enough. But particularly in a Millennial generation given to the arts, and to participation, I have found the preaching of the Word of God helps to open the minds of youth to help them truly focus on worshiping God through singing. I think you can do either, or both. It is less about order and more about impact.
If you are extremely right brained or left brained you may be scratching both sides of your head right now. For those who are very left brained, you would just as soon get done with the singing so you can settle in for a nice long sermon. But an extremely right brained person longs for the more subjective aspect of worship singing beings. I have had students say it would be fine with them if chapel only consisted of a great sermon. I have had others say the songs we sing have a great impact on their meeting with God in worship. Most of us see the importance of both. That is why I praise our Maker for giving us both the preached Word and the singing of songs as we meet together. But the virtual silence in the New Testament on the precise order of worship in our corporate times might encourage us to replace monotony with liberty.