How to come to church

Will we choose songs and hymns I like? What’s for lunch later?

These are the questions that occupy many minds as we set out for church. In this second article of our series,  expanding on our church’s “Book of the Term”, “How To Walk Into Church” (Tony Payne), here are two better questions as I come to church:

1. How should I respond to God?

The word “worship” comes from Old English “weorthescipe” – ascribing value or “worth” to something. So a good house could be a “place of worship” and a leading town like London a “city of worship”. The Prayer Book marriage service expects the groom to say to his bride, “With my body I thee worship”! No-one is saying that the house, city or bride is divine!

“Worship” (the Greek word proskynēo) in  Matthew 2:2 (the wise men came to worship the newborn child) can just mean “fall on our knees”. Thus our English word “worship” has a wider meaning than the Greek one (we take it to include singing and praying, not just kneeling) but also a narrower one (we tend to think only of worship in ‘church’, not in common life as well).

So here’s a definition (with acknowledgement of DA Carson’s much longer equivalent):

Worship is the proper and delighted response to God’s majesty in creation and redemption in Christ, both in all of life and when we gather as ‘church’.

So worship is above all God-centred: a joyful response to who God is. See for example Revelation 4:11, “you alone are worthy to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things”.

What makes worship delightful is the object at its centre. Worship is not creating something new but responding to the already-present majesty and mercy of God. And Christ is central as the One who shares the throne of God, and who redeemed us by his blood. This God-centredness is vital for churches to recover in a world where so many things (eg career, self, possessions) call us to worship them instead.

The New Testament transforms Old Testament worship. Where Israel had priests, the church has the priesthood of all believers. The covenant sacrifice of bulls and goats is fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ. The tabernacle and the temple which symbolised God’s dwelling on earth are fulfilled in the body of Jesus (John 2:21), or of the Church (Ephesians 2:22), or of the believer (1 Corinthians 6:19). Hebrews 12 reminds us that we worship God not on a physical mountain but on Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, along with angels and saints, and through Jesus’ blood.

Romans 12:1-3 is a key Bible verse in understanding worship: “in view of God’s mercy, offer your souls and bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, for this is your reasonable act of worship.” Here Paul uses a second word-group for “worship” (Hebrew abodah, Greek latreia) which means “work/service/activity”.

Worship is as much action for God – what we do the rest of the week with our souls and bodies – as adoration – how we adore Him on Sunday. So I can’t worship God on Sunday if I have not done so during the week.  My weekday worship prepares me for that on Sunday (and vice versa).

A good way to prepare for Sunday is to pray for the preacher to be faithful and inspired in what they teach. Pray for the congregation and any newcomers to be attentive and to have lives changed by the gospel message. Pray for any particular people we know who are anxious, or doubting, or discouraged. Read the passage that is being taught about in the sermon if your church has told you what it is in advance.

So come to church ready for action! Here’s the second great question on the way to church:

2. How can we help to build each other up?

David Peterson argues (from eg 1 Corinthians 14, see v26) that the New Testament’s emphasis in gathered  worship is upon encouraging each other. Sunday best clothing should be hard hats and boots, because we are to “build” each other up. He’s right that I can sing songs at home, or pray at work, but I cannot encourage and edify you except when we gather.

Anglican worship is historically strong at ‘building up’ the faith of the congregation. Thomas Cranmer, reforming Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII and Edward VI,  saw three things that gathered worship must be:

 Biblical – our gathered ‘church’ should be drenched in Scripture, not just in the reading and sermon, but in the content of songs and prayers. Even the plan of the service comes from Scripture, including the elements of worship listed in the Biblical accounts: invitation to praise and prayer, songs of praise, confession, reading of Scripture and explanation of it, sharing of food and of gifts for the poor, sacraments of baptism and communion. In all these moments of ‘church’, the common feature is faith responding to the Word of God.

 Balanced – churches today tend to either cut out the past with some of the best prayers and music, or to cut out the present with its new ideas which can enhance our worship. Thomas Cranmer followed the principle of emphasising what the Bible emphasises (God’s grace, Word and gospel signs; the people’s repentance, responsiveness and obedience) and being silent where the Bible is silent (eg the kind of music, or whether to stand, sit or kneel). He kept the best prayers from the past, but rewrote the Roman Catholic service. He included the congregation much more in singing and saying the Bible and prayers, where before the priest said everything. He took out ceremonies which undermine faith in Christ, but encouraged those which promote it.

Intelligible – Cranmer put the words of the services into English, from a Latin which even many priests leading the medieval services did not understand. He adapted or wrote many new prayers or Collects, especially his excellent “Collect for Bible Sunday” (Last Sunday after Trinity) . He simplified gathered worship for the congregation by putting it all in one book, where before there were half a dozen to juggle. Were he here today he would doubtless have put prayers online and in apps!

So what does it mean to come to church ready to build each other up, as Cranmer saw so clearly? I need to come ready to sing enthusiastically and to join in loudly with the prayers which the congregation says together: the point is that we are all joining in! I need to come ready to listen to the words of the whole service thoughtfully, as the words of songs, hymns and prayers may carry gospel truths as important to me as those of the sermon. And I need to encourage the people around me by joining in at all points, including listening to and taking notes on the sermon. As Tony Payne puts it, don’t be a “dipping duck” nodding off in the pew, or drift off looking for invisible fairies in the ceiling! As I respond to God with enthusiasm, I build up those around me too.

Are you ready to come to church?

Further reading

DA Carson (Editor) Worship by the Book (Zondervan, 2002)

John M Frame, Worship in Spirit and Truth (P&R, 1996)

David Peterson, Engaging with God (IVP/Apollos, 1992)

Thomas Cranmer’s Collects can be found in the Book of Common Prayer, or the modern adapted versions of them online. They are delightfully presented with commentary in

C Frederick Barbee & Paul F M Zahl, The Collects of Thomas Cranmer (William B Eerdmans, 1999)

What is Church for?

What is Church for? Why do we go? What mental state are you in when you walk through the door? During the songs and the sermon? And when the service “finishes”?

 Sunday Morning: A Family Going to Church – William Redmore Biggs

These are the very practical questions raised in How to Walk into Church  by Tony Payne. Chapters 1-3 answer the question I’m picking up in this article, “What is Church for?”. I don’t plan to repeat what the book says (it’s so clear and concise!) but to supplement and reflect upon it.

The “Why?” question is in my experience a vital one for churches to ask: it’s so easy to go through the motions of doing what churches do without thinking what the purpose is. We focus on what happens in church, or what we personally hope to “get” from it, and not on why we are here: what is Church for?

1. God

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings” (Hebrews 10:22). With this verse the writer reminds us of the first reason we come to Church: to draw near to God. Believing that the heavenly visions of worship in Hebrews 12 and in Revelation are both future and present, we want the One on the throne of heaven, and the “Lamb” Jesus who died and rose for us, to be our central focus. We want to sing of God’s power and love, his greatness and his closeness. We want to come to the throne of grace in prayer (Hebrews 4:16). We want to hear God’s voice speak through the Bible as it is read and then explained in the sermon. We want to have our vision stretched and thrilled by seeing the grand purposes of God in coming in Christ to introduce His kingdom, calling us His people to Himself, triumphing over evil, renewing all creation, and seeing every knee one day bow before the throne of His Son.

2. Gospel

The good news that God’s kingdom has come, that He chose us, redeemed us, transforms us and prepares us for glory in Christ (Ephesians 1:1-12) is the gospel. And this gospel is what calls us gather for worship, inspires us to put God first in our lives, and sends us out to live for and serve God’s purposes in the world. We want to be a Bible-centred and gospel-shaped church whenever we gather on Sundays: “Let  the word of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish each other with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing to God in your hearts.” (Colossians 3:16). We want to sing songs and hymns that tell this gospel story. We want the gospel to shape our prayers together, whether of confession, thanksgiving or intercession. We want to enact the gospel in the sacraments of baptism (the sign of inclusion in the Church) and holy communion (the sign of being made one Body through Jesus’ death on the Cross). We want the gospel to create and nourish faith in our hearts as the preacher unpacks and applies the Bible for us.

3. Gathering

Tony Payne crucially points us to Hebrews 10:24-25 in the book: “Let us consider how to stir one another up towards love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – all the more as you see the Day approaching”. We could equally well point to the focus Paul has in 1 Corinthians 14 on the purpose of Church being to gather for each other’s sake. He uses there an image from the construction industry: building each other up is more important when I am in church than puffing myself up. If I decide not to turn up this Sunday, I miss out – but so do you. We gather for spiritual formation, to help the person in the pew next to us to leave church a little stronger in faith, hope and love – because we shared with them and encouraged them. The preacher hopes to do this, as do the musicians and others leading “up front”; but it is the purpose and calling of us all to gather, in order to spur each other on in our faith. It’s the ministry of the pew, not (as so often) the ministry of the few.

Two practical things follow as I come to church this Sunday:

Pray about where you sit. I loved this suggestion in the book. It is such a powerful reminder that I am not coming to church for myself but for God, for the Gospel and to Gather with others. When I pray I recognise the vital truth that God (not me) is sovereign over my life, and all of life, including Sunday at church, is best that way.

Pray for the people you will meet. Before and during the formal part of the service, I can look out for others. Who is next to me, do they look happy, new, confused, lonely or anxious? Over coffee afterwards, who can I encourage by saying hello, asking what most spoke to them in the sermon, what I can pray for them this week?

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us worship God acceptably, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29).

 

Make your next sermon your best: three tips

Charles Simeon preaching by Augustin Edouart, silhouette, 1828

I recall the late Mark Ashton observing two things about young preachers. First (negative) that he would rather have a curate/assistant from a college which did not think itself theologically infallible; in his experience, colleagues from training institutions which thought they had it ‘nailed’ exhibited the same attitude to their own abilities. It was a way of Mark saying he looked for humility. Second (positive) that he wanted to encourage young preachers to keep humbly learning their craft: because there are in the modern world few arts where one needs basically the same skills for one’s entire “career”, but preaching is one of them.

We all who preach should want to keep learning – or as my first incumbent put it “always pray that your next sermon may be your best”.

So my first thought on keeping sharp as a preacher is from John Piper, who urges those who preach to pray more for themselves and their hearers, and prayer is without doubt as important as anything not just in discerning the truth of God in a text or topic, but in delivering it with authenticity and spiritual power.

Second: one of the ways to keep learning and growing in preaching is by listening to the wisdom of those who are respected as preachers and good at teaching its science and art to others. As so often, it can be more effective to watch a five-minute video interview on a topic like “evangelistic preaching” or “how to apply a text faithfully” than to plough through a long book on homiletics. In terms of expository preaching,  I’ve found the St Helen’s church youtube site has a number of really good items, especially this curiously inspiring one from William Taylor on “poor preaching“.

Third, having said that, there are numerous really helpful books on the theory and practice of preaching. I came across a masterful chapter by Peter Adam on Calvin’s expository preaching in the book “Engaging Calvin” edited by Mark D Thompson (Apollos, 2009) which in many ways says it all.

But for those wanting more, it is hard to better the following

John Stott “I believe in preaching”. Solid, systematic and surprisingly practical.

Bryan Chapell “Christ-centred preaching” – superb on the gospel-based reasons for having such things as a clear focus, coherent unity and application-driven introduction to a sermon.

Peter Adam “Speaking God’s Words” – one of the very few books to talk about the theory of preaching, not just the practice.

JW Alexander “Thoughts on Preaching” – practical old wisdom on keeping time for reflection and reading central to pastoral work, including a broadside on this from Luther verbatim, which is work the book in itself.

D Martin LloydJones “Preaching and preachers”. Logic on fire, in theory and practice.

I also loved the chapter on Jonathan Edwards as a preacher in John Piper’s “The Supremacy of God in preaching”.

For a more practical approach to assembling the nuts and bolts, I’d go to Andy Stanley “Communicating For A Change”. I’d never seen myself preaching as an HGV driver, but it kind of makes sense.

Just out and on my list to read is Tim Keller’s new book on “Preaching”.

Let me know any other suggestions!

How does a pastor keep learning theology throughout their ministry?

I’m taking a sabbatical from ordained ministry at present, which is providing space for study and writing of the kind most of us find tricky in the usual press of weekly pastoral and preaching work.

Over the years I’ve at times taken a study day once a month, and more recently have followed advice of wise people like Bill Hybels, doing at least 30 minutes of (his term) “serious” reading every day (not newspapers, not sermon prep!), and setting myself stretching targets of theological and other reading each year. That has all helped enormously not just to keep my brain ticking, but to deepen faith and love for God, for which I am grateful.

One brilliant new resource for those of us (most?) who struggle to keep up our use of the Biblical languages (Hebrew and Greek) after college is this one on Vimeo, Daily Dose of Greek, where Rob Plummer of Southern Seminary in Kentucky, USA, reads a short daily verse (in charming southern-accented NT Greek) and then parses and translates, one verse per day. Absolutely brilliant; I have been using it for the last few weeks, and it takes no time at all.

I’m not aware of a Hebrew version yet, but in this article on the TGC site Trevin Wax interviews Plummer giving other advice on keeping your Greek strong, such as using it in daily Bible reading and sermon prep, and taking a Greek study retreat each year. I’m planning to do a Hebrew revision week during my current sabbatical, but you may have other ideas on how to keep and improve our understanding of Biblical languages?

My main sabbatical reading and writing is in the area of apologetics, faith and reason, and it has struck me how few study groups I am aware of among ministers to sharpen our thinking and practice in this key part of theology and evangelism. I like the apologetics315 website for its enormous list of resources (books, blogs, videos) about the theory of giving reasons for our faith, and about the reasons we can give. From that site, there’s clearly more of this already in the US than in the UK, but surely we should work harder at getting together to discuss and learn from each other why and how to defend the faith in our postchristian and pluralist culture? Or is “just preaching the gospel” really all people need to see the light?

OK, there is OCCA and Zacharias Trust, there is the Cambridge Summer Course in Apologetics, and there are great specialists like McGrath and Lennox doing work on science and new atheism. But do let me know any resources, study groups, or courses for pastors and thoughtful church members which you know on apologetics and “reasonable faith” in the UK.

If the apostle Paul, with his pharisaic training and Damascus Road revelation, still called for “the books and parchments” at the end of his ministry, I suggest we all in pastoral ministry need to find ways to feed our hearts and minds with the truth of the gospel, so that we avoid Greek apostasy (and all other kinds) and “finish our race” stronger than when we started it.

What should pastors read?

Many of us who are pastors love what our ministry requires us to do – prayer, preaching, evangelism and pastoring people – but struggle with the challenge of the work involved and the nature of it. Preaching is hard work. Sundays come round with amazing regularity. And we are fallible people working among fallible people, who receive encouragement from many – and face discouragement from others, not all of it deserved.

Personally I find that the longer I go in in ministry (it’s twenty years since ordination this summer) the more I need to read books to keep me inspired and fresh. Some advocate only reading the Bible or books about it, but I read biographies (currently one on Whitefield, and one on Stalin for contrast), history, and classic novels, as well as books expounding the Bible (often the more ancient the author, the better). It all helps us to be nourished by the faith or wisdom of others, to sharpen our skills, or to understand our culture better.

I have several “favourite” books on ministry and preaching, but Charles Spurgeon “Lectures to my Students” is always arresting. I enjoyed this Spurgeon quote last week from Justin Taylor about the vital importance of reading books to our ministry, entitled “Paul was inspired, yet he wanted Timothy to bring him books to read!”

It is probably the nature of pastoral ministry (we’re too busy) that not many great modern books have been written by seasoned pastors passing on their hard-earned wisdom. I’ve read some Paul David Tripp before (a former pastor but not recently in frontline pastoral ministry). Here’s a not-entirely-positive review of his “Dangerous Calling” from just such an experienced minister, Paul Levy. I agree with the reviewer: we need books on ministry that are both realistic and encouraging to those who are in the trenches doing the work.

So what should pastors read? My top five favourites on pastoral ministry (apart from Spurgeon) would be:

The Art of Prophesying – lovely short work on preaching followed by two extended reflections on “The Calling of the Ministry”, by Puritan William Perkins

Preaching and Preachers – D Martyn Lloyd-Jones – preaching on fire!

Ordering your Private World – Gordon MacDonald – written out of the crucible of pastoral ministry

The Contemplative Pastor – Eugene Peterson – rich modern pastoral wisdom

Courageous Leadership – Bill Hybels – a unique pastor, and his best book, IMHO

And, erm, of course – the Bible. I hope that goes without saying.

Other suggestions on preaching and pastoral ministry?

Leadership and the care of souls

Last weekend we had a fantastic time with 100 leaders from churches all over north London. We explored how the contemporary interest in “leadership” relates to the Biblical image of the pastor/shepherd.

It seems quite ambitious to be trying to convince anyone here that leadership is a good thing in the build-up to a General Election. There is so much scepticism around about politicians who break promises. But here are two reasons many are still convinced that leadership is a vital topic for us:

The Scriptures call us to it. The activity of overseeing or directing the people of God is common, from Moses and Miriam to Priscilla and Aquila. There are spectacularly bad leaders: but that does not mean all leadership is bad.

God gives us leaders for our good. There is no such thing in God’s purpose as a leader who does not care for those they lead. So in Acts 20 Paul calls the Ephesian church leaders “overseers” (from which we get “episcopacy” or “bishops”) and in the next sentence “shepherds” or “pastors” called to feed and care for the flock of Christ. Leadership and pastoral care may not be identical: but they are often inseparable.

Focus on giving not getting

The Biblical image of God as the shepherd leader is very common from the end of Genesis (48:15) and in no less than 11 Psalms.

Then in Exekiel 34 the leaders of the nation are false shepherds, “^2bWoe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? ³You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool, but do not take care of the flock”.

God declares that instead He will be shepherd to his people, and will send another David to lead and care for them properly.

Jesus is  “the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:10). He sees the crowds as “sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36) and predicts that at his arrest in Gethsemane, the shepherd will be struck and the sheep will scatter (Mark 14:27).

Not only is Jesus the great shepherd: The leaders of the Church are called overseers, bishops and elders but also shepherds in three distinct places (Acts 20:28, Ephesians 4:11, 1 Peter 5:2).

Yes, the Bishops and clergy, as the ordination rites remind us, are to shepherd and lead the flock. But the Great Shepherd has delegated his pastoral care of souls to all who lead in the Church. In  that all of us influence other people towards faith and following Christ, we are all pastors, shepherds and leaders to one another, whether given a title for that or not.

The letter of Jude underlines the difference between good and bad leadership, good and bad care of souls, in two very striking verses.

¹² These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm – shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind, autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted – twice dead. ¹³ They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved for ever.

We can all think of leaders who are about all the wrong things – power, status and reward. Feeding themselves and their egos instead of feeding the flock with the truth and mercy of God. It’s easy to get sucked into a self-serving attitude once someone in the Church gives you a seat on a committee or a collar around your neck.

But shepherd leadership gives before it gets.

It also gives the hope Jesus brings. We are to promise sins forgiven, death defeated, sickness overcome, evil overthrown.

That is why “clouds without rain” (v12b) are so dispiriting – they promise much, but deliver nothing (again I suspect we will see a few political “clouds without rain” either side of this election!).

We do need vision, we need to paint clouds which people can see, targets to aim at – I do believe in mission plans and SMART goals. But we need to make sure those clouds deliver God’s rain too and are not empty promises, that they are prayer-based and Christ-centred.

Focus on character, not charisma

Three other images Jude gives us of faulty shepherds:

Fruitless trees (v12c) – you know the kind of person, who says the right things but they are only interested in their image, the fruit emerging from them is not mercy, love and goodness.

To his great credit, Bill Hybels includes a very searching chapter on “Self-leadership” in his book “Courageous Leadership”, because he knows the importance of character, and the temptations to stray from it as a leader.

Uncontrolled waves (v13a) foaming up shame – remember the floods on the coast this time last year? Leadership is about power, and power wrongly used may make lots of noise, but it leaves a trail of debris.

Wandering stars (v13b) – planets move in the sky, stars do not –  they are fixed points that we can rely upon and get our bearings from. We depend upon them. Bad leaders disrupt heavenly order, their contribution to God’s work may burn brightly but it damages our mission.

Character comes before charisma.

So how do I ensure that, whatever my role caring for the spiritual needs of others, I am fruitful, healthy and steady (instead of fruitless, destructive and erratic)?

The writer Eugene Peterson made a brilliant observation about leadership in his book “the Contemplative Pastor”. He heard a minister friend explaining that his job was to “run the church”.

He admits that sometimes we have to “run the church” –  just as we have to “run our homes” by buying the groceries and paying the bills –  but he was shocked that we could sum up leadership this way.

He suggests that when we lead or shepherd, we operate not only in the mode of “running the church” but also of caring for souls.

He identifies three areas this becomes apparent:

When we run the church we initiate, we strategise, we move things forward, all of which are essential to leadership.

But when we care for souls we react to God’s initiative, we look for where God is working, notice the traces of grace in a person’s life, and giving thanks for them.

When we run the church we use the language of motivation and description. We inform about next week’s events, we motivate people to volunteer their help.

When we care for souls we use the language of relationship, feelings are listened to, silences honoured, differences understood, compromises made.

When we run the church we solve problems, we answer queries, we tidy up messy situations, we use expertise.

When we care for souls we admit our inability to solve the deepest problems, we pray with the grieving, we live with mystery and believe that one day we will see clearly.

And godly shepherding is doing both.

Jude puts it like this to those who lead and shepherd in the Church, urging us to play our part (build up and keeping ourselves) – and let God do His (as we pray and wait for the coming of Christ):

²⁰ But you, dear friends, by building yourself up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.