Assembly Line Worship

When we hear words like “assembly lines”, “economies of scale”, “specialization”, “division of labor”, “mass production”, we normally associate those with industrial production. But here in the America, it struck me recently that a lot of the way we approach church is heavily influenced by our free-market capitalism, rugged individualism and approach to mass production. Stay with me here…

In a typical American evangelical church meeting on Sunday morning, we start promptly at 11. One person, often the pastor, prays on behalf of the entire congregation of 25 to 2,500 people. Then one person leads us in singing or we sit and other people sing at us in the choir. Then one person, again the pastor, stands up and gives us a few announcements, calls up the ushers for the offering, one person prays for the offering, and then one person stands up and preaches for 30-45 minutes. He then finishes by praying for us while we bow our heads and listen. We head home, confident that we have worshipped.

How did we get here? Is that Biblical worship? Is that how the disciples worshipped?

We have compartmentalized, segregated, divided, specialized worship. In fine American tradition, we have taken the assembly line idea and put it in place in the church. One person leading prayer, one person teaching, one person praying is efficient. Having lots of people teach doesn’t work, some people aren’t great at it, so we will hire someone professionally, with the right credentials, to teach and preach for us. It is his specialization, like a worker in an assembly line who attaches widget A to part B. That guy over there is a good singer, so we will hire him to lead the singing for us. That woman is good with kids, so she is in charge of nursery. That guy is young, has cool hair with lots of product and gets along with kids. He is our “youth minister”. We pick the very best person, based on some dubious qualifications at times, and put them in charge of aspects of our “worship”. Meanwhile the bulk of us will sit back in our pews and drop money in the plate to express our approval, like buying tickets to a theatrical performance.

We have Wednesday evening prayer meetings where we pray together. Sunday school where we (hopefully) focus on the teaching of the Bible. We have a separate service for the Lord’s Supper, or at least we segregate the Lord’s Supper from the rest of “worship” and make it into an infrequent, special event. Instead of an integrated worship where fellowship, prayer, teaching and breaking bread blends together, we have made them into separate events carefully orchestrated to be done in a timely fashion. This isn't an issue of orderly worship, if you have ever rushed from Sunday school to the sanctuary you know how chaotic that can be! What it has become is a subcontracting of worship out to others.

Is this happening because we are results oriented people? We want a particular outcome from “worship”? I think it is. Worship is commoditized, with the more units of worship produced, in as efficient manner as possible, the better. Some churches have grown so large that they have three services and that is a mark of a “successful” ministry. Why don’t they break into smaller groups to fellowship in? Because it is way more efficient to have 1000 people in three services under one pastor in one building than it is to have 1000 people meeting in 40 groups of 25. This is why we have churches like St. Andrews Chapel building multi-million dollar palatial edifices, so more and more people can pack into a building and receive their units of worship in as efficient a manner as possible.

Sure, small gatherings have a myriad of issues. What to do with the kids, who is going to teach, how do you pay the bills, what if one family leaves? The trade-off? You get to know the people you worship with, you can pray for them without a list of “prayer requests” because you are intimately familiar with their problems and their dreams. Everyone serves and shares the burdens because no one can be too specialized. I just think that small groups achieve the intent and goal of fellowship far better than packing auditoriums with people. Big groups have their place. There will be hundreds of people at the theology conference I am going to next weekend in Grand Rapids, but as much as I enjoy the teaching what I really enjoy is spending time at lunch and dinner with friends and fellow believers. I can listen to the teaching later on my iPod, but I can’t replicate the closeness of fellowship among a small group of Christians.

Is genuine fellowship possible in a big church? I imagine so with a lot of work. Can you have a small church with virtually no fellowship? Absolutely, I have been there. But all in all, I think we would be much healthier as a body if we focused on fellowship whatever the format or setting, and less on producing the maximum number of worship units in the most efficient manner possible.