Serving by observing?

I was thinking more about my recent post, Not the center of attention, and how different a gathering of the church is when the sermon is not the focal point of the meeting. In thinking about this, I returned back to that old staple, 1 Corinthians 14. Why that chapter? In spite of all of the talk about being Bible-believing churches and the Regulative Principle of Worship, the Bible doesn’t provide a ton of “does” and “don’ts” for the church meeting but 1 Corinthians 14 is perhaps the most extensive and clear passage in Scripture regarding both how the early church met and how the church should meet.

The clear implication of 1 Corinthians 14 is that when the church comes together, all of the brothers are expected and welcome to participate. They certainly should do so in an orderly manner, not in a chaotic way, but Paul is not writing to silence the brothers. In other words when Paul says “all things should be done decently and in order”, that doesn’t mean sit down, shut up and listen to the preacher. He certainly seems to be saying that all of the brothers can and should participate in the meeting and he is not only OK with that but he is affirming of it in places like verse 26:

What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. (1 Cor 14:26)

Compare this to a recent post from 9 Marks regarding the ways that “ordinary church members” can contribute to the Sunday morning meeting, How Members Can Serve the Church on Sunday Morning. Here is the list:

Before the Service

•Read the passage in advance
•Pray for the gathering
•Greet newcomers (act like you are the host)
•Think strategically about who you should sit with
•Arrive Early

During the Service

•Sing with gusto (even if you can’t sing)
•Help with logistics (if there’s a problem, help fix it)
•Don’t be distracted
•Listen carefully
•Be aware of your facial expressions (you may affect others and discourage preachers)

After the Service

•Connect newcomers with others
•Get newcomers information
•Start a conversation about the sermon
•Ask someone how they became a Christian
•Stay late


I think it is interesting that the post is titled: How Members Can Serve the Church on Sunday Morning. How exactly are “ordinary” members serving? Serving by observing? Look at the whole list but the sum total is that “ordinary” Christians should plan on showing up early to the appointed meeting, being friendly and smiley, singing loudly (but only when given permission and told which song to sing by the “worship leader”), being prepared to listen to the sermon and paying rapt attention during said sermon and then sticking around to socialize for a few minutes after the service, perhaps getting contact information from a visitor so one of the leaders can visit them and chatting about the sermon you just listened to.

So prepare for the sermon, sing in preparation of the sermon, listen closely to the sermon and talk about the sermon afterward. When Paul described the early church meeting, none of what is being described here is present. Just the opposite. If Paul were making this list he would include things like: come prepared to edify as well as be edified, be prepared to share some spiritual gift, make sure to take your turn but be sure to take your turn, expect to be an active part of the gathering. Not to worry about where you are sitting and if it is "strategic"!

If all you are expected to do to be an active member of the local church is what you see above, how are you growing in maturity and being equipped for the work of ministry? I think the issue is three-fold.

First, the church is clearly sermon centered and that is unhealthy. Having a time of teaching is great but if it occurs in the way we normally see it, we have one guy (typically the same guy) teaching week after week, people are not being edified and most Christians are not serving. I spoke last weekend and I won’t be the speaker again this year. I will still be permitted and expected to share each meeting and I will be leading some Sunday school discussions but someone else will do the final teaching of the morning. That prevents the Sunday morning gathering from turning into American Idol with the most “talented” speaker doing all of the speaking. Some of the men who teach each week are less polished than others but that isn’t really the point, is it? It is the difference between a performance based ministry and an edification based ministry and the difference is enormous.

Second, there are just too many people packed into church buildings on Sunday morning for the church to really serve one another. If you have 100, 200 or more people all sitting together in a “sanctuary” in rows of pews facing the front, how are they going to participate and be involved? 1 Coronthians 14 doesn’t really work in a church gathering of 150 adults. That doesn’t mean we should discard 1 Corinthians 14 as impractical! It does mean that we should revisit how we gather as the church and ask the hard questions about the “bigger is better” mentality that infects the church and leads to megachurches and remote/satellite “campuses” that quash any semblance of participation and make a mockery of Biblical fellowship. When our practices clash with the Bible, it is our practices that need to change, not the Word of God.

Third, “ordinary” church members are not expected or permitted to speak on an average Sunday morning. Maybe during Sunday school to ask questions of the teacher but the main meeting time is restricted to a very limited few. It would not be unusual for an adult male to come to church every Sunday for a year (or years!) and never be involved in the main “worship service” outside of singing on cue, bowing his head when told and listening to the sermon without checking email on his smart phone. That is the expected norm and because of that no one is prepared, willing or expecting to do much more than attend and observe. We bemoan the theological ignorance of the church but we keep trying to do more of the same and expect different results. Instead of preparing to meet with the church by thinking about what God has been teaching you the prior week, we prepare for church by getting on a suit and making plans for lunch.

Paul describes the church gathering in 1 Corinthians 14 as a meeting where all the brothers are participating, where each has something tangible to bring, where we edify one another and not through the “one and all the others” tradition. The participatory model from Scripture is not how the church typically meets now and it hasn’t done so for over 1000 years except in rare divergences, divergences that often were met with persecution.

When the church gathers, it should be for the edification and building up of the entire Body and that means that the entire Body has to be involved in more than just being on time, smiling and paying attention. Observing is not serving.