The Role of Worship within Evangelism - Case Study Example

What is the role of worship within Evangelism? Every religion engages in a wide variety of endeavours, including serious study of philosophy and theology, ritual activity in sacred places at special times and charitable acts of service and kindness. Worship is ideally the first business of any Christian church. And out of this worship, wrote Austin Tucker (2004), flows evangelism, missions, ministry, education, and everything else that the church does. (p. 89) There are perhaps two key issues in the history of worship within religions and its impact in evangelism. One concerns the stress a religion places on particular aspects of its activity, and the other the distinction between external action and the internal motivation of devotees. This is particularly important today in the backdrop of a rapidly changing and increasingly diverse world. Background It is useful to ask the question, “What is worship and where does it begin?” There are people who might be tempted to say that it is when the church service begins when the minister says the first official words of service. But in a most important sense, worship begins with the gathering of a group of people who have the worship of God as their aim and their intention. This is why in many contemporary orders of worship the first main section of the service is called “the gathering.” The gathering includes a number of elements which are designed to steer the attention of the all the participants on the occasion at hand, and to help them to declare why they have gathered at a particular time and at a particular place. The Psalms of the Old Testament underscore the goal of worship in many passages. “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name” (Psalm xcvi, 4) “Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His Holy hill.” (Psalm xcix, 9) As Ralph Martin (1974) put it: It is the excellent worthiness of God, therefore, which makes our worship possible; and when we offer Him our devotion, praise and prayer, this is to be thought which is uppermost in our minds: He alone is worship-ful. We ascribe to Him all that is in keeping with His nature and revealed in person. (p. 10) Tim Yates’ (1994) discourse on worship revolved around this theme as he made reference to an Islamic religion book, The Call of the Minaret - that exhorted a religious tradition emphasizing the unity of God and the call to worship Him: There was a need… in words used by the guards in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, to “sit-down awhile and let us once again assail your ears which are so fortified against our story. Only in such posture will the Christian, aided by the Holy Spirit, be enabled to make authentically Christian response to Islam or the Muslim set aside false versions inherited from the past. (p. 150) Worship and Evangelism The previous discussion is the main explanation why many church leaders believe that worship is a tool for evangelism with its tremendous educational potential. For example, scripture choruses can help people memorize the Bible; hymns and Bible readings can reinforce church doctrines. Barry et al. (1988) added that church leaders such as pastors and ministers may view worship as a preparation for the sermon – when the real teaching takes place. (p. 22) The opportunities presented by worship is partly anchored on the stimulation it elicits in people to desire to be changed. Jim Firth, former worship leader at Eastside Foursquare Church in the Seattle area, wrote: Someone sitting in a congregation of worshippers hears the Word through song, reads it on the screen, and sees others responding to God. One of our choruses says, “I believe in God the Almighty King, God Creator of all things, Holy Father my heart sings. I believe His word will never fail, His kingdom will prevail, I believe He reigns eternally, in Him I believe.” There is something very powerful and moving about being in a group of people who are making that simple, sincere declaration. There is so much about worship that attracts the unchurched unbeliever. Of al the activities of the church, worship is the least selfish and the most pure. (quoted in Morgenthaler, p. 78) The Old Testament further explains how worship can be used to evangelize through David. In Psalm 57:9, David says, “I will praise you, O Lord, among nations; I will sing of you among peoples.” From this and many similar verses, we see that David’s praise was unapologetically public. What is even more significant is that David believed God would draw unbelievers to himself through an authentic worship experience. Indeed, the Roman Catholic Church has emphasised time and time again that the gospel was found within the church and for evangelicals, such reconciliation afforded to them by the gospels resulted in their claim of ties and relationship to the Christian church. (Yates, p. 221) Contemporary Christian Music The emergence of the contemporary Christian music particularly illustrates how an element of worship is utilized to proselytize – to evangelise. For example, there is the case of the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and the early 1970s – a product of American evangelism’s adoption and incorporation of the particular form of mainstream popular music at the particular cultural moment. Ray Howard and John Streck (2004), documented a body of literature that explored this particular experience in contemporary evangelical efforts: Drane argues that “the Jesus Movement is a fundamentalistic and revivalistic as the Great Awakening.” Music was key to this effort. Robert Lyons, Asbury Seminary professor and founder of the Ichtus Festival (Christian music’s longest running festival), noted that the motivation for trying to create a “Christian Woodstock” had been to use the medium of young people to reach young people.” (p. 56) For contemporaries, the ability of the Jesus rock and gospel melodies to generate rich, powerful feelings in a mood and emotion-oriented age has brought and the held the movement together. Here, one can see that music made worship and evangelism part of the popular culture. Howard and Streck argued that the transcendent ecstasy of a rock gig translates easily into a religious experience and that this is especially true when religion at hand is not one of intellect or profound theology, but of passion and personal faith. (p. 56) Indeed, the Jesus Movement’s emphasis on conversion and the use of contemporary forms of music to help generate the moods and feelings that facilitate conversion led to a concept of Christianity that was overwhelmingly experience-oriented. Keith Green, one of the pioneers of Christian contemporary music said, “As for me, I repent of ever having made a record or ever having sung a song unless it’s provoked people to follow Jesus, to lay down their whole life before him, to give him everything.” (quoted in Styll 1991, p. 49) In recent years, the music of contemporary worship has continued to diversify. From edgy industrial drum to melancholic ballads and the musical temperaments of alternative rock – the contemporary worship music as a form of evangelism is continually finding its niche in the mainstream. Furthermore, within contemporary religious missions, worship music is getting a more recognized role for making Christ known among the nations. The process includes working with indigenous Christian musicians in setting Scripture. Newer missions, such as Frontiers, are sending teams to areas of the world where music and dance are major channels of communications and encouraging them to develop evangelistic methods based on these “arts”. (Moreau, Netland, van Engen & Burnett 2000, p. 328) Criticisms Obviously, in the course of the last thirty years there has been a blurring of the distinction between worship and evangelism so that worship for many churches has been transmuted to evangelism. What was once applied to evangelism in a secular setting is now applied to worship in a specific religious setting. For instance, we have the case of traditional liturgical music, which is specifically composed to serve the rite and to express and convey a sense of worship, awe and wonder. According to Robin A. Leaver, Joyce Ann Zimmerman (1998), it has been displaced by evangelistic music that can stresses on the horizontal relationship between us and others instead of the vertical relationship between us and God. (p. 403) The impact of this, particularly among the traditionalists and critics, is adverse. For them, when the role of music is reduced to propaganda, or persuasion, or becomes the tribal songs of demarcation of the authentically Christian, or when one style of music, historical or contemporary, is decreed to be the only valid style, then worship becomes anthropocentric rather than theocentric – with the primary concern of pleasing ourselves and others rather than to worship God’s good pleasure. (p. 403) This criticism follows the line of thinking that worship when used as a tool for evangelism is blurred to incorporate the element of entertainment. Here, worship becomes a form of entertainment and that since there is a need in people to be entertained worship, then, draws people into religion. According to Elisabeth Arweck and Peter Collins (2006), this fits well in the modern Western societies because they are characterised by a “culture of performance”. (p. 116) In addition, in evangelical perspective, worship becomes a tool in order to persuade and convert unbelievers. For instance, Timothy Yates (1994) introduced the concept of indigenous church which Cheng Ching-Yi, a Chinese evangelist, argued as one that is in favor of a Christian Church that must be adapted to meet the religious needs of the Chinese people – one that is most congenial to the Chinese life and culture. (p. 67) Indeed, we could see this happening in churches today. The reading of the Bible has often not been given the attention we claim it deserves in services of public worship. Sometimes only a few verses are read, serving merely as a springboard for the sermon. Conclusion As discussed by this paper, various elements of worship create certain perspectives and understanding about God and specific attitudes and habits of being, all of which affect how we think, speak, and act. It is crucial, then, that leaders of the Church study how this is significant in evangelism. While there are some criticisms as to the use of the supposedly pure ritual that nurtures a vertical relationship of us and God to proselytize – everything boils down to the motivation of an evangelizer or a devotee. Traditionalists may say that worship is the priority of the Church, however, evangelism is also a duty. This paper has cited several examples on how worship compliments, encourages and enhances evangelism. And these experiences highlight the fact that evangelism need not necessarily undermine worship in terms of its essence – a gathering to honor God. In this perspective, worship as a “tool” works in evangelism in such a way that the evangelist is not the one doing the evangelization. As Firth was quoted previously, there is so much about worship particularly in its community that attracts unbelievers. The purity and the unselfishness of the act itself attract people who want to change. The experience promotes church growth because of the experience. Evangelists do not persuade because people want to be involved. Finally, there is an interesting idea introduced by Leslie Newbigin (1989) in regard to the Christian evangelism in the increasing pluralistic world we are in today. Her point is that today, as more and more people come together into a community, we discover that there are those who value and practice their religion more fervently than our devotion. To quote: If what matters about religious beliefs is not the factual truth of what they affirm but the sincerity with which they are held; if religious belief is a matter of personal inward experience rather than an account of what is objectively the case, then there are certainly no grounds for thinking that Christians have any right – much less any duty – to seek he conversion of these neighbors to the Christian faith. (p. 25) The significance of this observation highlights the role of worship in effective evangelization in general. This paper has argued that worship is pure and selfless ritual in religion. Such experience, not unlike the simple beauty and passion that Muslims devote to Allah, strengthens the Christian church’s position in evangelism because it attracts unbelievers in a deeper and more persuasive way than direct evangelization achieves. This could be considered as transformation through adoration. An unbeliever will see in a Christian worship something unique, touching, pleasing, poignant and most importantly entirely different that transforms. For example, instead of merely singing about Him in evangelization, one sings to the Lord in worship; instead of praying to each other about God, one actually enters into His presence. The religious experience that worship offers has a profound impact in converting people from a different denomination to a new religious faith. References Arweck, E Collins P, 2006, ‘Reading Religion in Text and Context.’ Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Leaver, R and Zimmerman J, 1998, ‘Liturgy and Music: Lifetime Learning.’ Liturgical Press. Liesch, B Tenny, W Comanda, J Michael D and Smith, G, 1988, ‘People in the Presence of God.’ Zondervan. Howard, J & Streck, J, 2004, Apostles of Rock: ‘The Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music.’ University of Kentucky Press. Martin, R, 1974, ‘Worship in the Early Church.’ Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. Morgenthaler, S, 1999, ‘Worship Evangelism.’ Zondervan Publishing. Moreau, S Netland, H Engen, C & Burnett, David, 2000, ‘Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions.’ Baker Book House Company. Newbiggin, L, 1989, ‘Gospel in a Pluralist Society.’ Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. Styll, J, 1991, ‘The Heart of the Matter: The Best of CCM Interviews, Volume I.’ Nashville: Star Song. Tucker, A, 2004, ‘A Primer for Pastors: A Handbook of Strengthening Ministry Skills.’ Kregel Publications. Yates, T 1994, ‘Christian Mission in the Twentieth Century.’ Cambridge, Cambridge Unviersity Press. Read More