Ecclesiology 16 - Bottom of the Ninth: Communal Worship

     To wrap up the discussion of small groups, they will meet once or twice per week for 60-90 minutes in people's homes.  They will dispense with any business quickly, then spend approximately half their allotted time in guided prayer and meditation, with the remainder of the time in Bible study, sharing, confession and communal prayer.  I think it only natural that these dedicated few will talk about their experiences outside the group and, human curiosity being what it is, the group will begin to grow.  A predesignated number should be established in anticipation of this - say 10 or 12 - beyond which the group will voluntarily divide itself and begin meeting in two different homes.  This will become the pattern for all future growth.

    At some early point, we have some other business to take care of, namely our worship, our mission plan, our staffing, our finances and our creed.  We will take these up one at a time, starting with our worship.

    Let us say for hypothetical purposes that we have chosen to conduct our small group meetings once per week on Wednesday evenings.  Let us then say - again, purely hypothetically - that we will have our worship services on Sunday evenings.  There is no particular reason for this schedule; any arrangement of time that works well for the group is equally appropriate.  Well and good, but we now only have a time; what about a place?  Initially, we could conceivably have worship in the same home as our small group meeting, since we will have the same number of people.  We will quickly run out of space, however, since a worship service will eventually require multiple small groups and will therefore require more room than a small group meditation would.

    The question of worship space is one I find fascinating, and I have enjoyed the opportunity to puzzle over it quite a bit in the last few weeks.  I have been able to determine that the possibilities are nearly endless.  Once the decision is made to move out of our benefactor's living room, I should think the next most obvious venue would be someone's backyard.  If the backyard gets too crowded, I imagine that almost every community has at least one nearby City park with picnic tables that can be reserved, usually free of charge with advance notice.  If the park facility in question also contains a pavilion (for rainy Sundays), so much the better.  The only real caveat here is that we will need a few people - at least one with a pickup truck - to come by early and remove other users' trash and remain a bit afterward to gather up our own.  Once we outgrow the park, the options for indoor facilities are rarely limited beyond our own budgets.  I am unaware of a town that doesn't contain a number of vacant commercial facilities suitable for our purposes, as well as any number of corporate and fraternal organizations with meeting space for rent.  As stated by Snyder, I would strongly prefer to see a church rent a garage or storefront at a rate of a few thousand dollars per month than invest millions of dollars in land, facilities and upkeep on a structure that will only be used for a few hours per week.

    But what is to be done in our worship services?  How do we worship?  Following the New Testament model, it seems that the worship service should run approximately two hours, the second of which is to be dedicated to the Agape or Love Feast.  This meal is described in Jude 1:12 and is mentioned in I Chor. 11:17-34.  Extrascripturally, it is mentioned in the writings of Ignatius, Pliny the Younger, Hippolytus, and Tertullian.  As for form, it follows what we would now call a "pot luck," with each family or individual contributing "according to his ability."  In the earliest congregations, the Agape Feast doubled as the Eucharist, but there is another point here as well; the Agape Feast is an excellent teaching aid for the church.  We began our look at Snyder by stating that the church's primary mission is to the poor and that we need not develop programs for the poor out there, but that we need to invite the poor in here with us.  I believe the comment made was that any congregation in which less than 50% of the total population lives below the poverty level simply isn't doing its job.  Well, if this is true, then the Agape Feast is an excellent opportunity for our wealthier members to learn how to "give till it hurts."  While I don't believe anything need be said aloud to the church, I think it is obvious to all that the Agape Feast is likely our poorer members' only chance for a decent meal this week, and our wealthier members must be encouraged to provide food accordingly.  "From each according to his ability to each according to his need."  Take that, Karl Marx!  Of course, as Paul notes in the Corinthian letter cited above, there must be no hint of competition or pretentiousness about the meal.  It is, after all, the Love Feast.

     Prior to the meal is the worship service proper.  Once again, I should think that roughly an hour should be about right as a courtesy to our congregants' schedules.  But what do we do for an hour?  Perusing Acts and the Epistles, we find that the first-century church's worship was marked, in addition to the breaking of bread, by prayer, singing, and Scripture reading, elements still used in worship services today with one notable exception:  nowhere do we read about preaching within the worship service, whereas in modern churches, preaching is the centerpiece of our services.

    There is one caveat to be understood regarding preaching, though.  We must remember that for the first 20 or so years of its life, the Christian Church was conducted among Jews, and the elements of worship very nearly resembled the elements of a traditional Jewish synagogue Shabbat service with which they would have been familiar.  In this service, there is no sermon, per se, but after a member of the congregation has selected and read aloud a passage of Scripture, the rabbi would take a few minutes to respond to any questions the congregants may have regarding that passage.  In later Christianity, this Q&A evolved into the minister preparing a 20 minute (or longer) sermon from a passage of his/her choosing.  While this may be more efficient, it has been the basis of everything we have thus far cited as wrong with the current church and doesn't allow for the koinonia that is supposedly paramount for the gathering.  In this model, we'll have no sermons.

(1) Prayer.  If we follow descriptions of worship found in Acts, prayer, not sermons, was the main ingredient of the worship service in the first century.  These appear to have taken two forms - individual prayers and liturgical prayers.  That is to say that, while time was allowed for individuals to bring matters before the assemblage for specific prayer, there were also "common" prayers recited from memory just as today we might recite the Lord's Prayer or send our children to bed with a memorized bedtime prayer.  I believe there is still room for both types of prayer if we allow some spontaneity in our worship services, although I would provide for one warning: if a member of the congregation routinely asks prayer for "our nation" or "the suffering of the world" or the like, it may become incumbent upon an elder to privately suggest that said member return to the concepts of Impermanence, Suffering and Emptiness in his/her daily meditations.

    Whenever we do this type of prayer in Western Protestant churches, there is usually an appeal by the pastor for people to mention their prayer requests.  After a few minutes of "open mic" exchange, the pastor then launches into a prepared prayer - probably from a common prayer book - and tacks a statement onto the end to the effect of "Lord, we pray for all these individuals mentioned here today, as well as all others suffering around the world.  Amen."  This seems to me to be the least effective way to address the concerns of the congregation.  It seems to me far more effective for us as a congregation, as each member mentions a concern, to stop and all pray about that right then before moving on.  "That would take too long!"  Only if (a) our congregations are too big, and (b) we haven't done our jobs in the small group prayer and meditation times, in which we have taught our people to rethink and renounce their worldly concerns.  Rethinking and renouncing is the very definition of the word "repent," which happens to be the first recorded word uttered by Jesus when he began his ministry in Capernaum (Matt 4:13).

(2) Singing.  Singing in the first century church seems to have taken two forms as well: the recitation of familiar psalms and the (probably) antiphonal singing of other familiar songs of praise.  It's hard for us to remember today, but Psalms is actually a song book, and it contains songs for all kinds of occasions including jingles, lamentations, travel and work songs.  A careful look at the notes that accompany each psalm will often tell the reader such details about the song as its purpose, its vocalization and, not infrequently, a statement such as "sung to the tune of..."  There are several websites today that set a number of psalms to modern melodies and they prove intriguing to peruse.

    In addition to the psalms, there are, of course, 2000 years worth of other songs that can be used in the worship service, and I don't really see any reason to select or omit any of them with the following two provisos: (1) the song should be familiar to all so that everyone may participate.  Listening to music can be ecstatic, but singing oneself can be euphoric. (2) I don't have any preferences regarding instrumentation beyond saying "keep it simple."  If it takes 30 minutes prior to the service to load in the band's instruments, if we need lasers, rain lights and fog machines to sing our hymns, if we're blaring the church at 100+ decibels, or if we have to rent a room with 200 amps on three-phase to get everything plugged in, we have definitely gone well beyond the point of overkill.  I have no issues with singing a capella, but if we need instrumental accompaniment, it seems to me that an acoustic guitar, a set of bongos and/or an electric piano should get the job done.

(3) Reading Scripture.  We've already committed to weekly Bible Study, so this seems to me to be the least timely part of the service.  As for form, I really like the idea of using the synagogal system by which a congregant or special guest is invited to select and read a passage from Scripture and then either that person or a trusted elder expounds on the Scripture using the Question-and-Answer method.  This will bespeak three things about our worship service in general.

    (a) The purpose of the Scripture reading - indeed, the purpose of the entire service - is edification, exaltation and illumination, not self-presentation.  As always, no pomposity allowed.  This, too, should have been dealt with long ago in our small group meditations.

    (b) I once had a seminary professor start the semester with this admonishment: "In this class, we will accept two ideas as being beyond question: that the average adult has an 8- to 12-minute attention span, and that God doesn't make mistakes.  Our first extrapolation, then, is that if your sermon lasts 13 minutes or more, they aren't God's words.  God's point can always be made in 8 to 12 minutes."  I think this is a pretty good rule.

    (c) Understanding our form of worship also addresses our furniture layout.  The best way to arrange the furniture is either in a circle or horseshoe with the worship leader of the moment standing in the center so that everyone can see not only the leader but one another as well. And I say furniture.  Except in cases of physical impairment, I see no particular reason why the church needs to invest in tables and chairs.  The congregants could conceivably bring cushions, throw pillows or Pilates mats from home and sit on the floor.  As for food service, practically everyone owns a folding card table.  Set up a few of these, serve the feast buffet-style and eat on the floor, just as they would have done in the first century, once again contingent upon the physical constraints of the individual parishioners (old and/or infirm people, such as myself, have trouble getting on and off the floor). 

    So, what does our worship service end up looking like?  One idea is below:

Announcements and Business                       5-10 minutes

Quiet Meditation                                           5-10 minutes

First Hymn                                                    3-5 minutes

Congregational Prayers                                15-20 minutes

Scripture Reading                                         10-15 minutes

Common Prayer                                            5-10 minutes

Second Hymn                                               3-5 minutes

Blessing of Food                                          about 2 minutes

Agape Feast                                                 45-60 minutes

Blessing of Dismissal                                  about a minute

    This schedule comes out to a total worship time of 94-138 minutes, or roughly two hours, with some wriggle room for spontaneity.  Once again, with respect to our congregants' time, this seems about right.  It doesn't, however, allow any time for conducting the business of missions or training.  These will need to be handled separately, either in separate session or perhaps in group chats online.  Some experimentation will be needed to determine the best way to handle this, although they must not be neglected as they are also primary functions of the church.

    Just as the small groups grow by division, so should these larger groups.  Once regular attendance has reached a predetermined number, somewhere between 50-100, it will be time to split the group and find a second set of digs for worship.  This growth by division can continue indefinitely.

    Next up, we'll get into some of the nitty-gritty stuff.  After that, we'll be done and I can go back to my own private meditations and, you, dear reader, can get back to whatever it is you do.

Pax