A Continuum of Worship

There must, then, be a continuum of worship. There are many stories of individuals being silent with God. Elijah, on Mount Carmel, made a point of contrasting his quiet prayer with the frenzy of the priests of Baal. “Come near to me,” he said to the people (I Kings 18:30). He calmly made his request of God, and it was granted. Later, after he had been fed and rested by the angel, he was treated to a display of thundering awe in the form of a mighty wind, an earthquake, and a fire, “but the Lord was not in” any of them. When he heard the “still, small voice,” or the “sound of gentle blowing,” he “wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave” 19:12. And God spoke to him. David speaks often of meditating alone on his bed at night. Jesus took great pains to find or make time to be alone with God, even foregoing sleep for the privilege.

Most of the time in the Bible, silence seems to refer to individuals alone with God, but in Acts 15:12 the “multitude” (KJV) of elders and apostles at the Jerusalem council were silent, listening to Paul and Barnabas relating the wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. It seems silence is a natural human reaction when new things are being learned, convictions are stirring, and the mind is processing. Silence is the respectful way of listening in many of our societies, although there are also many with a custom of nodding, murmuring, or exclaiming assent, and people from those societies feel anxious and worry that they are not being heard if others listen silently to them.

A little further up the continuum is the quiet conversation between friends: a staple of evangelism. Jesus sat on the rooftop with Nicodemus in the dark and talked to him of heavenly things. (John 3) Paul and Silas sang all night in the stocks, and then told the jailer the story of salvation. (Acts 16:22-34) God was in the earthquake that time, by the way.

Further still up the continuum, we have corporate worship which, in the Bible at least, is nearly always noisy. The Israelites, in particular, tended to make what would seem to our ears to be a cacophony of jubilee at worship. When the ark was brought back home after it had been in Philistia, In 2 Sam. 6:14, 15, there was shouting, trumpet-playing, and dancing. David got excited enough to disgust his wife, who was rebuked by God for her attitude. In 2 Chronicles 5:11-14, when Solomon dedicated the new temple, there were a crowd of singers, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, plus 120 priests blowing trumpets, as well as “other instruments of music,” over which the singers “were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord.” In 2 Chronicles 20, the people are instructed to go out to battle in a whole new (and very strange) formation. No cavalry followed by infantry followed by archers here. No, the temple singers and musicians went ahead, and “sang their enemies to death.” Could we do that with some of our demonic enemies?

In Ezra 3:10-13, the people are so excited that the new temple foundation is laid that they praise God with shouting and trumpets. But some of the old ones who remembered Solomon’s temple were overcome by grief, as well. Here’s how Ezra describes the scene: “Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away.”

Do we ever have church services, dedications, or ceremonies where people can hear us from “far away” and don’t know if we’re happy or unhappy? Would we consider that a good thing if it did happen? Even in heaven, we are treated to a description in Rev. 4 of trumpet sounds, thunder and lightning, and the unending calling of “Holy, holy, holy” around the throne of God. The early church in Acts sang and praised God in the temple together. But there were also times in the synagogues and the early churches which were for Bible reading and discussion, or later, reading and discussing the letters sent by Peter, Paul, or other apostles.

All of these things are acts of worship. And all are essential to the Christian walk. Shelly, in our opening anecdote, knew that all of life ought to be an act of worship for a Christian. But she also felt a deep need for a corporate experience of worship that included her overwhelming emotions of joy, gratitude, and love for her Savior. Yet the older members of her congregation felt a need, just as deep, for the quiet, reverent services of their childhood. How can we reconcile these conflicting needs? We could begin by reminding ourselves that none of these worship methods is wrong, according to the Word of God. That worship and praise are to be given from each individual heart in ways as individual as the fingerprint of the worshipper. Ellen White writes:

“We are witnesses for God as we reveal in ourselves the working of a power that is divine. Every individual has a life distinct from all others, and an experience differing essentially from theirs. God desires that our praise shall ascend to Him, marked by our own individuality. These precious acknowledgments to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christ-like life, have an irresistible power that works for the salvation of souls.” (White, p 347)

Our personal testimony, our personal form of praise, can be an outreach tool no one else possesses. We can worship privately or in small groups or in any way that our hearts want to show their true, deep feelings for the God of our salvation. When it comes to corporate worship, things get more complex. Some churches have two or more worship services. Others mix and match, which only works if the advocates of each different form of worship respect the forms of the others. There will be no one up front, for instance, insisting (smilingly or not) that if you really love God, you’ll be “on your feet!” Or implying that you are stodgy and unworshipful if you don’t clap. There will be no one frowning or rolling their eyes over the drums or electric guitars. If a congregation is spiritually mature enough to be truly respectful from the heart in regards to each one’s wishes, or even if most of the congregation is that mature and can help the others to grow, this will work, and all sides will learn from each other and find new and wonderful ways to praise God.

And if the congregation is not that mature, if they are still attached to and invested in certain forms of worship as “the only right way,” the problem is far deeper than which songs to sing or how many times to repeat the chorus. This congregation can be helped in only one way; there must be serious and long-term prayer for unity of the Spirit.