Spiritual Discipline of Worship

Shelly was a young mother new to Adventism but experienced in Christianity. She had made friends with Ann, a lifelong Adventist perhaps fifteen years older, so she was comfortable asking Ann some uncomfortable questions.

“I was so excited to find this church! Joe and I had studied, and knew the seventh day was God’s Sabbath, but we were just trying to keep it at home. When we went looking for a church that kept the seventh day, we didn’t mind driving an hour to get to this one. We love the people, and the sermons are so deep! We’re learning a lot. But there’s one thing we just don’t understand. Why don’t they worship?”

Ann was startled. “Why don’t we worship? We do worship! We worship God at home every day, and then we come to church for corporate worship, singing and praying together. . .”

Shelly waved her hands. “I know, I know, all of life is an act of worship to a real Christian, but I mean, why don’t they worship?” It took some questioning and listening before Ann discovered that Shelly had heard the phrase “worship and praise songs” for so many years that she literally defined “worship” as singing a certain kind of song, standing, raising or waving hands, perhaps closing the eyes sometimes, or even crying. She accepted that there were many forms of worship, and God accepted them all, but this, and this only, was real worship. She was so excited about God and His truths herself that she simply couldn’t grasp why anyone who felt as strongly as she did could sit or stand quietly, singing “old hymns.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I love some of those old hymns, too! But they’re about God, not to Him. They’re not really worship or praise.” Ann did her best to broaden Shelly’s horizons, to explain that the church members were singing to God, that many of the hymns are, in fact, addressed to Him and that to some people those hymns were just as deeply-felt an experience, but not all people liked to show their emotions so openly in public. That worship styles differ, but they’re all worship. She wasn’t sure Shelly really believed her.

Mary, an older woman in the church, came to Ann, too. “Why can’t that young new family get a worshipful attitude? I try to be patient, telling myself that God is working with them, and when they are more experienced in their spiritual walk, they’ll learn. But they’re so emotional! We are told to stay away from emotional displays! Can’t you talk to them?”

Ann talked and listened to all sides. She encouraged the pastor as best she could when he wanted to start a “praise team” and put Shelly in charge of it. Ann liked the singing, but wasn’t particularly fond of standing so long. But she did it.

This story doesn’t have a happy ending. After Ann moved away, she learned that the church drove out the new pastor who had doubled the attendance, got rid of the praise team, and went back to worshiping God in the only way they believed was reverent. The new people left. The members were saddened, but not surprised. They had suspected all along that the new conversions were only skin-deep. Every Sabbath they pray that God will fill the pews of their sanctuary.

Who decides what worship is? Is it right to make the older members of a congregation uncomfortable in an effort to encourage and keep the younger? Is it right to make the younger members uncomfortable in an effort to please the older? Do we need entire congregations with different styles of worship so that all may find a style they like and worship with others who feel the same?