The Missing Elements of Modern Worship

I once paid a visit to one of the most mega of America’s megachurches. It’s a church whose pastor is well-known, a church known for its innovation, a church held up as a model for modern evangelicalism. I went in with as open a mind as I could muster. I left perplexed. I was perplexed not by what was said or done in the service as much as what was left unsaid and undone.

Since that visit I’ve had the opportunity to attend many more churches and, as often as not, they have been similar, missing a lot of the elements that used to be hallmarks of Christian worship. Here are some of the missing elements of modern worship. Read More

Tim Challies originally posted this article in 2016 and I posted it on Anglicans Ablaze in 2016. 5 years later the situation has not changed for the better. It may have worsened. What passes as "contemporary worship" is lacking in the key elements of corporate worship. The band worships after which a pastor gives an inspirational talk. However, we choose to spin it, that is not corporate worship. The members of the congregation are merely spectators.

Corporate worship involves the whole body of Christ, Christ's gathered people, not a band and a preacher. In corporate worship all who are present are active participants unless they are prevented from active participation by some disability. 

In corporate worship the purpose of hymns and songs is to honor God, to proclaim God's mighty deeds, and  to build up each other's faith, not to prepare the congregation to hear a talk. In corporate worship the hymns and songs are accessible to the congregation and the members of the congregation, not a band or a choir, are the principal performers of the hymns and songs and the primary audience is God. The members of the congregation can hear each other singing and can unite their voices into one voice. 

In corporate worship Scripture is read because it too is a proclamation of God's mighty deeds and a declaration of his excellencies. 

Prayers are offered out of concern and sympathy for our fellow human beings, not only as an expression of our love for our neighbors but also as an affirmation of our faith in a loving and gracious God who cares for us and protects us. 

Bread and wine are shared in remembrance of Jesus' suffering and death and his rising to new life and in thanksgiving for the grace shown us not only in those acts but also in the Lord's Supper itself and in our daily lives. 

Corporate worship conveys to the members of the congregation that their presence and participation is important. They will be missed if they absent themselves on Sunday morning.