Yesterday’s post on people not going to church anymore has started a lot of discussion both here and around the folks I know off the page. One of the more interesting talking points I’ve run up against are the number of people who say that going to church actually has put them farther away from God.
I’m so torn as to how to even ask this question, because quite frankly I think that too many of us are looking to church as a What Have You Done For ME Lately? activity. Unless churchgoing leaves you with the warm fuzzies, people think less of it. Honestly, church is supposed to be about worshipping the Creator, not entertaining the creation. You’ve got TV, books, movies, music…thousands of options for amusing yourself. When you go to church you are supposed to be focusing on honouring God through bringing God your gift of worship. So I’m really not very concerned at all if the act of going to church isn’t jazzy enough to suit you.
But this one thing does concern me greatly, and that is the question of Joy. True abiding joy is one of the hallmarks of devoted worship of God. It may be amidst pain, sadness, grief or trial…but it is there. How could real worship not lead to joy, as we contemplate the gifts of grace and eternal communion and give praise and glory to the God who gave those gifts so abundantly?
Yet so many people I speak with do not leave a church service with gladness in their hearts (beyond the gladness of having the whole thing over for another week.) Why is that?
Part of me thinks that maybe it’s because the way we structure church services hasn’t really changed much in the last hundred and fifty years. Sure there’s a marked difference in music style–but that’s not the essence of the thing. Communal worship is getting up early on a Sunday morning, going across town to sit in a pew, sing songs someone else has picked, listen to a sermon/message/homily, shake a few hands and try to beat the rush to the closest restaurants. Nothing in the recipe really says “turn your focus on God.”
So how could we change communal worship to really bring our best hearts to God? Any ideas?
Just Another Pretty Farce 
Hey Katherine,
Great questions. I would suggest that we look first at ourselves and our own intentions when going to worship. And we should look at the intentions of our pastors and other leaders as well. Is the Gospel being preached, is grace offered, is the Christian life lived out?
All that said, I would agree that the structure of services is often modernistic, consumeristic, and not the best vessel for the Good News. To find a better way, I would suggest looking back past the last few hundred years to the ancient ways. A church of Word and Sacrament, such as an Anglican church like ours, takes the focus further off of ourselves and our personal tastes and more on Christ. That is just what I have found, but I’m looking forward to what others think as well.
Father Thomas McKenzie
http://www.RedeemerNashville.net
I wondered the same thing, and left the church for a while. I grew up in a tradition where worship seemed like work with no transcendent experience of God. But other traditions whose churches I visited seemed to be too much like entertainment without worship, or fellowship with that pesky service getting in the way.
For me, the answer was what Fr. McKenzie said. Liturgical worship taught me how to worship God. Word and Sacrament. It brought to me a joy that I never experienced before. I don’t think that’s the answer for everyone, but it was for me and for many I know who felt the same way.