by Bryan D. Spinks
As members trickled in for the later service, folks greeted each other with either short, happy hugs or long and comforting embraces.A musician encouraged the members to join in the songs-accented by bongo drums and electric guitars-when the spirit filled them. A large screen projected the words, but many of the members knew the hymns by heart and instead closed their eyes in meditation. Young and old raised their hands and waved their palms upward, swaying and tapping their toes to the beat.
An energetic singer put a new spin on traditional hymns, singing 2,000-year-old teachings like they were Mariah Carey hits. The audience loved it.
Ushers race to the rescue of some members who have been overcome, and tissue boxes line the windowsills for those overwhelmed with emotion.
As he preaches, [the pastor’s] voice fluctuates between that of a mellow DJ introducing romantic tunes and a loud coach scolding his players for not living up to their potential.(1)
This summary in a local newspaper of a worship service at a new and growing independent evangelical church in Connecticut reflects an increasingly common trend across many Protestant denominations, as well as in other newly formed independent community churches. In some churches-Willow Creek (suburban Chicago) being the prime example-this is the normative Sunday worship; in others, it is one of a spectrum of worship-styles. (2) The sanctuary becomes a stage, the minister becomes the talk-show host, and the congregation becomes an audience. Furthermore, such worship styles seem increasingly to attract larger numbers. For pastors and congregations with static or falling rolls, and/or with rising financial burdens, a change to this style of worship is alluring. The dream of box office takings can tempt those with meager offerings in the alms dish. Yet before any congregation or pastor embarks upon this panacea, serious questions need to be asked about the purpose of worship and the nature of these services.
Until this time, worship in the Christian tradition-be it Orthodox, Catholic, or Reformation-has been the business of theecclesia, the qahal, the people of God. Indeed, in some of the earliest rites we possess, thanksgiving is made for “having been counted worthy to stand and minister before you.” Packed into those few words is the whole concept and experience of justification, of grace, of standing as fellow heirs of Christ (rather than prostrate as servants), and of being “in Christ” and thus being a Royal Priesthood which can offer the sacrifice of praise in, with, and through Christ, in the Holy Spirit.
Yet the very foundation of the evangelical seeker services is that worship is entertainment directed toward an audience, andan audience that is unchurched. One exponent of this new style of worship, Timothy Wright, explains:
When nonchurched people or marginal members from another church visit a congregation, they bring an entirely different agenda. As consumers, their expectations differ dramatically from those of believers. When irreligious people visit a congregation, they come asking, “What’s in it for me? How will this worship service make me feel? Will it help me meet my goals in life? Does it have anything relevant to say to me?”
Consumers come to worship with a unique set of values that is often at odds with the teachings of the church. By recognizing and responding to these values, however, congre-gations will more effectively reach new people. (3)
Amongst the values that Wright lists are innovation, instant gratification, short-term commitments, concern with the immediate present, intimacy, experience-orientation, and pragmatism. But his choice of “consumer” defines the make-up of the “audience.” Worship here is based on the world of the marketplace and the entertainment media. This entails identifying consumer needs. “Instead of driving guests away with unintelligible services, outreach-oriented churches turn to alternative worship experiences by designing and implementing innovative services that cater to the needs of their guests.” (4)This requires that “guests” are put at ease, and as far as possible religious language is excluded so that people may meet Jesus. Modern musical instruments, with a good sound system replace a cappella singing, or an organ with choir. An overhead projector replaces hymnal and prayer book. Microphones and a sophis-ticated sound system replace pulpit and lectern.
As new as the technology might be, the rationale for such services is older, and can be traced back at least as far as the early nineteenth century with the revivalist preachers such as Charles Finney (Presbyterian) and Samuel Schmucker (Lutheran). Finney’s concern with the unchurched was admirable, but in his writings he seems to suggest that the criterion is “whatever works.” The test for worship was not, “Is it traditional?”-or, in the case of his own denominational affiliation, “Is it scriptural?” Instead the test was its effectiveness in making converts.
The revival worship which he encouraged and developed consisted of three parts: the preliminaries, which were heavy on music of an emotional type; the sermon; and the harvest of converts, all drawn from theater and drama paradigms. Finney wrote:
Now, what is the design of the actor in theatrical representation? It is so to throw himself into the spirit and meaning of the writer, as to adopt his sentiments, and make them his own: to feel them, throw them out upon the audience as a living reality. Now, what is the objection to all this in preaching? The actor suits the action to the word, and the word to the action. His looks, his hands, his attitudes, and everything, are designed to express the full meaning of the writer. Now, this should be the aim of the preacher. And if by “theatrical” be meant the strongest possible representation of the sentiments expressed, then the more theatrical the sermon is, the better. (5)
Take Finney and add contemporary musical instruments, microphones, overhead screens, and the television talk-show host style, and we have contemporary evangelical worship. It is concerned primarily with entertaining and converting the individual in the audience, and much less so with the presence of God, or a worship which is directed toward God. Indeed, using the marketplace and media paradigms, a church can do whatever it takes to attract the audience, and use whatever means are successful.
The Proper Object of Worship
But are success and popularity appropriate criteria? No doubt in Old Testament times sacral prostitution was successful and popular, but that did not make it theologically appropriate. Likewise, as historians such as Eamon Duffy have shown, the medieval western religious cult was alive, flourishing, and popular, but the Reformers did not think it theologically appropriate. Many of the “seeker services” center on an evangelism which not only makes few demands on the worshipers as worshipers, but also makes few demands of any sort. The god mentioned in passing is frequently the deus ex machina who will crown each individual with success, with no mention of cross, tears, blood, and death. The Sacraments are bypassed, as being too full of strange “religiosity,” and thus the baptism of Jesus and the mandate given at the Last Supper become an unmentionable embarrassment. Whereas the Gospel is narrative, and places believers in a specific tradition of a chosen people, here the tradition becomes subservient to numerical growth. Whereas the tradition is about a people, a koinonia, the seeker services are about the individual. Though evangelism is important, nurture in communal worship is here sacrificed to a mission to affirm the human ego. The Sacraments from which the Church is born and nourished are dismissed. All this might just be tolerable if in such services the canon of Scripture was faithfully expounded. Sometimes it is. More often, however, preaching is topical and moralistic, and almost congratulates God that he did himself a favor by becoming human. Such services are often a modern version of the traders in the Temple-selling what people believe they need in order to make a quick profit.
Such a criticism should not be read as a condemnation of modern technology or modern methods of communication, or even experiments in contemporary worship. What is at stake here is the proper object of Christian worship. According to the Reformed theologian, J-J. Von Allmen, worship is not per se addressed to outsiders, and neither is it even specifically directed to the Church. Worship summons the Church together, making it visible, in order to glorify God. (6) And, as Calvin noted, “God, in vindicating his own right, first proclaims that he is a jealous God, and will be a stern avenger if he is confounded with any false god; and hereafter defines what due worship is….” (Institutes, 1.12.1). In his “The Necessity of Reforming the Church,” he elaborates:
Let us now see what is meant by the due worship of God [cultum Dei legitimum]. Its chief foundation is to acknowledge Him to be, as He is, the only source of all virtue, justice, holiness, wisdom, truth, power, goodness, mercy, life, and salvation; in accordance with this, to ascribe and render to Him the glory of all that is good, to seek all things in Him alone, and in every want to have recourse to Him alone. Hence arises prayer, hence praise and thanksgiving-these being attestations to the glory which we attribute to Him. This is that genuine sanctification of His name which he requires of us above all things. To this is united adoration, by which we manifest to Him the reverence due to his greatness and excellency, and to this ceremonies are subservient, as helps and instruments, in order that, in the performance of divine worship, the body may be exercised at the same time as the soul. Next after these comes self-abasement, when, renouncing the world and the flesh, we are transformed in the renewing of our mind, and living no longer to ourselves, submit to be ruled and actuated by Him. (7)
To put it bluntly, worship is about worshiping God and the Lamb (Rev. 5:6-14), and not about entertaining the sheep!

1 New Haven Register, Sunday April 11, 1999, B1 and B5.
2 For this distinction see Lester Ruth, “Lex Agendi, Lex Orandi: Toward an Understanding of Seeker Services as a New Kind of Liturgy,” Worship 70 (1996), 386-405.
3 Timothy Wright, A Community of Joy: How to Create Contemporary Worship (Nashville: Abingdon, 1994), 18-19.
4 Ibid., 54.
5 Charles Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion (New York: Fleming Revell, [1868]), 247.
6 J-J. von Allmen, Worship: Its Theology and Practice (New York: Oxford, 1965), 77. The opening words of the Larger Catechism of the Westminster Assembly: “Q. What is the chief and highest end of man? A. Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.”
7 ET in Tracts Relating to the Reformation (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1844), 1:126-27.

Adapted from article first posted at:
http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var1=ArtRead&var2=566&var3=main
First Baptist Church of Perryville is located across from the Principio Health Center on Rt. 40 in Perryville, MD.