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Has Church Attendance become an Idol for Christians? (A Guest Post by Kelly Youngblood)

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I was fascinated by an early version of this piece on Kelly’s blog last year. It’s something I’ve often privately thought, but rarely seen expressed so clearly. So happy to host Kelly Youngblood here to day.

worship

(photo credit: khrawlings)

 Often, the Sunday morning worship service is the Christian’s high point of the week.  It’s considered the most important part of the Christian life.  Church attendance is taken, because denominational headquarters like to see numbers.  A chapter in a book I recently read was about the Sunday morning worship service, as was an an article I also read recently.  This chapter and this article both had a similar feel to it–that the Sunday morning worship service is extremely important in the Christian life and most other events should not interfere with it.  One time, I even heard a sermon about how there is really no excuse for not going to church on Sunday mornings.

Here is a quotation from the book I mentioned.  I’m not listing the title/author because I think it is a good book, and don’t want anyone to think too negatively of it.  If you’d like to know the title, please contact me.   The author writes: “Though the form of worship is not the main focus, this does not mean form is unimportant.  Form matters.  There are basic elements of Christian worship that have been found useful in the development of our relationship with God and others.  Though not all Christian groups engage in all of these elements of worship, many groups use use some or all of these practices consistently in their gatherings.  We will look at each of these briefly in order to explain how they form us spiritually.  I will write the following as if I were writing to my son to explain why worship is worth it.” He then goes on to list and explain these different parts of a worship service:  Greeting; Confession and Forgiveness; Creeds, commandments and the Lord’s Prayer; Scripture and Sermon; Communion or the Lord’s Supper; Singing; Silence; Offering Gifts; Benediction or Sending Forth.

It seems somewhat hollow to me to put so much emphasis and importance on our typical Sunday morning church service, especially when I think of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.  20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”  21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.  24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  —John 4:19-24 
 
The Samaritan woman points out that two different groups of people have two ideas of the proper location for worship.  Jesus basically tells her it doesn’t really matter where people worship, because worship is not about location, but about those who will worship “in spirit and in truth”.

I am not sure why we call our Sunday morning meeting a “worship service”.  It’s redundant, really.  In Hebrew, the word that we translate as worship is avodah which also means “service”, as in, say, avodah zara, service to idols, or as we would put it, idol worship.  In Greek, the word for service is proskuneo which means worship; fall down and worship, kneel, bow low, fall at another’s feet.  How often do we actually fall down, or kneel, or bow low in a church service?  The last time I ever remember kneeling is when I grew up going to Catholic church.  Now, I am not saying we should necessarily rush to do these things, because to incorporate them for everyone would be to miss the point of Jesus’ message.

 
We should feel freedom in worship, and we should feel free to worship, to serve, as the Holy Spirit guides us.  It may be in a typical worship service.   It may be as you’re on a long drive.  It may be when you are helping out at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter or as you are bandaging a child’s scraped knee or wiping away her tears.  To only think of meeting in a particular place at a particular time with other particular people as worship is to miss Jesus’ point–and perhaps has become avodah zara, idolatry, itself.  Our entire lives should be worship.  And, quite honestly, that’s a lot harder than going to a service once a week.

And really, in a “worship service”, it often feels to me that we are not exactly serving God.  We are often serving ourselves.  The sermon is for us to hear, the songs are for us to sing and to make us feel good, even as we are singing them to God.  And while they should affect us as in how we serve God, sometimes, I think that gets a little bit lost.  We often feel unfulfilled if we don’t like the music or the sermon isn’t good–and the person sitting next to us could think and feel exactly the opposite.  Worship is not the same experience for each and every person.  And so, even though at times I feel a little guilty if I don’t attend church and get perfect attendance (first child perfectionist issue, probably), I really don’t mind missing it.  Sometimes, “church service” happens when we least expect it.

I’m not entirely sure what the answer is, because meeting together is important.  But we live in a flawed world and are flawed people, and so any attempt we make to “do church” the “right” way will end up being flawed, too.  And so, I’m going to continue looking for church and worship in the unusual places, because the Spirit is not bound by our rules.

Kelly Youngblood

Kelly Youngblood

Bio:  Kelly J. Youngblood is a writer who blogs regularly (except when she doesn’t) at Renewing Your Mind.  She likes to write about faith, life, doubt, and the Bible.  When she isn’t writing, she’s a stay-at-home mom of her two sons, ages 6 and 3, who are very rambunctious and wear her out on a daily basis.  In her spare time (ha!), she’s decided to start writing a novel in order to have an outlet for a more creative type of writing.  She has a B.A. in English Literature from the University of New Mexico and has worked in the restaurant industry, the legal field, in churches, and for non-profits.

Over to you: Thoughts? Do you agree with Kelly?