Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Why Meet?
Why do we have "church services," Sunday morning or not, at all? I heard one concept I liked on Sunday, though I'm not sure I took it in the way it was meant. Is it necessary? Why move beyond the level of house church? What happens at large gatherings that is not replicated on a vastly smaller scale? I seek opinions from everyone - long, short, detailed, or general (though I admit to being biased in favor of long, detailed).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Aren't there historical reasons for it? Something like 'Jews went to the temple on the Sabbath, and Christians made a Sunday version of the 'assembly.''
Maybe it's an arbitrary construct, but if so that's fine - because it's functional for us. It lets us get together and worship, be taught, have fellowship. But I don't think there's anything mandatory about the date, time, place or architecture - so a home church seems perfectly good too. I just imagine a home church growing steadily and becoming a larger and larger organization and next thing you know you've got Saddleback.
I suppose one advantage to a slightly larger church is that it shows a Christian the extent to which they have a community, a real people group that they're involved with; whereas a house church must feel a bit more like you're in isolation from the world at large.
I go to church because I like it, and it's helpful to me at a lot of levels.
Yes, I mostly agree with what Kenny wrote, but I also have my own slant on it as well…
I tend to think of the Orthodox Church services as "temple worship" which is done primarily on the day of the week Christ rose from the dead, to commemorate the same, and to "do this in remembrance of Me." This temple worship is something I rely on to be going on forever, as a living icon of heavenly worship as described in the book of Revelation. I think also, that all Christians who truly believe in and follow Christ should consider joining in the temple worship of the Orthodox, in order to give glory to God and witness to the world that the Church is One, Holy, Universal, Apostolic and undivided. Beyond this temple worship, I think that every Christian (as defined above) should be free to fellowship, study, pray, witness and minister to each other and to the world, out of house churches, local service centers, etc.
I know this is all just my feeling and opinion, but I feel this way because I don't believe that modern evangelical Christianity knows what worship really is, and it would be well if evangelicals worshipped with the Orthodox. On the other hand, I don't believe that modern Orthodox Christianity has yet understood what a life of personal discipleship to Jesus really is, and so it would be well if Orthodox Christians began fellowshipping, praying and studying with their non-Orthodox neighbours, forming with them a bodily fellowship as is described by the scriptures as "a holy nation of priests and kings."
I guess for me, bottom line is, Orthodox worship is biblical and regular and should be open to everyone, and all other features of Christian life and discipleship should be engaged in on a local, decentralized basis.
I tried to get this idea across once in one of my blog posts, entitled "Not Post-Christian but Post-Church":
http://cost-of-discipleship.blogspot.com/2006/04/not-post-christian-but-post-church.html
In another place I also wrote, and I am sure many would challenge this thought, that the Church age is dead, but the churches haven't figured it out yet. By this saying, I don't mean that "Church is dead", but rather that institutional church is dead. It's by realizing and accepting that, that we can truly begin "being church where we are." Does this mean I would consider abandoning "temple worship" (that is, attending an Orthodox temple "synaxis" on a regular basis)? Of course not! In fact, I hold by the Word of God that we should "not stay away from the meetings of the community, but go more often" as we see the Day drawing near. But the other half of the equation is to live together and be related to each other in the Body of Christ so intentionally, consistently and seamlessly that we are indistinguishable from the church as described in Acts, chapter 2.
Hey, was this response long and detailed enough?
Romanos -
I'd be very interested to hear the case for why all believers should attend the Greek Orthodox Church.
I hope the way I said it doesn't and didn't come across denominationally, because that's NOT how I meant it.
The Body of Christ is, well, kind of a mystical reality. The Orthodox say that you usually can tell where it is but not always where it is not. This needs a lot of discernment. The Body of Christ, though, does "take up space on earth", as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says. It does become visible and tangible in the Orthodox Church (from a strict Orthodox viewpoint) and also in other Christian churches and ministries (from a liberal Orthodox viewpoint, folks like me, of course). Most Orthodox who think about such things fall into the liberal category, in practice if not always in speaking. This is because of a privilege we have inherited in Orthodoxy, of being trusted by the church leadership to practice "ikonomía", the ability to "make do". An example of this can be found in my blog post, The Freeing of Mickey Landry, where an Orthodox priest prayed over and anointed Mickey, a non-Orthodox Christian, even though canon law states that only Orthodox can partake of anointing. Father Kevin obeyed the Holy Spirit, who does not lie, and who gives authority to those who love the brethren. Another example is when I break my fast and eat meat with a non-Orthodox Christian brother on a Friday. The saying that covers this bit of ikonomía is "Love's bread is never flesh." In other words, food that is shared in fellowship is not subject to fasting rules.
Why am I saying all this? Hmm, well, I guess I'm leading to what I wanted to say about the Church.
I'm not saying every Christian should be Greek Orthodox. What I am trying to say is that Orthodox (not just Greek, but particularly American Orthodox) worship is an awesome divine-human interface that has been going on for at least 1000 years in the same way. Every church has a special gift from God which should be shared with the others. All of the Orthodox churches (all 19 of them!) have as their special gift in the Body of Christ, the gift of true worship. In fact that is what Orthodoxy means (Ortho = right, Dhoxa = glory), not "right thinking" as people imagine. All Christians should be able to worship in an Orthodox temple and experience the kind of worship "that God wants." I know this sounds weird to a Protestant ear, and I just read somewhere that God doesn't need our worship, etc., and therefore doesn't have a preference. I think He does, though, but it cannot be said that way as a dogmatic statement, it can only be experienced. Anyway, Orthodox worship belongs to all Christians and there's no comparison between "E Theia Liturgia" and ordinary, modern worship. I'm not saying one should supplant the other. But Orthodox worship would fill a lot of hearts that are not "getting it" in modern worship. This may sound chauvinistic, but I don't know how else to express it.
Back to my blog post The Freeing of Mickey Landry, towards the end is a description of how Orthodox worship helped heal this young man.
One more thing, even the Orthodox in, say, East Africa worship in the temple using the ancient rites, including the ancient songs, sung in Greek and Swahili. When they are praising God together and rejoicing OUTSIDE the temple worship, they sing "popular" Christian songs. They and we understand that worship takes a multitude of forms and God blesses us through them all, according to our faith.
But there is just something, I can't explain it, but the Word of God Himself manifests in our midst during the temple services as at no other time. You have to experience it for yourself.
Duh, are you still awake? I've got to go now and attend to domestic duties. Go with God, dear brother, and forgive me if I spit in your eye… I didn't mean to, and I know you know that!
Having personal experience with several house churches... They definitely have their faults and can be far more damaging to the individual should people run about without any accountability. There is more a demand for the individual to assemilate into a small group of people on a very personal level at a faster pace without knowing whether the small group is or is not trustworthy. "House churches" of Biblical times DID run amuck. Thus all the "to the church at blah blah, stop doing blah blah" letters in the Bible. Who would be "in charge" today?
I find house churches in America to be no more than a religious group comprised of those who are discontent with this or that congregation's worship style and a group bound with the belief that they could do better with less authority over them.
Could work, but mostly, I've seen a big mess.
and as above, small churches (if good) get big... and big churches (if good) generally have small groups of friends within them that people actually have things in common with and can grow with.
The last point is what we are trying to replicate. We have Big Church, meets on Sundays with an emphasis on worship. But we are STRONGLY emphasising smaller groups for learning, building relationships, etc.
We are affiliated with a denomination for authority and accountability beyond our own walls - but the emphasis (I hope) is not SUNDAY (oh and small groups too), but equally on both of those, and on being Christ in the world.
Our Mission Statement: (With what it means practically)
Connecting to God (Sunday worship)
Loving Each Other (Small Groups)
Serving the World (Service)
Long time, no comment. Hope life is going well.
That sounds awesome! The small groups in the time of old did have overseers... cool that the church as a whole can fufill that position while fostering the benefits of a small group setting.
I have tooooo many blogs!!!! Xanga, Myspace, Blogger, ugh... had to cut this one loose for my sanity.
Post a Comment