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Losing the Biblical Focus

Some churches have lost their focus by designing their worship services for the very people, unbelievers, who are incapable of worshipping God. While no one would question these churches’ concern for lost people, their zeal for “winning souls” has replaced their zeal for the one thing that will outlast every other ministry—even evangelism—namely, worship of God. Other churches have lost their focus by building “miniature kingdoms” where Christians huddle to escape the “evil” influence found in public schools, athletic facilities, and other secular institutions. Every Christian is “safe” from the world’s influence but at the same time poorly equipped to be the salt and light Christians have been called to be. There is a need for more biblically based churches that will keep the “Greatest Commandment” the “greatest.”

As evident in the following quote, Robert Reymond (A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith) also stressed the priority of worship.

To worship God—that is the primary reason why the Christian should go to church. In today’s church climate this is a radical idea. Nevertheless, Christians should go to church, not to evangelize, not to provide a comfortable “consumer-friendly” setting for the unchurched, not even primarily for the benefit which fellowship with other Christians provides, and definitely not just for lectures and devotionals, but in order to worship God. Christians should also understand that evangelism and the missionary task are not the most important tasks the church has.

Such efforts exist among the nations, as John Piper argues in his Let the Nations Be Glad, only because worship of the true God among them does not! . . .

Anyone who will take the time to study the matter will have to conclude that worship in evangelical churches in this generation is, speaking generally, approaching bankruptcy. There is neither rhyme nor reason, much less biblical warrant, for the order of and much that goes on in many evangelical church services today. The fact of the matter is, much evangelical “worship” is simply not true worship at all.

For decades now evangelical churches have been conducting their services for the sake of unbelievers. Both the revivalistic service of a previous generation and the “seeker service” of today are shaped by the same concern—appeal to the unchurched. Not surprisingly, in neither case does much that might be called worship by Christians occur. As a result, many evangelicals who have been sitting for years in such worship services are finding their souls drying up, and they have begun to long for something else.

Accordingly, they have become vulnerable to the appeal of the mysterium of hierarchical liturgical services. This is why some today are “on the Canterbury trail” of defecting to Greek Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Others who have been simply spectators for years in their worship services are getting caught up in the people-involving worship of charismatic services. . . .