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Disputable Matters and Worship

13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. (Rom 14:13 ESV)

Many Christians have favorite verses in Romans.  One part of Romans we forget about is the significant chunk of verses spent on “disputable matters.”   Perhaps because many members of the Roman church came from Jewish backgrounds, the use and abuse of Christian freedom was an issue worth addressing.

One of the areas of intense conflict in the church has been worship.  While this has been a remarkably peaceful area of our ministry at GCC, that hasn’t always been the case.  In the past I’ve been a part of the worship wars, and sadly, at times I have been a worship warrior.  Because the worship of God is near and dear to our hearts, and it can become very personal when the practices of our past are demeaned by some other group, war can ensue.  I grew up in a traditional church, so I’ve always assumed they avoided the worship wars in those days.  Then I remember a story my father told about an older church leader telling him, “Don, don’t you know the worship department is the war department in every church?”

Still to this day I observe people arguing about THE best approach to worship God.  Some use their denominational heritage to argue that we all must use the same order of worship every week.  On the other side are people who find old practices of the church (confessions, readings, the Lord’s Prayer) as outdated and irrelevant for modern people.

There are some things in worship that are absolute.  Perhaps it goes beyond one blog post to cover them all.  Worship must be directed to the one true God.  Inserting prayers and practices of other faiths are off limits.  The words in the hymns and songs really matter.  Those of us on the contemporary end of the spectrum can easily be tempted by a well-crafted tune to use a worship song with weak or even erroneous lyrics.  The lyrics (no matter what the date of authorship is) must convey the faith we believe.  Hymns aren’t exempt from this scrutiny.  (I’m thinking of an old gospel hymn that would make the apostle Paul cringe.  The implication of it is that we owe God some good works for the cross.)

Having said that, so many of the disputes of the past have been about disputable matters - in other words, matters about which we are left much freedom. The Bible gives us great words and beliefs with which to fill our hymnbooks, but none of the tunes which were sung in the apostolic age survive.  We observe many aspects of worship in the Bible, but are given no definite order.  We instead are left with much freedom.  Wisdom dictates that we look at our church and our city and select musical styles that are most encouraging to the people we are and the people we are trying to reach for Christ.  If I am overseas in a culture with a very lively musical heritage, shipping in a portable organ and a hymnbook is not the best approach.  If I am in a city and reaching an audience with a great love for classical music, I should probably leave the red reverend electric guitar at home.

What do we do when conflict emerges?  I think we read 1 Corinthians 13 until we understand what it means to love one another.  I know of a church with a traditional worship heritage whose downfall began when the pastor forced new worship music into the church.  Years ago I got frequent Monday morning letters from a man who despised contemporary worship music.  I remember he criticized the lyrics of one song with very high-sounding words, only to be shown that the words came from Scripture.  He was a fish out of water, but because of his wrong-headed thinking about many things, could not find a church that was really home. That pastor didn’t love his church well by destroying it.  That man didn’t love his church well by demeaning the people leading it. As is often the case, love makes all the difference.

Thanks for hearing me out on this matter on my heart. I’d love to talk further with you if you have questions or thoughts to share.

In Him,

Don

Don Ward

Senior Pastor

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