Hey Church family,
First off, I know I say this often, but I deeply, deeply love you guys. It is the privilege of a lifetime to have the responsibility of shepherding you guys, and it is a responsibility that both Mark and I take very, very seriously. So when something happens that can be confusing or even unsettling, it’s our responsibility to be sure that in everything we face we’re filtering our reactions through the Word of God. What He says is our ultimate authority, and that’s what we’re committed to operating by.
So I just want to let God and His Word speak into this moment, and to that end I want to point us to 1 Corinthians 14, where Paul gives specific instructions to the Corinthian church on the proper way to conduct public, or corporate, worship.
__________________________________________________________
First, we see that what happens in a corporate setting should build up the church:
Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church. (verse 12, emphasis mine)
Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. (verse 26, emphasis mine)
For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. (verse 31, emphasis mine)
Second, we see that God desires clarity, not confusion, in a public gathering:
Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes? Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? (verses 7-8, emphasis mine)
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. (verse 33, emphasis mine)
But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. (verse 40, emphasis mine)
Third, Paul firmly rebukes anything that, in the name of freedom, fails to build up the church or is distracting to unbelievers- and that even the personal freedom of believers in worship is subject to those ends:
So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified. (verses 15-17, emphasis mine)
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. (verses 39-40, emphasis mine)
Fourth, we see that, in a corporate worship setting, even personal expression of worship must serve the end goal of either encouraging believers or clearly pointing unbelievers to the Gospel. In fact, personal expression or even gifting is sacrificed in a corporate setting for the sake of clarity:
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. (verses 18-19, emphasis mine)
So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?… If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God. ( verse 23 and 28, emphasis mine)
Fifth, we see that the proper exercise of any spiritual gifting or any expression of worship is one that is under spiritual authority- even if the individual actor is also one in authority:
The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. (verse 32, emphasis mine).
__________________________________________________________
To sum up: even though we do personally and individually worship Jesus when we come together in a corporate setting, our individual worship is not about us as individuals. In fact, it’s never about us! It is about being a part of Jesus’ mission- the building up of His Church- and our actions are commanded by Scripture to facilitate that purpose and to take a backseat when they might not.
By the same token: When the Holy Spirit shows up and there is a move of God in a corporate gathering, here’s what is always going to be true: there will be clarity, not confusion. The church will be built up as believers are edified and lost people are drawn to faith in Christ. Personal preferences take a back seat, and everything is done in a genuine spirit of humility and mutual submission to each other under the authority of the Lord Jesus.
Which brings me to the crucial point of the whole matter: when the Holy Spirit moves, He always, 100% of the time, draws attention to Christ and Christ alone. Look at what Jesus says in John 15:26.
“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.” (emphasis mine)
A move of God always results in Jesus being glorified; attention is drawn to Jesus, His glory, His majesty, and His power. The Holy Spirit does not draw the attention of people to other people- even very gifted ones.
It was with all that in mind that Pastor Mark gently asked the lady in worship today if she would join him and worship in the hall. She was not asked to leave. She was not rebuked. She was not condemned. However, given our context and our culture, it was our concern that her actions would create confusion. We were likewise concerned, given our context and culture, that her actions would draw attention not to what the Lord wanted to do in people’s hearts in the moment, but to her expression of worship. We did not assume her motives, and we did not judge her intentions. Pastor Mark at no point asked her to leave; he simply invited her to worship in the hallway at that moment, and that was the wise and biblical call.
Does that mean we don’t want people to have freedom in worship? My goodness, no! I love hearing the voices of our church body in song. I love when people “talk back to me” with an “Amen!” when I preach- I wish it would happen more often! I love when people raise their hands, clap their hands, and shout for joy to the Lord. After all, we’ve got more to celebrate than anyone in the world because Jesus is alive and the tomb is empty, our sins have been forgiven and in Christ we have eternal life!
At the same time, Paul gives this command in 1 Corinthians 14:20:
“Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. in your thinking be adults.”
In context, Paul’s point to the Corinthian church, and to the Church of God in general, is this: it is immature to approach corporate worship with an attitude of unrestrained freedom. Freedom in worship is not a free for all in worship. Mature thinking in worship takes into account what is appropriate in the moment, given the purpose of the gathering of the church (the building up of believers and the salvation of the lost) and the context that gathering is taking place in.
_________________________________________
So when evaluating any action that takes place in a public, corporate setting, here are a few helpful questions based on the texts above.
Question #1- Does this action create clarity or does it create confusion?
Anything that creates confusion is not Spirit-led. That doesn’t mean the actor has malicious motives, but it does mean that, regardless of intention, when the effect is confusion it is not Spirit-led.
Question #2- Does this action build up the body of Christ?
Are the believers present encouraged? Inspired to follow Jesus closely? Moved to confess sin? Drawn closer together in unity?
Or…are they unsettled? Caught off guard? Startled? Frightened? Is the effect a greater sense of freedom…or a sense of tension, apprehension, and uncertainty? Are believers brought together to storm the gates of hell together…or are they now divided and taking sides?
It doesn’t matter what I may have the freedom to do- the most important thing is the effect it has on others. Paul even points this out:
“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak… When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.” (1 Corinthians 9:10,12-13, emphasis mine)
Put in modern terms: if Paul was sharing the Gospel with a vegetarian over dinner, he wouldn’t order a rib-eye smothered in cracked black pepper and grilled to a perfect medium rare to the glory of God!
Actions within the church that result in people taking sides, the introduction of uncertainty, tension, fear, and feelings of being unsettled into a gathering are not actions led by the Holy Spirit. So even if we are free to do such things, we humbly abstain when the practical effect is not building up the body of Christ.
Question #3- Does this action fit the context?
Context matters! Since corporate worship isn’t about me and happens in the setting around me, what I do- if it’s going to build up the body of Christ, has to fit.
For example: I’m a hand-raiser in worship. That doesn’t give me bonus points with God, it is simply how I express myself in worship to the Lord.
However- if I were to visit a very traditional church where that wasn’t present, it would actually be sinful for me to raise my hands in worship in that setting. Why? Because it would not remotely fit the context. It would make me stand out like a sore thumb. And it would particularly fail questions number four and five below.
Question #4- Is this action under authority or going over authority?
The ground at the foot of the cross is level. There is no doubt about that. And yet, at the same time, God has established authority in various areas to govern His world. He has established rulers of nations, states, and cities- the civil authority. And He has also established spiritual authority: namely, elders (pastors) to lead the church.
That means Spirit-led actions will honor Spirit-established authority. Spirit-led actions always have a posture of humility that comes under spiritual authority- and proper spiritual authority, by the way, has a mutual posture of humility that accepts accountability!
Actions that are not Spirit-led buck against Spirit-established authority and any form of accountability, and not only that, Individuals that are not Spirit-led will inevitably seek to undermine the leadership of a church and- don’t miss this- will often seek to plant seeds of doubt regarding church authority and their motives in the minds of others on its way out the door- just like Satan planted doubts regarding the motives of God in Adam’s and Eve’s heart.
Put another way: when someone isn’t being led by the Spirit, they aren’t content to agree to disagree and go elsewhere. They always try to undermine the authority of the church present and take others with them out the door, just like the devil wasn’t content to be cast away from God’s presence forever, but to take with him God’s creation: people.
Put more bluntly: the posture of the Holy Spirit is always humility and submission. The posture of the enemy is always pride and rebellion. Which leads me to the final question…
Question #5- Who does this really draw attention to?
Psalm 115:1 puts it clearly:
“Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.”
Again guys, this is the matter on which the entire conversation turns: who do our actions turn the attention of other people to? Does it turn their eyes to Jesus? Does it move them to worship Him? Does it inspire them to live for His glory and be a light to the world around us? Does it move unbelievers to ask “I don’t know what you have, but I want that!”
Or does it draw attention squarely to us? Does it move the attention of other people towards God’s glory…or our own?
Now, there’s a tension there! After all, Jesus tells us to let our light shine before people…but why?
So they can see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).
Put another way: a Spirit-led person through whom the Spirit is working is going to, most likely, garner some level, and perhaps even a great level, of attention. But that person, if they are led by the Spirit, is always going to be sure the attention that comes to them passes through them to its proper destination: our Heavenly Father.
And a Spirit-led person also understands that actions which confuse, fail to build up the church, do not fit the context, and undermine authority literally cannot draw attention to Jesus because they contradict the character of Jesus.
__________________________________________________________
So I want to humbly invite each of you who attended today or watched online to pause, take some time, and ask the Lord to filter through these questions from your perspective. But don’t stop there: ask the Lord to help you see these questions from someone else’s perspective.
For me, here’s how I’m filtering what we do as a church:
I’m thinking about the teenage girl who desperately wants to live a life that honors God and impacts others in her school for Christ. What can we do to encourage and inspire her towards that end?
I’m thinking about the family that just started gathering with the church and is trying to figure out what all this is about to start with. How do I preach in a way that clearly lays out the truth of God’s Word?
I’m thinking about the single mom who is brand new in their walk with Jesus and still isn’t really sure who to trust. How do we create an environment that facilitates trust within the family of God
I’m thinking about the young man who is trying to figure out if he can really belong to God’s family. What does it look like to create a place that he knows he can belong in?
I’m thinking about the man who is 50-plus who wants his latter years to deeply impact his family. How can we equip him to do that?
I’m thinking about the 7th grade boy who knows the answers because he was raised in it, but who also secretly, even though he knows he should like church, can’t really stand it and desperately wishes he could actually understand and follow along, that the fog and the confusion could be stripped away, and someone would communicate the Bible to him in a way that wasn’t mystical, over-his-head, and sounded like a lecture designed for a college classroom.
__________________________________________________________
I think about that 7th grade boy because that was me. And the only reason I’m here today is because someone cared enough about someone like me to create an environment where the Bible and what it means to follow Jesus went from confusing to crystal clear. And it was out of that environment that I repented of my sin and trusted Jesus to save me, and because of that my passion is to create that kind of environment for others: one that gives everyone opportunities to follow Jesus and become disciple-makers who live for God, love all people, and lead others to do the same!
That’s our mission, y’all. That’s what I’m giving my life to. And it’s what I’m asking each of you to join me in, and to refuse to allow anything get in the way of that mission because eternity is too long and hell is way too hot to be sidetracked by other matters.
I love you guys. It is a privilege to shepherd you. And by God’s grace I’ll do it faithfully as long as He will have me do so.
The BEST is yet to come!
Pastor Dillon