Bad Reasons to Worship
Bad Reasons To Worship?
About 30% of Americans attend worship once a month. Though the dominant narrative in our culture is of religious decline, the truth is more complex. Worship attendance has at times been very high, but also at times been lower than it is presently. It also varies widely by region. It is influenced heavily by economics. Who can attend Sunday morning worship if you work at that time? Or if school events take place at that time?
Regular Sunday worship hasn’t always been seen as the critical marker of Christian faith, historically. In Eastern Orthodox and Catholic traditions periodic confession and participation in the eucharist is seen as important, but not necessarily weekly. In medieval times feasts and holidays took priority over weekly routines. Among some reformed and evangelical groups prayer meetings and house meetings were sometimes more important than public Sunday worship. In the Methodist tradition circuit riders didn’t always make it to far-spread churches every week.
Worship in the Hebrew Bible also varied. Even during periods of temple worship not everyone could or would go to temple every Sabbath. Worship was often done at home and often in the evening around a meal. Meanwhile, in the New Testament early Christians seemed to worship in private daily around an evening meal. It wasn’t until much later that public Sunday worship began to become the normal routine.
For all of our lives, though, worship has been seen as the main activity that defines a member of the Christian faith. So with this history in mind, this month and next I’m going to talk about some reasons to worship. Next month I’ll talk about some good reasons why we should go to worship. This time around let’s look at some bad reasons to worship:
To get saved. Some Christians believe that if you don’t say some particular words or show your faith in particular religious expressions (ie: read the bible, sing hymns, get baptized, take communion) then you’ll go to Hell. We do not believe that. Jesus never told anyone to say a prayer to get saved, and sitting in a pew on Sunday morning isn’t going to make God love you more (or less). Don’t go to worship to get saved.
To prove we’re good. This is perhaps more a stereotype of Christians by non-Christians than something Christians actually believe, but some people might think that going to worship is performative. That it’s about proving we’re holy or something. But no, going to worship doesn’t prove anything. People who worship and people who don’t are all capable of both kindness and cruelty.
To be entertained. Unfortunately, because the people who prepare and lead worship are often professionals it can lead to the mistaken impression that worship is like a play or a concert - something you passively receive and enjoy, rather than something we collectively do. Some churches promote this idea by putting a lot of money and energy into turning worship into a production - but worship is not for entertainment and you should not come to worship to be an audience member, but instead to be a participant.
This article is only one half of the story. I hope you’ll forgive me the cliffhanger and check in next month for the GOOD reasons why we worship. Although, I bet you can come up with some more good and bad reasons on your own…