Whether or not a church is ‘traditional’ or ‘contemporary,’ there are certain things that we’ve grown comfortable with – possibly even dependent upon – in our worship gatherings.
Organ, piano, pews, powerpoint, pulpit, drums, guitars, lights, hymnals…
I personally have no problem with any of the above, but what if you found yourselves with none of them?
Surely we’d have to cancel ‘church’ for that week at least, right?
If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve made worship gatherings a lot more complicated then they were in the early church. I’m not convinced that this is ‘bad,’ but I am concerned that we might be too dependent on some of the things listed above.
Could your local congregation meet without anything on that list if need be?
Would they?
Dan Masshardt
Gee, I would hope that a church service would not depend on any of those things! Since the church is the people, not the building or its contents, a worship gatherhing could be held any time, any place, under any circumstances.
amen!
for 12 years our family attended a church that had only 5 of the above: piano (for 6 years we sang acapella due to lack of piano player!), pews, pulpit, lights and hymnals. it can be done…those things do not bring the Spirit of God to a gathering, we do : )
I just spent some time with my in-laws, and each morning we sang hymns (acapella) after breakfast. It was fun! I reminds me of times spent with the Parke family, too. It’s a common occurrence to sing songs before saying grace at our family gatherings. Anyway, I feel like that’s a taste of what “informal church” feels like. I also think of our house-church Bible study cell-group type events that most churches do. That’s perhaps the experience we’re talking about?
For large gatherings, perhaps none of the things you listed would be necessary, except an important one you didn’t list: A Microphone! (or perhaps a very well-crafted acoustic space)
On the other side of this issue: Is there ever a time when churches should be called toward *more* formal worship? Sometimes churches get *too* relaxed in their worship and forget the holiness of God in the process. Our (Presbyterian) church is a bit more formal, and I like it that way for a lot of reasons. And I recently visited a Russian orthodox church and their service was VERY formal–beautiful, and haunting. The whole service is chanted/sung, candles are lit, people are quiet and reflective. The orthodox church claims that they’re model is the one the early church used (based off of the Jewish synagogue, maybe?). I’m not sure to what extent that’s true, but there might be a discussion here.