A New Way of “Going to Church”
( A “Mashup” Discussion)
. Mashup: “A distinct way of spreading ideas. “ A “marriage” or
“mashup” of ideas from two different realms to convey a new
message.
Conventionally .going to church. conveys the image of individuals or families
going to a .church building. or stucture of some sort. For .large. churches of
200, 2000, or 20,000 this usually involves a substantial investment in a .building..
This common meeting place provides a forum for an accomplished .pulpit
minister. to share his thoughts with a large audience. In our U.S. culture for
Protestant .church. the .formal. worship service is accompanied by .Sunday
School. or .Bible Classes. for both children and adults. Furhermore, .going to
church. communicates a given .order of worship. for both Protestant and
Catholic members The meeting together has functioned historically to provide
the social interaction and relationship needs of the members—both youth and
adults.
In our technological age, it is now possible to .connect. large groups together
seamlessly without their being colocated in a common structure. It is also true
that .social networks. provide opportunities for relationship encounters not
previously possible.
This discussion is about the .mashup. of the conventional ideas about .going to
church. when .mashed. with current technology and social networking. What
can .going to church. look like when these ideas are married? In order to set the
basis for this discussion some background is in order on the forms that have
developed for .going to church., what is possible technologically, and the
massive change social networking is having on our society. Moreover, what
does the bible have to say about these ideas?
The focus of this discussion initially is on how the present forms of church have
evolved to set the stage for a discussion of how other forms may be developed.
If we start with the necessary function and accept that form should follow function
not precede it, then an entirely new form and definition of .going to church. may
result. Additionally, the very term of .going to chuch. comes from a confusion of
.the church. with a meeting in a building. But, the function of .church. and
.worship. should start with theological concepts
There were four stages of in the development of .where. early Christians met
. Houses without modification
. The domus ecclesiae or "house of the church," with its adaptation and
renovation of the house church, from the mid-third century
. The aura ecclesiae, or "church hall," "larger, more regular halls of
assembly" which had "a direct community with the domus ecclesiae;
public buildings
. The monumental basilica, which came into being after Constantine's
accession and the "peace of the Church" early in the fourth century.
(White, Michael. 1996. Social Origins of Christian Architecture. Volume I: Building
God's House in the Roman World: Trinity Press )
The first known instance of a modification of a structure specifically for .church‘ is
found in the Reconstructed Interior of Dura-Europos, 256 C.E. in Syria where a
baptistry was added to a house. (Synder, Graydon F. 2003. "Ante Pacem:
Archaeological Evidence of Church Life before Constantine. " Macon, Ga:
Mercer University Press). Shortly after becoming emperor of the Roman empire
in 324 C.E,Constantine built St. Peters, St. Paul‘s ,The Church of the Holy
Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the Church of the Nativity In Bethlehem, and 9 churches
in Rome. The .church building. has evolved from the Roman bascilica to the
form used today for .going to church. The evolution was as follows:
. Use of an altar (Roman) –adapted from pagan temples
. Use of bishops chair behind altar for sermon and chair for elders
(Roman)
. Use of pulpits or stage (Cyprian 200-252 .pulpitum. or stage)
. Introduction of .pews. in fourteen century
. Concert style church building ( auditorium) with Communion table,
stage, and pulpit –19th Century.
. Cancel Style church building: rail separates choir and clergy from laity
(Viola, George, 2008. "Pagan Christianity-Exploring the Roots of our Christian
Practices", Tyndale Press.)
There are two other historical forms used in .church. that have also evolved: 1)
the emphasis on a particular .order of worship. and .preaching. in that order and
2) the emphasis on a separate .bible class. or Sunday school.
The protestant .order of worship. is descended from the medieval Catholic Mass
as shaped by Gregory the Great (540-604 C.E.) The medieval Mass was .based
partly on the Judaic Temple service, partly on Greek mystery rituals of
purification, vicarious sacrifice, and participation” (Durant, Will. 1944. .The Story
of Civilization: Caesar and Christ. NY: Simon and Schuster p. 599). Martin
Luther solidified .preaching. as the center of the worship service because he
believed .preaching and teaching is the most important part... The .order of
worship. has become variations on that in Luther‘s time. The order of worship
for Luther was: (Viola, Ibid):
• Singing
• Prayer
• Sermon
• Admonition to the people
• Lord‘s Supper
• Singing
• Post-Communion Prayer
• Benediction
Zwingli (1484-1581) abolished the alter and replaced it with the communion table
(Hardman. .History of Christian Worship., 161; Sean. .Christian Liturgy, 162).
John Calvin continued the emphasis on the sermon and led it from behind the
pulpit. A .somber, reverent attitude. was adopted and emphasized by Martin
Burcer (1491-1551). The order of worship was as follows:
• Prayer
• Confession
• Singing
• Prayer for enlightenment of Spirit in preaching Sermon
• Collection of Alms
• General prayer
• Communion
• Benediction:
Formal preaching became even more prominent during Puritan times. They
adhered to the principle “The Word of God as the Supreme liturgical criterion”.
A Puritan might hear15000 hours of sermons in his lifetime . Their order of
worship was:
. Call to worship
. Opening prayer
. Scripture
. Singing
. Prayer
. Sermon
. Prayer
During the Methodist and Frontier revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries
preaching became entirely for convesion. Their .order of worship. was as follows:
Order of Public Worship (1905)
. Hymn
. Apostles Creed
. Prayer
. Lord‘s Prayer
. Anthem
. Old Testament Lesson Gloria Patri
. New Testament Lesson
. Notices
. Offering
. Hymn
. Sermon
. Invitation .to come to Christ…‘
. with singing of hymn.
George Finney (1792-1878) believed the assembly was for evangelism and
popularized .coming forward.. D.L. Moody (1837-1899) emphasized .salvation.,
an invitation song, and use of .gospel. songs. Penecostals emphasized
emotions with clappling, the type of music, lifting of hands, and dancing.
(White, James F. 1989. .Protestant Worship. Louisville: Westminster Press)
The form developed during the Restoration Movement in the churches of Christ
was that below (or minor modifications of this form):
. Announcements
. Three songs
. Prayer
. Song Before Lord‘s Supper
. Lord‘s Supper
. Giving
. Sermon
. Invitation Song
. Closing Song
. Closing Prayer
What may we conclude about .going to church. from the above brief history of
the use of buildings and the .order of worship.? First, the building form
influenced what happened when members gathered for worship. Second, the
form and emphasis of .formal worship. services has changed significantly over
the years. Preaching became prominent. The Lord‘s Supper was eliminated in
most Protestant services except on special occasions.
Turning to another aspect of .going to church., how did we develop the current
form of .making disciples.. The invention of the printing press occurred in 1450
C.E. With the Protestant Reformation the bible also began to be translated into
common languages ( the handwritten EnglishWycliff translation in 1380; the
German translation of Martin Luther in 1523; the first printed English edition by
Tyndale in 1525) That said, since the average person did not have the bible until
after 1450 C.E. , how did they become disciples? In biblical times it is apparent
that .preaching and teaching. for the unchurched occurred where those that did
not know Christ gathered. Paul preached the gospel in the Jewish synagoge and
where Gentiles gathered in the marketplace as well as the AREOPAGUS. (Acts
17). There are two distinct processes in discipleship. The first is accepting Christ
as as Lord and Savior. The second is what in current times has been called
Spiritual Formation. .In Christian Spiritual Formation the focus is on Jesus. It is a
life-long process as a believer desires to become a disciple of Jesus and become
more like him.. (Wikipedia). In the first and seond centuries .Every church was
then a seminary, in which provision and preparation was made. .In the New
Testament no other equipping and nurturing is offered other than the local
church. ( Ibid, Viola).
After the first and second centuries, who did this .equipping and nurthing.? In the
Episcopal period of the 3rd to the 5th centuries the training of bishops and priests
began to conduct the rituals of the church under other bishops. Formal academic
training began in the 6th century.
Greek philosophy had a large influence on the early church fathers. Justin
Martyr (100-165) dressed like philosopher and believed Greek philosophy was
God‘s revelation to Greeks like Moses to Gentiles. Origen (184-254) was
influenced by Neo-platonic thought. He thought you need to pass through stages
of purification to obtain oneness with God. .Within a century and half after
Christianity and philosophy first came into contact, the ideas and methods of
philosophy had flowed in such a mass into Christianity, and filled such a large
place in it, as to have made no less a philosophy than a religion.
(Hatch. .Influence of Greek Ideas and Usage).
The training of those who were to teach others continued in the monastic and
scholastic periods. In the monastic period of the 4th century missionaries were
sent all over the world. The only formal training available before the 12th century
were the monastic and cathedral schools. The scholastic schools were
prominent from 1200-1500 C.E. The first Protestent college in the U.S., Harvard,
was established in 1638 C.E. Both catholic and Protestant were established in
the 1500-1800‘s with .Bible Colleges. becoming prevalent after 1800 C.E.
Franklin College was the first church of Christ College and was established in
Tenn. In 1845 C.E.
.Sunday School. as an additional to .church. began in Gloucester England in
1780 for the poor. The .Sunday School Society. in Philidelphia operated in 1785
as education for the poor to get them .off the streets.. There was a shift to
evangelism in 1810-1880 with Arthur Fluke. The 1900-1950‘s began the
emphasis on the .youth culture.. In 1945 .Youth for Christ‘ was formed and the
1950‘s saw the formation of professional .youth ministers.. The first church of
Christ Youth minister was hired in 1948 by the Oak Cliff Church of Christ in
Dallas, TX. The 1800‘s+- also saw an emphais on adult .bible knowledge. in the
churches of Christ.
What may we conclude from the above discussion of the forms of .making
disciples.? Discipleship has evolved from the teaching of the unchurched ( those
that do no know Christ as Savior) where they gathered to in many cases
attracting them to the Christian worship service. The spiritual formation of
converts has evolved from being the obligation of existing members in a
congregation to that provided by those professionally trained in seminies,
colleges or universities or is seemingly limited to the rational acquistion of bible
knowledge in bible classes.
Let us turn now to our present day and examine what forms might be available in
our society. What for example, is availble if a professionally trained speaker,
executive, or manager wishes to speak to a large assembly? Technology has
eliminated the requirement that the speaker be in colocated in the same large
facility in order to speak to the group. The Internet has made available
seamless interconnection of large groups of individuals. Individuals can be
connected via voice, video, text, documentation, and .white board. where what is
written or displayed by a speaker is available to all.
There is both synchronous and asynchronous connectivity available. In
synchronous connectivity individuals are connected in real time. In
asynchronous connectivity individuals may .post. information ( video, speech, or
text) for all to access at the time of their choosing.
Some of the current Internet providers of the above capability are as follows (only
a partial listing to illustrate capability):
Individual to individual Video, voice, or text:
. Skype
. Windows Live Messenger
. Google Chat
. Yahoo Chat
E-Learning/Learning Management System/CorporatePrograms:
. Blackboard (Learn, Transact, Connect, Mobile) www.blackboard.com
. Moodle (free open source e-learning platform) www.moodle.org
. Distance2Learn www.desire2learn.com
Social Networking (In the U.S):
. Facebook
. Twitter
In 2009 SKYPE had 270 million monthly users according to its CEO. IN 2009
Window live messenger had over 330 million active users (with 500 million
Hotmail and Messenger users) Moodle had 45,721 registered sites in Jan 2010
serving 32 million users in 3 million courses. The number of registered sites for
Blackboard is hard to determine. Most souces credit Moodle with more sites and
Blackboard close behind. In 2012 Facebook passed the 1 billion mark.
Twitter had 500 million users in June 2012.
The above listings serve to show that .being connected. nor .having a class. or
=listening to a presentation. does not require the individuals to be co-located at the
same physical location. With this in mind, are there different forms of .going to
church., .attending bible class., or .listening to a sermon. possible without the
member physical presence in a .building..
Before beginning the .mashup. of this new technological age ( as well as the
postmodern cultural attributes compared to modern worldviews) it is appropriate
to discuss the theological imperative of what we conventionally think of as
.church. and .worship. in a formal setting. What functions are defined in the New
Testament and what .forms. were used then?
Of the 44 times the term .worship. is used in the New Testament none specify
particular orders or elements of worship. The Old Testaments had very specific
elements and requirements as specified by Heb 9:1: .Now the first covenant had
regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary…. 16 .This is the covenant
I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their
hearts, and I will write them on their minds.. 17 Then he adds: .Their sins and
lawless acts I will remember no more.. Jesus says of the .place. of worship in
John 21:23 .Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the
Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in
truth.. These scriptures indicate the change from an emphasis on place to that of
the individual heart.
Fundamentally, the driving thelogical principle is to .make disciples.. What then
are the practical theological imperatives when Christians meet together for
.worship.? They can be summarized as follows:
. Central Importance of Edification: Paul e.g. I Cor. 14
. Exhortation, comfort, admonition of one another: I Thess. 4:18;5:11, 14;
Eph 4:15
. Thanksgiving, prayer and praise
. Meeting as God‘s Holy Temple (I Cor 6:19-20) to recall
God‘s promises and to encourage one another to live their lives
accordingly. (II Cor. 7:1)
. Building the church: Eph. 4:14-16
. Preparing to meet the Lord: Col. 1:28-29
. Partaking of the Lord‘s Supper –not a private affair I Cor. 11
If the above are the theological imperative when Christians meet together what
are the functional examples we have to implement these theological principles.
Since we do not have a specific order of worship defined in the New Testament
we can examine what New Testament Christian actually did;
Examples from I Cor. 8-14
. Observance of the Lord‘s Supper: I Cor. 11:23-26
. Prayer, Singing, Saying .Amen.: I Cor. 14:13-17
. .Everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or
an interpretation.: I Cor. 14:26
. Prophecy: I Cor. 14:29
Other examples:
. Prayers: Acts 1:14; 2:42; 4:3-31
. Probably Doxologies e.g Rom. 11:36
. Singing: Col 3:16; Eph 5:19
. Prophecy and teaching: Acts 2:1-21;8:14-17; Eph 2:20;3:5
. Public reading of scripture and preaching: I Tim. 4:13; I Thess. 5:27
. Eucharist (eucharistia—thanksgiving)or Lord‘s Supper: Acts 20:7
. Meals: Jude 12
The above are examples of what was typically done when the members came
together, where did these meetings occur? Here is a partial listing:
. Temple courts and homes Acts 20:7
. Solomon‘s Colonnade Acts 5:12
. .Upper room. Acts 1:12-15
. House of Mary Acts 12:12
. House of Priscilla and Aquila (Rome)I Cor 16:19
. House of Archippas (Colossae)Philemon 1-2
. House of Nympha (Laodicea) Col 4:15
. House of Lydia (Acts 16:14-15
. Jason‘s House (Philippi) Acts 17:1-9
. House of Titus Justus( Corinth) Acts 18:1-8
. House in Troas (Acts 20:7-12)
When did the Christians meet together?
. Acts 2:46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.
. Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread.
Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day,
kept on talking until midnight.
. Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread.
Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day,
kept on talking until midnight.
. Heb. 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit
of doing,
. Rev. 1:10 On the Lord‘s Day
Some observations are in order.
1) There is no clear set .pattern. or order of worship of what is done when
the members gathered together.
2) They met consistently on the first day of the week but certainly meet at
other times.
3) The primary meeting place of Christians were the homes of members
4) Though preaching, teaching, prayers, and singing occurred, the two
primary activities were partaking of the Lord's Supper and "encouraging
and building one another up" ( also see all of the "one another" passages)
5) It is apparent meals were a fundamental part of their gatherings.
So..... with the observations on: a) how "going to church" has developed over
the centuries b) the theological reasons for "the assembly" and c) the technology
that is available today, what does this mashup of today's culture and technology
say about rethinking "going to church"?
First, it is apparent that small groups of Christians could easily meet in homes for
a meal, the Lord's Supper, prayers for the members, singing, and
encouragement. This would "mirror" first century practices much closer than our
building forms allow today. Second, if it is desired that a "trained" minister
provide a significant lesson, this can be done over the Internet. It could be done
"live" with the minister ( who provides this service to all the groups) at the same
time (i.e. synchronously) or "on demand ( asynchronously) as each member of
the small groups have time. This minister could also function to give leadership
training to all small group leaders. He could also provide direction for spiritual
formation and discipleship. Interactive " Bible Classes" could be provided either
synchronously or asynchronously. All of this could be linked to Facebook and
Twitter if desired.
What is also apparent is each small group could: a) more easily choose other additional meeting times b) a discipling relationship among small group members is more easily established c) more interaction as well as Spiritual accountability is more easily done and d) the "pulpit minister" needs more teaching, group dynamics and relationship skills, and disciplining skills than polished "public speaking" skills"
This reordering of priorities allows Christians in the small groups to be more truly
"missional" and incarnational than a building focused ministry.
What about the American cultural need for "church" to be at a building? This
could be accommodated by leasing a space for all groups to attend on say a
monthly basis. This eliminates one of the major expenses and limitations for
evangelism.
It is my belief that the focus of "going to church" that is centered around a
building has severely distorted what "the assembly" is all about. It has also
encouraged members to think that "going to church" is the primary function of
Christianity about. It has lead to divisions and disputes ---cite the "worship wars'
that are still occurring. It has let "form" dictate the functions that are used in the
assembly. It has lead to "passive members" with just a few members really
participating actively in the assembly. With our technology, we can still retain
the functions of the trained minister or bible teacher without the expense and
constraints imposed by our buildings.
What do you think?