I long to lead a church alive to the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Thus, I must think biblically and carefully about the ways in which life comes to God’s people. If God’s word doesn’t guide the way I will be lost in the weeds of worldly wisdom. This is a ministry matter where pragmatism must be banished like the mosquitos currently haunting my front yard.

When pragmatism bites you just want to scratch it all the more.

What to Call Our Worship

We live in a time where many an evangelical church prefers to speak about their worship gathering as a worship “experience.” Now, I’m fine with the etymological import of “experience” in gathered worship. I do believe gathered worship should be “an event which has affected one” with the God who reigns over all. The great apostle himself speaks about longing to come to Corinth so the church would have a “second experience of grace” (2 Cor. 1:15). We must experience grace by being made alive to grace. If we pastors don’t pray with a Jacobian wrestling spirit for our congregations to have an experiential encounter with the Triune God each week . . . well, that sound you hear just may be Spirit calling you to repent, or calling for your pastoral credentials. Living churches are those consistently experiencing the power and pleasure of life in Christ.

Thus, I am all for experience! You hear what’s coming, right? The often-necessary conjunction must now make its appearance.

A Devilish Deception

But I must confess that something nags my soul about evangelicalism’s employment of “experience.” It’s not that many a church prefers the noun, but how many a church tries to bring it to fruition. In other words, the question for pastors is not, “Should I call my church’s gathered worship an experience, but, “How do I lead my church to experience the Risen Christ each week?” The more I read, watch, and participate in worship “experiences” the more I’m convinced that we are in danger of latching onto a fiendish lie, which says, “Experiencing the glory of God comes through performance and personality.”

I’m not saying most pastors or churches would say it with those words; that’s the fiendish nature of it all. Yet, actions reveal the heart. Walk into your average thriving church today and tell me you don’t see performance and personality saturating the service. Big bands, big sets, and big sounds provide the orchestral backdrop for the worship of God’s people. The preacher ascends to the sacred desk and what confronts the congregation is not first a man of reverential holiness, but one with the look of chic and the sound of cool. From his lips pours forth more language of this world than the Other World. Squeeze out the many churches’ philosophical pursuit of experience and what you get is performance and personality.

Now, I hear the accusation rising, “Stone, you are just making generalizations. You can do better.” Yes, I am and I could, but I still think it’s ok. As I’ve often heard Doug Wilson say, “Jesus was a generalizer.” He loved to lump all the Pharisees together in pronouncing woe upon their soul, yet not every Pharisee was a hypocrite. Some Pharisees repented and trusted in Christ. Generalizations then help further particular points.

And the point of great concern I have is that by pursuing (however consciously or unconsciously) performance and personality we’ve actually fallen into a pit. We’re trying to fuel Christian experience with little more than spiritual sriracha powder—we burn for a bit and then everything returns to normal. And what we don’t realize is that the burn leaves a callous and so we simply need more and more heat in order to ever feel the experience again.

Brothers, there must be a better way.

A Better—More Biblical?—Way

We thus come back to the initial concern, what does God’s word tell us should bring life to God’s people? Well, quite simply, “God’s word.” With undeniable clarity the Bible says the Bible gives life.

• “My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!” (Ps. 119:25)
• “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.” (Ps. 119:37)
• “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.” (Ps. 119:50)
• “I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.” (Ps. 119:93)
• “I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your word!” (Ps. 119:107)
• “Plead my cause and redeem me; give me life according to your promise!” (Ps. 119:154)
• “Great is your mercy, O Lord; give me life according to your rules.” (Ps. 119:156)

So, life comes through God’s word. The written word is all about The Incarnate Word, who is—say it with me now, “The way, the truth, and the life.” This Lord of Life sent His Life-Giving Spirit to bring life through the written word, which communicates life. The same Word that created life from dead bones in Ezekiel 37 is still in the bone rattling business. May the bones of your congregation shake with life this weekend.

I trust I need not tarry longer here. And all God’s people said, “Amen.”

A Proposal

Here then is my proposal for a way out of the performance and personality pit: permeate your worship gathering with an experience of God through His word. Let your people be washed with the water of the word. Let visitors be amazed at how loudly and frequently God’s speaks in the service. Let the Spirit do His ordinary work of exalting the Extraordinary Christ through God’s word.

If you’re looking for an idea of what this might look like I offer up my church’s liturgy not as a perfect example, but an example nonetheless:

• We begin with a “call to worship.” God gets the first word. He is the Alpha.
• After the first song we have a confession of sin and prayer of praise. This prayer is usually little more than a stream of inspired verses or a psalm.
• We sing two more songs, chosen in part for their very Scripturalness. Any time there is any sort of instrumental during a song God’s word will usually be on the screen. For example, this Saturday we hope to sing Boswell and Bleeker’s “In My Place.” During the intro, before we sing, “In my place He stood condemned / He who knew no sin,” 2 Corinthians 5:21 will be on the screen: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
• After our third song a church member stands to read a passage of Scripture that complements the sermon text. This week we hope to read Hebrews 11:17-19 since we are studying Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 21.
• I will lead in a 5-7 minute pastoral prayer. I spend time beforehand writing down any relevant Bible verses for each petition. We try to pray the word in addition to singing it and reading it.
• We have another song while the offering (which we like to speak of as “supporting the word”) goes around.
• Next comes the sermon and song of response after our study of God’s word.
• We then take the Lord’s Supper, God’s visible word to us. I lead into the self-examination time by reading a particular passage of Scripture, usually one that stems from the text we just studied.
• We end with a benediction from Scripture. God gets the last word. He is the Omega.

Quite literally, there are hundreds of different ways you can saturate your service with Scripture. However you do it, my plea is that of Nike, “Just do it.”

Related Reading: A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship by Michael Horton, Reverberation: How God’s Word Brings Light, Freedom, and Action to God’s People by Jonathan Leeman.