What is the Purpose of Church Services

[bookslover]

I read a review of this book: True Worship: What is the Nature of True Christian Worship? by Vaughan Roberts (Milton Keynes: Authentic Lifestyle, 2002).

Per the review, one of the book's main ideas is that Christians do NOT go to church to worship. Per the book's author, the purpose of church services is edification (1 Corinthians 14.26) and encouragement (Hebrews 10.24-25). And the author includes these two quotations:

The remarkable fact is that Christian meetings are not said to take place specifically to worship God, and the language of worship is not used as a means of referring to them or describing them. To sum up what goes on in a Christian meeting as being specifically for the purpose of "worship" is without New Testament precedent. - F. F. Bruce

Christian meetings are for the benefit of the congregation and so indirectly for the glory of God. - I. Howard Marshall (my emphasis)

The reviewer does not give the original sources for these quotations.

So, is this a thing now - that Christians get together to edify and encourage each other, but not to worship God, at least not directly?

Any opinions?

 

[bookslover]

F. F. Bruce was a lifelong member of the Plymouth Brethren. I wonder if that had anything to do with his attitude about what worship services were actually for?

From the Reformed point of view, it doesn't make much sense to say that the saints in heaven are worshipping but the saints on earth aren't!

 

[earl40]

I keep a quote now and then and this came to mind from our own Pastor Bruce...."The people are supposed to come to the SERVICE. Whose service are we talking about? GOD'S. Yes, that's right, as a matter of fact, it IS all about coming to church and get get get get get. Receive Receive Receive Receive Receive. That is EXACTLY what salvation is all about. It is the job of THE Ministry to GIVE to the people in the pews, on behalf of God.That the people respond dialogically (by speaking back to God) is perfectly reasonable. But that is the WORSHIP aspect of the "worship/service." Perhaps we would be better instructed by calling it a Service/worship."

 

[VictorBravo]

F. F. Bruce was a lifelong member of the Plymouth Brethren. I wonder if that had anything to do with his attitude about what worship services were actually for?

We were with Plymouth Brethren early in our Christian lives. The central focus of every Lord's Day gathering was "to remember the Lord." It centered around the Lord's Supper. I can't think of it as anything other than worship.

Other things would go on, like "speaking meetings" (preaching), "prayer meetings" (an hour set aside for prayer) and "reading meetings" (reading and discussing Scripture). But observing the Lord's supper after singing hymns and spiritual songs and prayer was central to every Lord's Day.

 

[earl40]

F. F. Bruce was a lifelong member of the Plymouth Brethren. I wonder if that had anything to do with his attitude about what worship services were actually for?

From the Reformed point of view, it doesn't make much sense to say that the saints in heaven are worshipping but the saints on earth aren't!

The saint's in heaven are experiencing something far better than we do here on earth. They see what we do not (Jesus) though in a sense we do by faith.

 

[Cymro]

Yes, it is true the saints in heaven experience a higher communion that
we on earth, and they worship, but do they see Him if their bodies are
turning to dust? The spirits of just men therefore must have (what Owen or was it
Edwards held), an intellectual spiritual perception of Christ, above what we similarly
experience with the agency of faith. As we by the senses of the soul see Christ.taste Him,
hear Him, smell His garments, and haply feel after him, so those above enjoy the person of Christ
above our measure because their spirits are made perfect. To enjoy Christ is to worship,and to
return praise and adoration.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Pretty much consistent with my (quoted above) expression elsewhere, I don't see how one separates answering the 1) divine summons from 2) reception and 3) worship.

Heb.12:28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,​

Heb.12:22ff, "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem..." makes it abundantly clear that the reference point of this whole passage is the Christian Assembly.

Often, in our Invocation, I acknowledge His call to worship, and ask God to make his people receptive to whatever He is pleased to give; and that He would receive from His people whatever He is pleased to require.

 

[MW]

Any opinions?

"Edification" is construction language. What is being built up? According to Eph. 2:21, believers are being built up into a temple: "In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord." One wonders to what use a temple will serve if it is not for worship. Surely it is a profanation of the temple to make it serve some purpose other than the worship of the one true and living God who claims it as His own. Surely when the Lord places His name in this temple it ought to be the first priority to hallow His name, to seek His kingdom, and to do His will.

To what degree has the neglect of the Psalms opened the door to the concept that God is not to be worshipped in His temple?

 

[KMK]

To what degree has the neglect of the Psalms opened the door to the concept that God is not to be worshipped in His temple?

It might also have something to do with misconceptions about the priesthood of believers.

 

[Rev. Todd Ruddell]

The words translated for worship in our English Bibles tell us that worship is "to the knee" that is, we humbly present ourselves before the Lord, and that it is a service of liturgy--that is, God-ordained services done unto Him and received through the mediation of Christ. The Lord requires us to come forth and serve Him--that is why we call it a service. The OT terms as well speak of humility, and service. The people of God come forth from their homes to gather in Covenant to serve the Lord. The Lord, for His part, does not simply receive those services. His grace also includes more than a reception of us into His presence, and a receiving of our service, He also builds us up in the faith by those very services we offer to Him.

 

[earl40]

To what degree has the neglect of the Psalms opened the door to the concept that God is not to be worshipped in His temple?

I can tell you one thing it has done to me now that I have come to the conclusion of EP. It has made me as good as a man that has no tongue every Sunday while I attend the worship service.