Recently I had was blessed to discuss with some brothers the evangelistic power found in a church that truly worships. In recent decades, seeker-churches had “dumbed-down” their worship services to try to appeal to the world. They even used secular songs, skits and drama, stand-up comedians and so forth to try to communicate the gospel to non-believers who attended their Sunday worship.
The problems with such a worship service are numerous. For one, worship on the Lord’s Day should edify the saints not entertain the lost. Christians meet on the Lord’s Day to worship not to put on a show or “do” evangelism. Secondly, such tactics actually cloud the truth of the Gospel rather than effectively communicate it. “Worldly” worship services ultimately fail to communicate the transcendence and holiness of God, remove any message of “transformation” from the Gospel, and turn the church into a community just like the world rather than a community of faith.
But with that said, I truly believe that if we lead our churches into true biblical worship then the Gospel will be powerfully communicated to all unbelievers who are present in the congregation. There is nothing more redemptively powerful than a transcendent, holy God meeting with people. We should design our worship services to exalt God and edify His people. And while we worship we should be so gracious as to explain the elements of our worship that all who are in attendance may fully understand the Gospel in our worship. When God’s people worship sinners should be converted. Listen here to a short MP3 of D.A. Carson for further explanation.
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
Some things are reserved for believers, like the Lord’s Supper. But scripture teaches even that is a proclamation of the gospel.
I heard my pastor, John Piper, say something to the effect that Christians enjoy it when the world watches us as we come to the table. We aren’t ashamed of it, and we want others to see its significance.
Good post, Jason. You should talk to your worship leader about that kind of stuff.
Great Post.
Dave, you should change your avatar to that Gollum looking bug eyed photo you have.
Good post!
Mark
Jason
Thank you for the post. My pastor friend Morris Brooks and I used this posting as a springboard to a discussion about worship. You can listen to it at http://www.impactmidland.com. Impact Midland is a website where I post Psalm and Valley of Vision readings. Occasionally I conduct interviews and discussions. We are not a Jason, Scott and Gene quality of program but we do our best to glorify our Lord and impact our city with God’s word and sound theology. You can learn more about this project here.