Editor’s Note: Julian is a layman who has taught Sunday School in various Southern Baptist churches for the past 20 years. He has blogged at his personal site, Ridgetop Reflections, for 2 years.
“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. … You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.” (Romans 14:1, 10 NIV)
Several years ago, my wife and I were visiting a church whose worship style and dress code were quite different than that to which we were accustomed. At that time, I typically wore a coat and tie when attending Sunday morning worship.
As I looked around the congregation that morning, not a tie was to be seen. The music portion of the service was much more “contemporary” than the “traditional” early service I was comfortable with at my own church.
All of these things were distracting enough on their own. But when a young man and his wife sat down in front of us, the first thing I noticed was the baseball cap on his head, the Dallas Cowboys shirt he was wearing, and the sandals on his feet. When the pastor began his message, this young man appeared to be totally uninterested in what was being said, pulling out an electronic device to do something else …. Or so I thought!
As I craned my neck to see what was so important to him on that tablet, he was highlighting the passage we were studying on his electronic version of the Bible and recording notes from the pastor’s comments. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit convicted me of allowing the distraction of a disputable matter like proper dress keep me from hearing what God was speaking to my heart, while this young man was completely engaged.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul addresses a church that had experienced some major disruptions in its church culture. Predominantly, the church at Rome was composed of Gentile believers at the time of Paul’s writing. But after the reign of Claudius, who had expelled all Jews from Rome, (Acts 18:2) Jewish believers began to return.
Most of the New Testament churches began with Jewish believers. As the Gentiles began to join those churches, a major problem that Paul had to address was the influence of Judaizers – former Jewish leaders who insisted that Gentile believers follow many of the requirements of the Jewish law. This led to a major council at Jerusalem as described in Acts 15 to determine what, if any, those requirements would be.
The church at Rome had the opposite problem. As Jewish believers began to filter back into the church there, they were often met with contempt by the Gentiles because they were still clinging to many of those Jewish practices. For these Jewish believers, it was most likely a matter of comfort with the culture of their “traditional” worship practices. But the Gentiles viewed it as evidence of their “weak faith.”
Paul is careful not to condemn the cultural leanings of either group. He instead encourages both groups to be more accepting of each other, saying “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification.” (Romans 14:17-19 NIV)
Today he might add that the kingdom of God is also not a matter of dress code, musical preference, preferred Bible translation, or the manner in which we access that translation.
Christians of my generation often stubbornly resist the evolution of worship styles being driven by the preferences of the younger generations. We tend to gravitate to our comfort zones, separating ourselves from those generations with our “traditional” services versus their “contemporary” services.
By doing so, I wonder if we’re not repeating the mistake of the Romans. Are we focusing too much on disputable matters and thereby disrupting the unity of the Body of Christ? Are we depriving ourselves of the mutual benefits of multiple generations worshiping together, preserving the foundations of our past, while also being nourished by the enthusiasm and spiritual energy I see in so many young people today. Most importantly, are we undermining God’s work and hindering the growth of the church and its impact on the ever-changing culture when we resist the inevitable changes that are occurring.
As I reflect on my encounter with that young man sitting in front of me that Sunday morning, I wonder whose faith was weak – his or mine? As I understand Paul’s implications in this passage, I suspect that it was mine. I also wonder now what Bible passage the pastor was preaching that morning. Perhaps it was Romans 14 and I was so busy judging that man’s appearance that I completely missed what God was saying to me.
And by the way, except for the occasional wedding, funeral, or visit to the church our son pastors, I have not worn a tie to church in almost four years.
I can accept a new or “weak-in-the-faith” believer wearing a T-shirt and cap to church. I don’t wear a tie either. But I confess, I struggle to accept that “contemporary worship” is truly worship given that it is designed around the subjective personal (perhaps sometimes carnal) desires of the purported worshipper and it’s primary objective is usually to produce bigger numbers of attendees. As far as the church’s “impact on the ever-changing culture,” it seems to me that has diminished to nothing since contemporary worship became the norm.
I think these are cultural and also church related issues. If people do not feel compelled to show a respectful attitude by their symbolic dress (Sunday go to meeting cloths) where will the attitude of going to a special place ingrained.. Dress codes are important in any field to up hold standards and maintain a certain amount of this is how we show or respect for what we do. In my life I have heard all the arguments for not “dressing” up for church and surely the Lord does not care how we dress, it is about salvation. However we as people care how we dress. If you go to a high end restaurant there is usually an enforced dress code as it is a special experience. If you are in the military you wear your class A uniform to certain special events to show they are special. How you dress and act conveys does help convey you feelings and commitment to where you are at. Airline pilots wear uniforms to convey a professional image, I would not be comfortable going to a Dr. who wore flip flops and a bathing suit to be comfortable. How you dress influences your attitude and shows in a public way what you think is worth putting forth an extra effort. Even criminals show up in court dressed to convey a better image to the jury and to show respect for the court. Sometimes we by nature are influenced by how we dress. In our non judgmental society of no standards how do we convey any reverence if we dress and bring material that would fit in at the beach, a bar or a movie? When I go to a funeral and see the younger (under 50) crowd attend wearing such casual, comfortable clothes I ponder what event in their life is more important than church services and showing respect to a family by wearing and acting your best. Dress influences how others see you and more importantly how you feel about yourself. And as far as the phones and tablets younger people use them not as sermon guides but as distractions in many cases. I do not personally like it when a pastor relies on his tablet not a Bible but as you can tell I am old fashioned.
Eric C. & Ronnie, I could search my archives and find SS notes where I probably endorsed many of your same points. But my experience that morning was an awakening that much of what I had condemned in the past as shallow, non-spiritual, dishonoring to God, and designed primarily to tickle the ears in order to increase attendance was misguided. As I have searched my own heart, engaged with these younger generations looking for true spiritual connections, and opened my mind to the lyrics of so much of the more contemporary music, I see more genuine engagement than I was witnessing in the more “traditional” services my older generation gravitates to. While much of the music may not minister to me, I am ministered to by the engagement I see in younger worshippers when “contemporary” is done right. And I have begun to much prefer congregations where the worship styles are “blended: and the different generations worship together. I believe ultimately both generations get blessed mutually in those environments.
I am sorry, but when I read your comment I think to James 2:1-13. If you think that people should dress in a certain way to properly attend worship, then how are you not showing preference just like James warns against?
About 2 years back, I personally was “confronted” at a church I was visiting to see if it is one I wanted to join. I was dressed in a dress shirt, neatly tucked into a nice set of blue-jeans w/nice leather belt, and my best western style boots. The greeter was in a full suit and tie. He greeted me, asked me what brought me there, and I told him I had just moved back into the area and was looking for a new church. I forgot his exact words, but they were strongly in the line of “I wish you luck as you look else where”. I stayed for the service, but my encounter with this one person in the church has kept me away. On a side note, churches do not neglect your greeter ministry and fail to train them properly.
When we get to heaven, there will be people from all different cultures at all different time lines all worshiping God together. As to what physical form we will take (what kind of clothes we will have) I do not know, but ultimately it will not matter. It will not matter because we will be there in the presence of our God worshiping Him. If it will not matter then, why should it matter now? So what if a guy walks in with mud caked overalls, a torn T-shirt and a John Deer hat? If he wants to come there and worship God, who are YOU to stop him? If people can wear the wrong clothes what is next? Separate churches for whites and blacks? Oh wait, we have done that already (and some churches still do).
As for music, simply put, music styles change. If you were to go to some early 18th century baptist churches, you would hardly recognize the musical selection. The majority of the hymns that the most traditional (in a music sense) churches love, were written in the 19th century. I have seen the documents where churches adding organs and/or pianos were a big deal. There were even denominational splits over the issue of instruments vs vocal only. We laugh at that now, but how are we any different today? Contemporary vs traditional? Church splits over guitars and drums? Choirs have to wear robes? I have looked in older B&H hymnals and have seen some incredibly horrible songs masquerading as hymns. I have heard some incredibly horrible song masquerading as “contemporary Christian worship songs”. I also love some great centuries old hymns that are stuffed full of great theologically deep lyrics, and there are some great “modern Contemporary christian worship songs” too. Can’t we all just get along?
There are a couple problems here that keep it from being so simple.
1. There is no single definition or dividing line between what is “contemporary” worship and what isn’t, and no clear musical direction in scripture. If I sit in my office alone playing a new worship song on a guitar, am I still worshiping? What if I tap my foot? What if I get a few friends to play other instruments, including drums? What if instead of “here I am to worship” I am singing “I’ll fly away”…is one better than the other?
2. Every musical style change in the church’s history has come from people, and what they wanted (desired) and thought best helped worship. And a lot of it borrowed from folk tunes and styles of the day. Saying, “we will only use old hymns.” is in effect saying, “we are going to use music influenced by folk and popular music from the last few hundred years, but not the last 40 years.
*I would agree that focusing on growing crowds and entertainment will lead us down the wrong path, but I also believe that a church can have drums and guitars, and still be focused, at least as much as an “old hymn” church, on honoring God and giving him praise and edifying the congregation. Seeking to engage God’s people to sing to Him with music they recognize and enjoy does is not wrong…it’s been done for a LONG time. (Medieval gregorian chant, to polyphony, to reformation psalmnody & Hymnody, to Watt’s and wesley’s hymns, to gospel songs, to “Jesus people” Singing “lord I lift your name on high”. The musical style of church music has always been somewhat related to music outside the church, sometimes influence flowing one direction, sometimes the other direction, often both.
Great points, Andrew. I’m reminded of Isaac Watts, who composed Joy to the World, based on Psalm 98. He bucked the tradition of singing the Psalms just as they appeared in Scripture, which was almost sacrosanct in the England of his day. Like many young people today, Watts found much of the congregational singing in the England of his day very uninspiring and lacking in passion. He once remarked “To see the dull indifference, the negligent and thoughtless air that sits upon the faces of a whole assembly, while the psalm is upon their lips, might even tempt a charitable observer to suspect the fervency of their inward religion.” Seeking to energize congregational worship, Watts set out to write hymns based on the Psalms “in such a manner as we have reason to believe David would have composed them if he had lived in our day.” Some have called Isaac Watts the Chris Tomlin of his day.
What is seen is the cultural difference in age. Look at the millennials, always on the phones, headphones in listening to music. Music is how they communicate. Music is important to them. So a “contemporary” worship style will be a better fit with them. However, they are able to sniff out false worship music too. That age group is great at understanding what is genuine and what is just part of the service. If there is a worship leader in his 40’s dressed like he is in his 20’s, he is bound to be labeled as a pretender. The younger generation has broken free of much of the legalism that has dominated churches for decades. They have found out you do not have to wear a shirt and tie to worship God. You don’t have to lug the family Bible everywhere you go. The Bible is on their phone where they can highlight verses, make notes on that verse, quickly find the verse the Pastor is referencing and so much more. As Dylan said “the times they are a changing.” and the Church must change too. God’s word and the Gospel are never changing and always consistent. The older crowd simply has a sense of nostalgia for when things were simpler. A good worship leader knows how to mix old and new music to encompass and include all ages and styles. The church has become more vibrant through its mission, worship and ability to draw younger crowds, which are exactly what a church needs. Now who would wear a Dallas Cowboys shirt is a whole other conversation.
My favorite pastor of all time, Rick Ferguson, has a saying that has always resonated with me, “We must contextualize the ministry without compromising the message.” It can be done and it must be intentionally done if Southern Baptists want to remain relevant to the younger generations and continue to be the influencing force in our culture that we have been in the past.
Julian: “As I reflect on my encounter with that young man sitting in front of me that Sunday morning, I wonder whose faith was weak – his or mine?”
Maybe it doesn’t have to be either/or, but could be both. While you felt convicted about being distracted, perhaps he should feel convicted of being a distraction.
Until recently, I had not preached in my own church in a tie for about 7 or so years. This was not a case of going casual — I wear dress shirt, dress pants, dress shoes and suspenders — it was just a matter of not wearing a tie. But with a recent opportunity to preach in a church with a different cultural background, I decided the “untied” look might be construed as too casual, or even offensive. Since then, I have once again started wearing a tie all the times I preach.
Good points, Robert. I think Paul addresses those concerns well in Romans 14. I wear the ties when not doing so might offend or be a distraction to others, as they would be in the church my son pastors, or when I’m attending weddings and funerals.
Many churches have adopted “age appropriate” [more accurately generation appropriate] services for a decade or more. Such as: “traditional” or “contemporary”. My church just did this for the first time in its history a couple of weeks ago.
However, I know of at least one church [this one in Texas] that went the other way and now has a single combined service.
Do any of you see a trend one way or another? Of course I have only anecdotal observations but it looks to me like we are at the beginning of the end of a trend for churches to replace a single service with ones using various music styles.
Roger OKC
I think you are correct. The trend for a while was to have 2 different service styles…but What I see now more often is multiple duplicate services. So a church may have 3 Sunday services, but they are all the same.
Personally I feel this is better, as it does not divide people based on musical taste…just schedule (not ideal either) 🙂
I can’t speak to any prevalent trend. At my own church several years back, our worship minister subtly tried to interject the occasional more contemporary song into the “traditional” service, likely to try to move more in the direction of a blended service. He discontinued such efforts in the face of strong congregational opposition. I suspect the trend is toward more blended services, given the natural change that inevitably occurs in musical preferences as one generation replaces another in making congregational decisions. Of course, then the defifinition of just what is “traditional” versus “contemporary” is always a moving target, isn’t it?
Excellent, well-written article, Julian. Thanks for sharing it with us here at SBC Voices. I think one element easily forgotten in these discussions is that the NT church meetings were, in essence, more of a family get-together than a religious ceremony. Going to church is not as analogous to going to the opera as it is to going to a family reunion. Yes, you should be appropriately respectful at each. But the expected rules of decorum are different.
Thanks, David. I agree wholeheartedly. Church should be a place where families of multiple generations feel comfortable worshiping together- a foretaste of heaven itself.
May I interject a bit of a correction? It isn’t always the younger folks wanting contemporary music and the older folks wanting traditional. There is a good bit of evidence out there that right now, many younger adults are seeking a more liturgical or more traditional worship.
Question is, will we baby boomers stop insisting on our ccm and rock “for the young people” and actually provide healthy worship experiences for the “young people” if THEY want traditional?
Point well made, Sarah. All the more reason I much prefer blended services with diverse music styles and a focus on the message being presented. Good worship should be a foretaste of heaven (Revelation 7) with multitudes joined together praising the Lamb with one voice.
Thank you Julian for your honesty and your heart that is burdened for those that are different than you.
When I read your article, I couldn’t help but think of two passages of Scripture…. The first being Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council. The early church fathers agreed, let us not put an unnecessary burden on the Gentile believers. In my thinking, some of our “church”culture could be compared to that burden. Are we willing to deconstruct barriers to the Gospel such as dress, music, other cultural aspects that make us feel comfortable, but may be an unnecessary barrier to the Gospel.
Also, the words of Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9, that he became a slave to all to win some. I mean no disrespect or judgement on anyone that has already commented, but I personally cringe to think that I may push away someone from Jesus, because I expect them to rise to some sort of dress code that makes me and my Christian friends more comfortable. I don’t think we should offend anyone with anything BUT the Gospel.
Or maybe it is just that I live in South Florida and professional dress is considered wearing closed toe shoes.
Thanks, Mike. When thinking about these and many other issues, that direction from the Jerusalem Council frequently comes to mind. Like Paul, we should be so focused on the message, we notice little else.