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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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.