Worship Like a Football Player

Introduction

I write these posts mainly for our church, but also for any curious observer. Over the past year, our church’s liturgy on Sunday has changed a lot. Sunday night during our church’s Sunday night study, a few people brought up some great questions. “How come our worship service looks like a Lutheran or Anglican service now?” “Won't this make us spiritually dead like those denominations?” These are good questions. They’re the point of this blog post. But they also need to be untied first. We need to untie a church’s order of service from a church’s attitude to worship. But in order to do that, we must first see through the fog of war that has blurred our vision. To accomplish this, I’ll use the analogy of a football team to explain why worship should be well-structured and passionate. It’s not the most sacred of illustrations one could use, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.

Remember the War? Fun Wasn’t it?

Most of the worship war debates of the early 2000s were about the preferences of the members. In both traditional and contemporary services, you enter the service as a spectator. Whether it's a choir or praise band, whether it's Fanny Crosby or Hillsong, both services have the same business model, they just offer slightly different editions of the same product. And that product is a good time. Most Christians go to church the way most football fans go to a stadium. They want to see the professionals perform. Worship is a spectator sport. But is it? 

In John 4, Jesus tells us what kind of worshippers His father is looking for. And they aren't spectators. They are actual worshippers.

“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. John 4:23

We focus on true worshippers worshipping in spirit and truth. But we too easily bypass that all of God's people are called to worship. God doesn't look for soloists, or choirs, or electric guitarists to worship in spirit and truth. He is looking to see if you are worshipping Him in spirit and truth. What the worship wars missed was God's preferences for worship. And His first preference, that both sides got wrong, was God wants a church of worshippers, not a church of spectators. God is not the owner of a football stadium where most people come to observe but only a few come to perform. God is the football coach who has come to win. You are His team.

My Brief Attempt at a Half-time Locker Room Speech

I've never played football, but laziness seems to be a great way to lose a game. For the sake of my analogy, let me say it takes at least 2 things for a team to win: winning desires and winning strategies. The team must have passion, discipline, and desire. The team has to show up to play football. But the team also needs to run good plays and defend their endzone. They need the right person running the offense and the right person defending the quarterback. In football, you need right desires and right designs. In worship, we also need right desires and right designs. 

For the past year, I've focused on explaining the right designs of worship. We sing more and pray more during the service. The first words and the last words of the service come from God’s word. I want us to add more to the "designs" of worship in the future. I think most Baptist churches got comfortable running the same Hail Mary play that won them the “revivals” in the 60s. We’ve forgotten there’s a lot more to do than sing Just as I Am. I want us to add practices of worship that Christians have done for centuries like reciting the Lord’s Prayer and taking the Lord’s Supper weekly. Here is usually when the questions start being asked. Aren’t those things Roman Catholic?

I’ve actually never went to another worship service outside of a Baptist church. I’ve seen other denominations online and I’ve visited other churches for funerals and stuff, but I’ve never worshipped at another denomination’s service. I’ve heard stories about the dead repetition of a Lutheran church and the hollow voices of an Anglican church. But as someone who has only worshipped with Baptists, I’ve experienced the same thing there. You hear the same sermons preached, the same songs played, and the same man says “Amen!” five minutes into the message. The attitude of the worshippers cannot be solved by merely going through a certain order of worship. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t avoid a well-ordered worship service.

Scripture commands a well-ordered service in 1 Corinthians 14:40 and Colossians 2:5. The word here in both passages is where we get our word for tactics, which is why I call this our play book. Our services should be well-ordered because God likes it (1 Cor 14:40; Col 2:5). We should keep and strive for a good play book because we want to win! A coach shouldn't throw out the play book just because the offensive line crumbles after every snap. There’s likely another reason. 

The fundamental reason Baptist churches embarrassed themselves with the worship wars is also the same reason Episcopal churches changed God’s pronouns—people no longer go to church to meet the God of the Bible. They come to hear what they want to hear. God offers us an eternal salvation and an unshakable kingdom. Yet we respond with selfish demands for our worship service. How should we respond instead?

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:28-29

Gratitude, reverence, and awe (or godly fear). Just as a linebacker should show up to the game ready to bust some skulls, so should a Christian come to worship ready to thank God. Don’t come to church ready to shop, but ready to be shaped. Don’t sit in your pew with the attitude that God is sitting in waiting room with you at the DMV. You give Him a polite nod and go about your business. Revere Him. Yes, fear Him. Then, when you fear Him, sing about how much He loves you. Today, God’s love doesn’t mean anything to anybody. We’ve taken it for granted because we don’t approach God with gratitude and fear. We approach Him with presumption and comfort.

Conclusion

In 1961, the Green Bay Packers lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in the championship game. At training camp next season, coach Lombardi began his first practice holding up a football and said, "this is a football." Church, let’s stick to the basics. Worship is about God, so let’s worship Him the way He wants even if it makes us uncomfortable. Especially if it makes us uncomfortable. Let’s worship Him with thanksgiving and godly fear. Let’s get this right so that our coach can point to us one Sunday and say, “This is worship.”