In vain we seek for peace with God
By methods of our own:
Jesus, there's nothing but thy blood
Can bring us near the throne.
- Isaac Watts; Hymn 38
Watts viewed the Christian singing of his time as “negligent and thoughtless”, and so he began writing his own hymns. In Hymn 38, the Gospel is clear: sin makes approaching God impossible, but the blood of Christ brings us near to the throne of God. Watts gave no praise to the best creative methods of man. Just as the gospel is effective without human creativity for salvation, so also we must be convinced that the Gospel is power of God to sustain the church and nourish her whole operation. In most of today’s churches, creativity (new and nostalgic) is believed to be the purpose and experience of a church gathering. We’ve hosted sensational displays of modern and traditional production, but the “disciples” of our creative gatherings are unaware of what the Gospel is or why it should direct every gathering. How do we move from Creative Gatherings to Gospel-centered gatherings?
The Gospel Every Week
“Oh the gospel? Yes, that’s elementary teaching, you know, like Hebrews talks about”. As I shared a cup of coffee with a local worship leader, I realized the conversation needed to shift to defining the Gospel of Jesus. He was convinced the Gospel was something Christians step over (after conversion) to get to more grace-filled priorities. Friend, if the Gospel is muddy, your entire approach to the Kingdom of Christ is muddy. The gospel begins with God and ends with God with every part of the narrative being told and worked by God.
There is certainly nothing elementary about the narrative of God’s Gospel. Do you believe the Gospel is sufficient for every portion of every gathering you have?
Let The Word of Christ Dwell Richly
Spiritual experiences through creativity is on the rise in churches. For over a century, we’ve moved away from word-centered worship and into creative experiences. Members are having more encounters with art, dynamic speaking, and power presentation, but scarcely with the Scriptures. Also, members having engaged in nostalgic patterns that have no relevance to the Gospel. Some liturgies have become so far removed that even confessional or scriptural readings are stripped from context in order to serve tradition. It’s not by accident that in Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5, the apostle regards the Word as the means to purposeful worship. While psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs were likely culturally creative and folk-related to the recipients of those epistles, they were only a vehicle running on the powerful Word of God. The methods, as Watts pointed out, are pointless in contrast to the true grace-filled experience of the Word of Christ dwelling in us richly. The only way to experience worship is in Spirit (relating to God on His terms) and Truth (confessing God’s terms). There’s many ways to direct a gathering - many creative ways - but what is the experience of “church”? Does your gathering leave people experiencing the Creator based on His Truth?
Results of Experiencing Creativity
If you plan, spend, rehearse, and execute around creativity, you’ll find more people gathering for a synth sound, guitar solos, energetic leaders, stained glass, pipe organs, and candelabras. The next sad step of this is how to maintain those you attracted. What I’ve seen happen is the Gospel proclamation becomes totally skipped and metrics tell us how to lead worship and build up the Church of Christ.
Musicians and leaders will begin thinking they “nailed” the part if they played, sang, preached, prayed, or read in a way that was creative, artistic, or attractive. We’ll begin training people to believe “all is well and fulfilled” by executing creative plans versus proclaiming and engaging in the Gospel. If you don’t have a drummer, proclaim the Gospel in worship. If your pipe organ goes down, proclaim the Gospel in worship.
Results of Experiencing the Gospel
When the Gospel of God - God himself - is the thread that holds our gathering together we sing, confess, pray, praise, listen, and partake in a practice that forms Christ in us (Gal. 4:19). Paul was most concerned that this spiritual formation would take place in the Galatians. More than preference or maintaining status, Paul cared most about the Gospel and implications active in the church.
Practically, from the moment people wake up and until the benediction (send off) is given, the gathering should be expectantly attended and participated in with every ounce telling the story of God. In the Old (First) Testament, we read of Ezra and Nehemiah leading the people to a climax of restoring God’s worship. In Nehemiah 8 there’s not a great production. In fact, Ezra makes the Word plain to them and they immediately reinstitute Yahweh’s prescriptions for Israel and repentance. The drama is centered on the Gospel/Word.
How can you better steward your gathering time and planning to create consumers of the infinite God and His Gospel versus consumers of your finite creativity? I pray you’re encouraged to see your methods as mere paint on the walls for the church and God’s Gospel as the perfect pillars of truth...and in that, to use your creativity to proclaim Christ alone! May your creativity only serve the great Gospel so clearly known in God’s Word and proclaimed for generations before us.
