WDJD

Yesterday, I chose to attend a worship service at a church that I’d been warned would probably not be a good fit for me philosophically. I attended worship there anyway because, as I’ve written before, I want to experience a wide range of styles and content in worship. This is one of my sabbatical goals. I want to know what others are doing, because I’m always interested in discovering new ways to help people worship. Worship planning is not my primary area of responsibility at UBC, but Matt does allow me to be part of the team. And worship leadership is my passion.

The service was called “contemporary” in style, which basically means they use a band instead of organ and/or orchestra, and music is led by an ensemble rather than a choir. This is not unlike our Saturday evening worship at UBC. (This particular church had another service at a different hour, one that is said to be more traditional, but I was unable to attend it.)

Though I arrived a little after the start, I must say that the worship was very well done, from a leadership standpoint. I knew the songs and it was easy to sing along. The media support for worship (song texts on screen) was very well done, in terms of preparation as well as operation. There were no surprises here.

But I WAS surprised—when a video tribute to a prominent national TV evangelist who recently passed away, was played at the conclusion of the worship time, and as I would soon discover, at the beginning of the sermon. Again, the video was very well done, and included a clip of the evangelist preaching at the host church.

And then came the big surprise—the entire sermon was built around the TV evangelist. Major points of the sermon were: 1) the evangelist was a workman, which was interpreted to mean, he did things right, which was clarified to be, he interpreted the scripture accurately, which was implied to be, always.

2) The evangelist was a sower of seeds, which was interpreted to be television ministry, which was clarified to be TV ministry that reaches every continent except Antarctica, which implied that this is what the parable of the seeds means—the more seed you sow, the better chance you have of a great harvest. (Jesus was mentioned here as the one who told the parable).

3) The evangelist was a pastor at heart, which was interpreted to be, a caring, family man, which was clarified to be a husband to one wife for almost 57 years (now that’s admirable), and a father who loves his children. This point was illustrated by a story of a time when the preacher was in the evangelist’s office, and the secretary buzzed him with a call from his daughter, and the evangelist said to the preacher, “you take it.” (I missed the point on that one.)

4) The evangelist was an investor, which was interpreted to be his leadership at a Christian University, which was clarified to be his vision of 25,000 students on campus, which the evangelist had projected, just a few months before his death, would happen, according to projections, in 13 years, which was implied accomplished, because the evangelist had the vision. (I know, I had a little trouble with that one, too.)

Now my intention here is not to slam the TV evangelist. I’m sure many believe that he made major contributions to the kingdom. It just seemed to me to be the entire focus of the preaching part of worship.

I was a little confused, in terms of worship, just who the focus was on. Maybe I wasn’t listening with ears to hear, but all I heard was, what did Jerry do?

Care-full-y,

rick