Take a quick look around some Sunday morning as you sit in your church
pew and see how things are set up around you, and note how the service is
structured. It doesn’t look much different than your local theatre,
where you might go and watch a play, or a musical production.
Many modern sanctuaries have copied the theatre in its structure. That
is, you have theatre style seats arranged in a semi-circle, fastened to a
sloping floor so you can see clearly what is happening on the stage. We as
Christians tend to call the stage a platform. The word platform seems to
sound a little better to our ears. It makes it look like we aren’t
copying our local theatre, a place where many of us were told to stay
clear of as a youth because of its sinfulness.
On the stage, I mean platform, you might see a music team members with
all of their instruments, but in the centre you will see, "the
pulpit". This is where the main part of the Sunday morning service
takes place.
All young aspiring preachers can’t wait for the day they have their
very own "pulpit ministry", on their very own platform. I’ve
been to Bible School. I know what young aspiring preachers can be like.
The problem that too often occurs with this set-up is the appearance of
our old menus called "pride". All eyes and ears are on the
preacher, resulting in the temptation for the preacher to take himself
more seriously than he ought, possibly giving in to the fight against
pride. You can bet that pride will sooner or later mount an attack.
We have set our preachers and pastors up for a fall. It is only natural
to like the admiration, the attention one gets when all eyes are on you.
Like many singer/musicians, you get a rush from the audience, and audience
it is. (we have long ago lost the participatory nature of a meeting of the
church as described by Paul in 1 Cor. 14)
Getting high from the rush one gets from being the centre of attention
leads to one "loving the work of the Lord more than the Lord of the
work". If this becomes the case, and it doesn’t have to, it is
possible that the words spoken from the pulpit are more from the flesh
than from the Father. If this is allowed to proceed, the speaker can
easily becomes a super-star of sorts, not unlike a rock and roll singer as
he sings and plays before his screaming fans.
There are some problems with the way we set up our meetings and our
churches. There is the problem of pride in the pulpit. There is the
problem of words spoken in the flesh, unable to reach the hearts of those
listening. Then you get the audience mentality of those who are in
attendance. The meeting of the church was never meant to be spectatorative,
(my made up word for spectator mentality). Church gatherings were never
meant to be similar to watching a theatrical production. People in the
pews were never meant to be passive.
I often wonder what Paul would think of the way "we do
church" these days. I’m using modern lingo. After a couple years of
seriously studying Paul, it is my conclusion that he would not be happy in
many of our western churches. He may be happier in the third world church,
or so I think from my limited understanding of many third world churches.
The answer to me is clear – "what does the Bible say"? More
specifically, "what does Paul say about this issue"? Paul said
more than most about this subject. For example, he devotes a long chapter
in 1 Cor. 14 to this very topic. He gives instructions in how to conduct a
meeting of the church. Notice I say, "a meeting of the church",
and not "a church meeting". 1 Cor. 14 is a good place to start.
Read it and analyze it carefully, verse by verse. I won’t go into all of
the details here. You are smart enough to see it and understand it for
yourself. It is the ultimate in "church growth" material. You
actually might want to "copy and paste" it, and email it to all
of your friends on the internet. You might go as far to say, "let’s
try this some day".
Paul was the "apostles to the Gentiles", and most of us in
the western church are Gentiles, so it might be a good idea to see what
our apostle has to say about church structure before we go and read the
latest book on how to grow our church. Just an idea.