The Relationship Between Worship And Evangelism

Worship and evangelism are vitally linked ministries; without one the other cannot thrive. This article describes the theological basis for this relationship, identifies issues which the church currently faces that relate to this problem, and then provides several suggestions for how this relationship can be cultivated in the local parish.

Evangelism in Protestantism has invariably been connected with worship and has taken place through the combination of preaching by ministers together with the people's invitation to others to experience God through participation in worship. Evangelism is integrally linked with the proclamation of the Word of God in preaching. The originating setting of the proclamation may be a street corner, a schoolhouse, a tavern, or a home. But evangelists have as their aim and goal incorporating persons within worshiping congregations and bringing them to full participation in services of worship. Only in such a context and setting can the sermon have its fullest effect among hearers. Theological Considerations The Nature of God. The corporate worship of the church and the witness/outreach of the church have a common theological basis. Each derives from the nature of God as a sending God. God is a God who is always reaching out. God is never content to remain self-contained. Creation itself is an example of God's reaching out. The history of Israel sounds the constant theme of God's desire that all creation should acknowledge and give glory to the Creator. The life and teachings of Christ who is sent from God stress that those who hear and keep the gospel in turn are sent in to the world. The concept of a vocation to servant-hood unites the Old and New Testaments on this theme. The prophets saw the majesty of God propelling our witness to the very ends of the earth, that all nations might acclaim salvation (Isa. 52:10; 55:5). This outreach is a constant, especially with the later prophets. This divine intent is clearly stated in Christ's high-priestly prayer. Jesus prays, "?as you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world … that the world may believe that you have sent me?" (John 17:18, 21). This mutual sending is repeated again two verses later. It is repeated a third time in one of the resurrection appearances when Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, "?Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you?" (John 20:21). God's awesome majesty, so eloquently expressed in the Old Testament, is inextricably joined to Christ the Son, whom God sent. Linked in Christ's resurrection and glorification, the majesty of God and the exalted Christ are united. The result of this exaltation is the explosive witness of the gospel as it is recorded in Acts. The nature of a sending God is that every person in every nation should worship and adore the risen Christ, "?so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father?" (Phil. 2:10-11, nrsv). Paul said, "?for to me, living is Christ.?" (Phil. 1:21, nrsv). To live in Christ is to participate in the very nature of God who is always reaching out and sending. The triune, sending God revealed in Jesus Christ is the source of all witness and mission, as well as the focus of worship. Both worship and witness derive from the nature of God and of Christ. A church that is not a sending church has not adequately seen God, and the worship of such a church is incomplete. God sent Jesus Christ; then God sent the Spirit, and now God sends the church and every Christian out into the world. Through our worship every Sunday, God sends us into the world. In that way God continues to send Christ and to send the Spirit. The Old Testament prophets stressed that the vocation of Israel was to servanthood and not to privilege. The suffering servant of Isaiah stressed this vocation. In that same vein, Jesus emphasized that he came to serve (i.e., to reach out to others and to draw them to himself). As it was in the Old Testament and with Jesus in the New, so it is the vocation of the church to reach out to serve and by holding forth Christ, to draw the world to itself. Our Chief End. A primary theological affirmation of Protestantism is signaled in the answer to the first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Our chief end, it notes, is to glorify God and enjoy God forever. This is the chief end not only of the church. Rather, the glorification of God is the chief end of all humankind. We seek to glorify God in worship and through our worship we are called to extend the glorification of God to all of life and to bring others to this same worshipful glorification of God. This is our witness and mission. Evangelism arises from worship and worship is the end result of evangelism. Each is maimed without the other. Each expresses itself and is fulfilled by the other. Worship is always a prelude to witness, whether that witness be through evangelism or service in the social sphere. Conversely, such witness is, biblically speaking, a preparation, a new prelude, to the formal and corporate glorification of God that takes place in worship. The church moves from worship to witness, in order that through that witness, the world might be brought to glorify God and be brought to worship. Issues in Evangelism and Worship The Individual and the Corporate. The Scriptures convey a remarkable balance between the individual and the corporate. The "?people of Israel?" and the New Testament "?church?" provide the context within which individual commitment and faith are balanced within a corporate setting. The place where these two meet the most intensely is in corporate worship. It is in the worship of the body that the individual most frequently experiences God. God can also be experienced in a one-to-one relationship, but to assume that the one-to-one is the norm or rule would seem to misread Scripture. There is a strain of Christianity arising out of Protestant pietism that defines worship as something that happens primarily or even solely between an individual and God. Thus viewed, worship is individual and inward. Within this view, conversion is most often viewed as individual and inward. In both worship and evangelism, God's action is equated with my individual conscious apprehension of it. There is another strain within Protestantism that has defined worship as corporate, an action of the church in which we participate. Within this view evangelism and conversion are seen as taking place within the body, the community of Christ. Invitation is to Christ, into the body of Christ, that the body might be more complete and whole, both in its worship and its evangelism Worship is the place where the body ordinarily tells its story, shares its experience and expresses its life. There God can best be experienced, and there one can best be led to join with the gathered throng in giving glory to God. It is there that the individual makes commitments which are according to the will of God. Worship as Converting and Nurturing Center. Worship is the "?intergenerational?" activity of the church, where new Christians find their entry point into the body of Christ and where maturing Christians are nurtured in the faith. Worship is the context for long-term discipleship. Worship is the setting where the majority of Christians hear new calls from God, embark on new commitments, and enter more deeply into the Christian life. In worship the evangelizers are evangelized. In worship the invited guest (or the outsider) sees the vitality of the caring Christian community and accepts the invitation to enter into it. Witness (evangelism), understood as the vocation of the church, is primarily concerned with the formation and establishment of the body of Christ within which God's will, both for worship and witness, is fulfilled. There conversion and individual salvation will be experienced as by-products of incorporation into Christ. The goal of worship and preaching is to lead people so that they will find themselves as participants in the divine story of salvation, that they will come face to face, so to speak, with the God whom no one can face and remain the same. The goal of preaching is encounter. Preaching is only secondarily to convince, to present cogent arguments, to bring people to give their assent to Christian doctrine, and to solve exegetical problems. Worship is to focus on God, and give glory to God. Evangelism too must focus on God and not point to ourselves or even to our church. The Altar Call and the Table Call. The "?altar call?" is a part of the American vocabulary, a Protestant Christian phenomenon which originated in the revival movement(s) of the free churches. People raised in a portion of American Protestant religious culture assume that every evangelistic sermon ends with an altar call. Some have suggested that an alternative to the altar call might be called the Table call. In worship we invite people to join us at the family table where we relate with one another and where we find our common nurture. The concept of a Table call is integrally built into the regular Sunday worship of the church when both Word and sacrament are celebrated. The Word is read and proclaimed, and then in response, both by mature and by new persons within the assembly, an invitation to commitment is given, an invitation to come to the Table and to partake of the bread and the cup as a part of the body of believers. The Table call is radically communal. It is ecclesial, set within the context of the family of believers. The call to the Table of the Lord is communal even if only two or three gather at the Table. It is a call to Christian discipleship, a call to total involvement in the worship and sacramental life of the church, and through such worship, to total life involvement in the world. The altar call is radically individualistic. It focuses on the individual "?getting right with God,?" repenting of sin, and consciously receiving salvation. Even if there is a congregation present, or even if there are thousands present at an evangelistic crusade, the altar call is a call to the person in his or her own individuality. It is often without integral reference to a congregation, though many crusade leaders seek to link a convert with a local congregation. It is often isolated from awareness of the social dimension of church life and of the ethical demands that extend beyond the personal. The Table call is a call into fellowship as well as into ethical responsibility. Within the body of believers one has mutual duties of love, both within and beyond the fellowship of the church. As my sister or brother becomes a bearer of Christ to me, so the gospel imperative lays upon me the duty to be a bearer of Christ's reconciling love to every neighbor. High Educational Standards and a Shortage of Ministers. From the earliest days of American Protestantism, congregations struggled with the problem of too few ministers and the lack of ministers to send to the frontier. At first, qualified ministers were "?few?" from parent denominations in Europe. Even after seminaries were established in this country, there were often shortages of pastors for existing churches, not to mention for service as evangelists. Churches that emphasized high educational standards for ministers were often the ones that failed to send evangelists into the frontier. Those denominations were not prepared to modify a dominantly cognitive criterion for the ministry of preaching and evangelizing. Tension over the issue of educational standards remains in the church today. Some of the older Protestant denominations continue to believe that there should be more emphasis upon the classical theological disciplines, while others prefer to focus on a closer obedience to the call of the Holy Spirit and stress that more attention should be devoted to the development of the practical skills needed by pastors and evangelists. The Future of Evangelism and Worship Thus far we have focused on the relationship of evangelism and worship, and we have reviewed some related history and theology. In the light of these, we now look at possible future directions or emphases which would strengthen the church's worship and its evangelism. First, of all, there is a remarkable similarity of emphasis and concern among those who are responsible for liturgical change in our denominations and those who are concerned about evangelistic outreach. There is agreement that a liturgical renewal in the congregation highlights and emphasizes evangelism. One of the steps for the future is to embrace and become fully familiar with the new worship and liturgical resources of the several denominations. Such a focus will unify the life and worship of the local congregation and the church's witness activity in reaching out to individuals, to society, and to the world. Life and Worship of the Congregation. The life of the congregation itself has great significance, not only for the witness that occurs beyond its bounds, but for the conveying of faith from generation to generation within that congregation and for the nurturing of the faith of all members of the particular congregation. The following questions highlight the concerns which must be addressed in worship if that worship is to be an effective base for a local congregation's evangelism. (1) Does our worship communicate and embody the presence of God? How might we more adequately express the awesomeness of the Almighty? the holiness? And how do we effectively draw people into the glorification of God? Music is the vehicle of transcendence for most of our congregations. Are we a singing church? Does our music lead us beyond words, into what might be called ecstatic utterance? Are we using the hymnal to its best advantage? Does our worship carry a mood of expectation? Do we come expecting to meet the eternal God, to be in the very presence of Jesus Christ? Does this anticipation of "?meeting God?" permeate the life of the congregation? Do our members understand that when they invite friends to church, they are inviting them to join them in such a meeting? (2) Do we provide for the identification of our body of believers gathered for worship with believers throughout the whole world as well as with the hosts of heaven? Is there that dimension of "?beyond time and beyond history?" in our worship? Do we talk about the world? Do we utilize the materials available that link us in mission with the whole world? Do we open options to our people such as volunteering in mission programs? Are the eyes of the people always being lifted to farther and farther horizons, both in the church and in the world? (3) Does our worship share the biblical witness in the most effective way possible? Is the Scripture lavishly read (or do we use small snippets) and are readers well prepared for the proclamation of the Word of God? Is the Scripture put into new parables, using contemporary terms and events? There is a need for the cultivation and exercise of liberated imagination in bringing scriptural truth to the twentieth century mind. Above all, there is a need for increased biblical literacy among our people. (4) Does our worship call for a real and tangible, acted-out response on the part of worshipers? (Or, does it only aim for assent and mental agreement with ideas, positions, and interpretations?) Does our worship allow for, or even encourage a variety of responses on the part of the people, as they survey their talents and gifts? (5) Does our worship send people out as a continuation of Jesus' prayer and of his command to his disciples? Are worshipers made aware that the gospel, through Word and sacrament, is for them, so that through them it may be for others as well? (6) Do we highlight and emphasize those portions of worship that have specific outreach implications? For example, the Lord's Prayer includes at least three sections that refer to the outreach of the church. "?Hallowed by your name?" asks that God's name might be acknowledged by all, both within and outside the church. "?Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven?" is a prayer for the whole earth and for all that is in it. It assumes that the person praying is committed to the furtherance of that kingdom. "?Give us today our daily bread?" acknowledges that the bread is for all, and not only for those of us in this church or in our denomination. In the act of praise, our adoration is caught up with the praise of all people, past, present, and future; and not only with all people, but with all creation. We need to be reminded that just as we are invited to join in this adoration, we too should continue to extend that invitation to others. In our confession of sin we confess our failure to be a welcoming and accepting body, and pray that we may not judge, but that we might witness and converse in the name and for the sake of Christ. At the time of the offering we should acknowledge that the gift of generosity is to be exercised for others, not only for ourselves. We give that we might be a blessing. We give as an indication of a commitment to keep on giving throughout the week. The announcements about the life of the church should go beyond the life of the local congregation. While it is important to emphasize the fellowship of our congregation, it is important to announce also our linkage with the wider church and the world. The charge and benediction should carry their weight in sending the people forth as ambassadors for Christ. The people are blessed as they depart in order that they, in turn, might be a blessing to others. They are sent in the name of a sending God who promises to be with us in our going out and our coming in, both now and forever. Outreach to Society and to the World. There is a mounting awareness of the unity between outreach in mission and evangelism and outreach through social services. There is a mounting concern for the witness of the church beyond its congregational domain. The church and its individual members must reach out in witness, in ministries of compassion, advocacy, peacemaking, reconciliation, and care for creation. It is the worship life (and program) of the congregation that must motivate and give impetus to this witness activity as the congregation reaches out to individuals, society, and the world. The local congregation reaches out to individuals either directly or through representatives. Each Christian is sent and has the responsibility of inviting others to consider the claims and to accept the promises of Christ. "?Come, see, go tell,?" is the mission of the Christian church. When two of John's disciples saw Jesus and asked where Jesus was staying, Jesus answered, "?Come and see.?" The Samaritan woman at Jacob's well used the same admonition. The gentle Johannine interpretation of Jesus' invitation, "?Follow me,?" has about it an air of simple friendliness, of mundane hospitality. For us, "?come and see?" must be more than an invitation to come and see the machinery working, with leaders "?doing their thing.?" Rather, the worshiping congregation must be marked by Spirit-filled living and must reach out and accept others. Outreach to individuals may be delegated. We formerly called the delegates missionaries. In some cases they were called evangelists, those sent out to establish other congregations so that another part of God's creation might be brought to worship, hear the Word, receive the sacraments, and in turn be sent out to others. The apostle Paul, writing to the Ephesians, intimates that not all have the gift of being an evangelist (Eph. 4:11). It is appropriate for delegation to take place, even within the local congregation as it reaches out to its surrounding community. It is most important, however, that the task of witness and outreach is being done in order that the purpose of the gospel might be fulfilled. In conclusion, we return to the basic theological affirmation with which we began. Evangelism is more appropriately defined by its source and origin than by its objective. The nature of God, or Jesus Christ the Son, and of the Holy Spirit defines both worship and evangelism. And, evangelism and worship both have their proper place within the community of shared faith, the congregation. Both worship and evangelism are Christocentric, taking their shape and expression from God's self-revelation, Jesus Christ as a sending God. Evangelism and worship are both primarily concerned with a new heaven and a new earth, with the reign of God over all things and over all people and social orders. Evangelism is the outreach of God's love to all people, that drawn into Christ's body, they might acknowledge and worship the one from whom they come. Evangelism is the work of God, through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in bringing all things to their true purpose, which is to give God glory.