Principles for PublicWOrship on Mission
Bob Kauflin reminds us the principles for public missional worship. “Paul challenges the Corinthians to take unbelievers into account when they gather. He insists that they keep the unbeliever in mind as they exercise spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 14:23-25)…Whether it’s raised hands, formal liturgies, or unspoken standards, we need to see them through the eyes of an unbeliever.” Kauflin suggests that to significantly impact the unbelievers in a worship gathering, the following should be present:
- Authentic passion – enthusiastic expression outwardly what is happening inwardly.
- Love – overwhelming unbelievers with genuine love (John 17:21).
- The Gospel – clearly proclaimed and faithfully applied in an understandable way.
Why Preaching is Suffering in the Church
Preaching is central to the missional church worship experience. The Reformers were convinced that the heart of true biblical worship was the preaching of the Word of God. Al Mohler said that preaching is suffering a loss in today’s church due to six factors.
- Lack of confidence in the power of the [spoken and written] Word – failing to realize the transformative power of the word communicated orally and literarily.
- Infatuation with technology – over-dependence on graphics, images, film clips, and technological wizardry.
- Embarrassment before the biblical text – lacking confidence in the Bible’s authority.
- Emptying of biblical content – failing to teach the actual text of Scripture and resorting to pithy points.
- Focus on felt needs – anthrocentric preaching as opposed to theocentric preaching.
- Absence of the Gospel – turning texts into literary articles, practical steps, or morals to follow without any clear presentation of sin, redemption, and reconciliation.
Preaching of the Word has life-transforming power producing repentance, restitution, confession, reconciliation, comfort, joy, encouragement, wisdom as well as indignation, anger, and offense by the stubborn hearted person. The missional church seeks to make disciples with Spirit-empowered preaching of God’s truth or as Martyn Lloyd Jones said, “Preaching is theology coming through a man that is on fire. John Piper described preaching. He said 1) the goal of preaching is the glory of God. 2) The ground of preaching is the cross of Christ, and 3) the gift of preaching is the power of the Holy Spirit.
The missional worship gathering additionally incorporates public reading of Scripture, prayer for the glory of God to be expressed through the suffering body and community, and response to the Spirit of God and the Word of God expressed demonstrably with undefined regularity through baptism and communion. Although the worship gathering is not primarily for us, the body is instructed how to participate in the diverse liturgy as committed followers of Jesus.
Elements of Authentic Worship
The missional church experiences authentic worship by beginning with a true vision of the living God (Isaiah 6:1-8).
- We must first see God, as He is—our great King and Judge sitting upon a throne, lofty and exalted (Isaiah 6:1-4).
- Secondly, authentic worship leads to confession of sin both individually and corporately (Isaiah 6:5). We address our sin, admit our uncleanness, and seek His mercy and grace.
- The third place where authentic worship leads us is proclamation of the Gospel (Isaiah 6:6-7). As we realize our utter sinfulness, the missional church proclaims the redemption of sin through the work of Jesus on the cross—where we glory.
- Lastly, a missional church experiences authentic worship with a response (Isaiah 6:8). By excluding the cross, the blood atonement, the sacrifice, and the cost of sin, our worship is horribly weakened, and as a result, our missionary involvement will be stifled.
4. A missional church understands it has been sent by God as missionaries in their own culture (Matt. 4:19; John 20:21; Acts 16:20; 17:6) to make disciples of all peoples. (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8)
The missional church is more than a gathering of people with a missions program (considering itself “mission’s minded”) or that has a financial commitment to mission works or a missions committee. The missional church is vested in God’s mission to a specific place, people, and a particular time in history (Acts 17:15). Mark Driscoll said, “If the Gospel is the seed of God’s powerful work in our lives and world, then the culture is the soil into which it is planted.” He further adds, “Understanding the soil helps the missional church know which weeds of moral sin and theological error will need to be pulled up so as not to choke out the growth of the Gospel and church.”
