Divided Worship?

When did Christian worship get bifurcated between “worship” and “message”? I have heard pastors of all kinds of stripes divide their services this way. I have done it myself without thinking about what was happening with the words I was using. Churches I have attended in the past while in seminary or before also divided their services this way.

In seminary, it was common to hear the unwashed, over-eager, and greatly inexperienced future preachers of America speak of hurrying their churches through the music to get to the main event, their preaching. They were only reflecting their teaching and training that called for a high view of Scripture. Scripture has the final authority in faith and practice, therefore exposition of Scripture must be right next to heaven. Thus the desire to get to the sermon and the musicians out of the picture.

We want to learn from God’s Word. It is imperative if we are going to live as followers of Christ that we hear from God concerning our lives and our relationship to Him. He clearly speaks through His Word to us. Good preaching should focus our hearts and minds on what God has to say to us in Scripture.

For people who are really word-oriented in their outlook on life this view makes sense. Preaching is the most important part of the service for them. They are more apt to evaluate a church on its preaching than any other criteria. This puts a lot of pressure on pastors to hit home runs with their messages every week. Often times that pressure is found inside the pastor as well because he is word-oriented as a basic foundation for his walk with Jesus.

I have heard people in the pews make this distinction between worship and message in the other direction. For these people worship is meeting God in song, really belting out the songs with all of their strength. For some it involves being moved emotionally by the music. If the music doesn’t move then worship didn’t happen. As a result they want to linger on the music and resent the pastor or anyone else insisting on preaching or anything else that brings the singing to an end (like the offering or Lord’s Table). For such people singing and worshipping musically is the main event of the whole service, everything after that is anticlimactic.

Yet to bifurcate Christian worship into worship and message is to miss the importance of the message and the unity of worship. The message should be seen as part of the worship of the healthy Christian. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. (Mark 12:30) All of those are needed for true worship, including the mind. Music may carry the soul to the heights, but the message should carry our minds to new heights as well. I am convinced that God intends the message to carry our souls as well.

Yet to use music and message against each other is to miss the whole purpose of worship. Is not worship supposed to be our response to God’s incredible grace given to us? Should not worship be both music and message as we hear God’s word spoken, the truth about our lives, and respond with joy? We have bought into a mindset that says we need one or the other as primary when both are needed.

Good Christ-centered preaching will lead us to Him and to His grace every time under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. Good Christ-centered music will prepare our hearts for the message, as well as preach the message of the Gospel in a different format. Both ought to be acts of worship and lead to people worshipping God more deeply than they had beforehand.

We need both music and preaching for good worship. To hold one over the other is to wrongly divide worship and misses the reality that we were made to worship God in many ways. Both should help us grow in grace and godliness. That is real worship.