Lack of Participatory Worship May Be Driving People Away from Churches.
My pastor left our church to invest his time in his nonprofit ministry. After years there, I felt it was time to make a move.
I started my search by viewing online services. One local church caught my eye, and I visited it. After my experience, I said to myself, “Mercy, Lord. This is why only 20% of the US population attends church every week.”
The Context for My Assessment
No, I am not a church-basher. I have no intention to denigrate any local church, even though I realize it may seem that way to some. I am trying to make a more significant point that transcends the church I visited.
The Church Universal changed the world and, Lord willing, can continue to do so. I believe local churches are the most important groups in any community.
I started as the student pastor of a tiny church in an Arizona mining town. After graduate school and seminary, I planted a church in Scottsdale, Arizona, that went from 0 to 300 in attendance in little over a year. Only later did I go into media ministry, where I was able to reach tens of thousands each week rather than hundreds.
In my media ministry, I traveled to 31 countries, worshipped in hundreds of different churches, and preached in many of them. The one that stands out most was a small house church of about 35 people in Siberia, where the Holy Spirit enveloped us all like a fog.
The church is the Body of Christ. That means something. Trivializing the time we gather together as the church should concern us all.
Why We Worship
We come together to pray, sing songs of praise, share testimonies, be instructed from the Word of God, and for fellowship.
Worship is a ritual. Even those of us in the free church tradition (minimal pageantry) understand rituals help set apart a specific time and space for worship, distinguishing it from the mundane.
Rituals of worship, simple or complex, have been part of our spirituality since Abraham and Isaac first did it on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:5). Worship was the purpose of the Temple and is part of how we approach God in the present day. Even the photocopied bulletin in the humblest Baptist church identifies the pattern of the worship ritual.
When we sing a hymn or read a specific passage from the Bible, we signal to ourselves and others that we are entering a sacred time dedicated to God. This demarcation helps foster a sense of reverence and attentiveness. Engaging in familiar shared rituals fosters a sense of community and belonging.
Diluted Worship
What did I experience at the Bible-believing church I visited? A diluted form of worship. The people in attendance may be used to it and accept it, but it seemed contrived and superficial in my experience. Here’s why:
The worship team made little or no connection to the congregation
The songs had Christian words but were presented by lead singers in what seemed to me to be an Oklahoma Roadhouse style. I had witnessed this in the church YouTube videos, but as I looked out over the congregation, I saw very few engaged, even though the lyrics were on screens.
If the instruments and singers on the platform suddenly stopped, the congregational singing would only be whispers.
Worship requires participation, and there was little of it evident. It was a performance, and the lead singers seemed disconnected from the congregation or the pastor’s message. Even the ending call to commitment song was a boisterous Cowboy Jesus kind of performance. Perhaps no one thinks “Softly and Tenderly” has merit anymore.
Communion (also called the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist)
It was Communion Sunday the day I visited. Even in free churches where ritual is minimal, the Lord’s Supper and Baptism are acts of worship that demand attention due to their major significance in the life of believers and the church.
On the day of my visit, a young man stumbled through a reading of 1 Cor 11:23-27. He invited the congregation to pop open the plastic container and join him in consuming a pellet of bread and a splash of grape juice. A magnificent ritual, instituted by Jesus himself, was reduced to triviality.
If we are to take the Bible at face value as we should, then conducting a Communion is no place for a novice. It doesn’t matter what other standing the person may have in the church. It is definitely an inappropriate training assignment.
Yes, I am aware that many churches use disposable communion ware. It stands in stark contrast to the Last Supper and our ritual celebration of it. The plastic items are cheap, easily distributed, and you can dump it all in the trash at the end of the service. Sadly, this symbolizes what Communion has become in many churches—a disposable part of the worship ritual.
After Communion was over, I cynically asked myself, “Does the pastor baptize people with a squirt gun?” That too would be quick and cheap.
Yet, Communion is a time for the pastor and elders of the church to solemnly march to the front of the church (to the sound of an oboe and drum if necessary) and take their positions behind the Lord’s table.
The pastor is the congregation’s spiritual leader and repeats the words of Jesus in Matthew 26:26-28, as memorialized by the ritual endorsed by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11. The elders serve the congregation, so it is only fitting they serve the bread and wine to the people.
The pronouncements by the pastor that “This is my body” and “This is my blood” should be a profound, dramatic moment that draws the congregation closer to the Lord and each other.
The Sermon
The pastor did not appear in person to welcome the congregation. He did it over a video feed. I found that odd. Later, he appeared to preach. He started with a Dad Joke as I had seen in his other sermons on the churches’ YouTube feed. Why do pastors start sermons with trite jokes and stories? Other speakers start with their best material.
The sermon was from the Books of Acts (part of a series). But it really wasn’t a sermon. He merely paraphrased the chapter in his own words and peppered it here and there with his observations. Like Communion, the sermon had the requisite structure but little Holy Spirit power. The whole series seemed to be ecclesiastical sleepwalking.
Most Christians do not know the elements of a good sermon, so they let their ministers get away with murder. A sermon is far more than a joke, three points, and a poem. Each sermon has only one purpose: to Answer a Specific Question (ASQ). It may be about theology or Christian living, but it is never a stroll through the Bible, history, or the newspaper. Those topics are incidental.
Preachers discover the questions people ask by visiting their homes, places of business, shops, factories, hospitals, or other such places. Then, they construct sermons that meet the needs of people (instruction and encouragement) from an exegetical study of the Bible. This can take the form of book or topical studies, but the goal is to answer one specific question in each message. The preacher’s task is to help interpret the Bible for the people and offer solutions from it to them.
The Fallout
Where is this particular preacher headed in his ministry? Only the Lord knows. But they had two Sunday morning services a year or two ago and are now down to one, and the church is not filled. They will undoubtedly offer many reasons for this, but the bottom line is that the worship experience did not sustain the people who left. They went elsewhere or quit attending church completely.
This particular church has begun uniting with other churches for prayer, events, and civic involvement. This is how big churches eat failing smaller churches. Uniting with other churches in the community seems like a noble endeavor. Yet, local churches capable of meeting the spiritual needs of their people don’t need to do that.
Regaining What We Have Lost
When we participate in worship rituals, we feel connected to the people who worship with us and the larger body of believers. This collective experience strengthens our faith and reinforces our identity as part of the church. As the Apostle Paul reminds us, “So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:5).
Engaging in predictable, structured activities provides stability and control, which builds faith. Even minimalist rituals can have a profound impact. Simple gestures such as a communal prayer, a moment of silence, or the weekly reading of a scripture passage can significantly enhance the worship experience.
How can we regain what we have lost? Perhaps we can learn something from The Idea of the Holy by Rudolph Otto (1917). He said we must become aware of the numinous, a fundamental aspect of religious experience, distinct from rational or ethical dimensions. He describes it as a mysterious and awe-inspiring presence of God’s Spirit that evokes both fear and fascination. Our worship rituals should invoke Mysterium Tremendum.
Mysterium refers to the profound mystery of the divine, wholly other and beyond human comprehension. Tremendum denotes the overwhelming sense of awe that accompanies this encounter. This aspect emphasizes the power and majesty of the divine, which evokes feelings of love and wonder in believers.
Too often, our Sunday worship services have become like Saturday morning cartoons. People may like them, but it is a superficial approach to God. Pastors and congregations will fade into oblivion if they do not help bring us the majesty of God in our worship.
Start with Small Steps
Embrace the power of ritual in your worship services. Even if your tradition leans towards a free-form approach, consider incorporating simple, meaningful rituals to enhance your spiritual well-being.
Try starting with small gestures – a moment of silence, a communal prayer, or a responsive scripture reading. Ensure the people are not just watching worship leaders perform but instead participate in praise songs. Notice how these practices help you and your community connect more deeply with God and each other.
Remember, the goal of ritual is not to bind us with rigid practices but to free us to worship with greater focus and intention. As you integrate these practices, you’re likely to find your worship experience enriched and your faith strengthened.
Sources cited: Unless otherwise noted, Bible quotations are from the English Standard Version (ESV).
Drop in weekly church attendance | Churchtrac.
Spirituality and Ritual: The Importance of Ritual in Faith.
Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy. Read PDF online or download here.
