I was baptized, raised, and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. After a period in the wilderness,where I quoted Jefferson as being a sect unto myself, I returned to church in my mid 20s and eventually joined the Presbyterian Church (USA).I noticed differences, but one stood out. Catholics go to worship with regularity. Protestants don;t. Why?
Part of the reason is a self inflicted series of wounds. Catholics are clear. Skipping worship is a violation of the sabbath commandment. It is a sin. The Sabbath command insists on a day of rest. Since we worship work, we loosened that stricture and permitted recreation, especially watching sports as weakening that requirement. That way we were not being “legalistic.”So, worship was left alone as a Sabbath requirement. For over a generation Protestant churches have often downplayed worship together.They may have not been persuasive in changing minds toward the gospel imperatives, but how can we be shocked that folks were more than willing to find an excuse for not attending worship. Indeed, I sometimes wonder if a number of clergy wish the church to be a social service agency that may offer a prayer before giving charity.The “missional movement in many churches seeks to separate charitable activities outside of worship, Bible study, and other spiritual practices. I have heard clergy say things on the order of disparaging the spiritual in favor of aligning with a charitable activity they prefer.
The anti institution, anti organization posture has the church in its crosshairs. Misreading the critique of religious life from European theologians, many pastors inveighed against the very idea of religion in favor of an individual spirituality of the heart. Instead of being loyal to a church body, members feel free to exit. While few people ever honestly could agree to every posture of a particular denomination, they remained committed to that group. Now, we feel justified in exiting a church if we find a single point of disagreement.Some float from church to church as they seek a perfect group that will never come to pass. Others merely drift away. I have heard people whose children and grandchildren do not enter into a church complain that young people are not populating congregations.
The individualism of the marketplace has placed the church in a tenuous position. Worship is prayer directed toward the divine; it is being in conscious presence of the divine together.Emphasizing personal faith made some question the linkage between congregational worship and that feeling of closeness with God. Then,we reversed the sense of worship. Instead of asking what is worthy to present to God, we asked what is the worship doing for us, and eventually, what is it doing for me? So, we began to use a market preference approach to worship. In essence we present a cafeteria of choices for people asking what worship does for them. Mere preferences became paramount. Nothing exemplifies this movement more than the insistence that rock music and insipid lyrics provide the entertainment value sought in worship.
So Protestant laxity opened the door to competing activities. In the days of Blue Laws, it would be inconceivable to schedule sporting events, practices on sunday mornings. We vote with our feet. Given a choice between worship and soccer, soccer practice or matches win. People who never send their children to Christian Education are then surprised that their children are biblical illiterates.
Human life is a mix of the individual and the group.Living together is part of the human experience.God works at both levels.Acts 2:4247 make it clear that the church in its initial view was a new type of community.No group of people can be perfect. Touched by the Spirit, worship is our ritual entry into the realm of God, together.
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