What is the purpose of a church service? If you ask a church of 50 people, you will probably get 50 different answers. People focus on the things that they are naturally drawn towards, for some that may be the singing, for others the fellowship and for others it may be worshipping God. There is a big percentage of churches today that feel they need to walk away from a church service feeling encouraged. That isn’t a bad thing, but if it’s the only thing you want, then it’s a problem. Christians aren’t Duracell bunnies who go to church on a Sunday are ‘re-charged’ to then go and live in the world for another week. Thinking of church, or faith, that way means we minimise the everyday impact of the gospel in our lives and we are in danger of thinking that we are only in this world to muddle through rather than see it as the place God has put us for His purposes.
The church is not a charging point for us to reach some form of spiritual high. Christianity is not based on emotional highs, sentimental shifts and it certainly isn’t based merely on a bunch of good feelings. Christianity is based on Jesus Christ, He is the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), therefore our church services are all about Him and not really about us.
Changing the focus of a church service from ourselves and what we might get out of it, will help us to change our thinking about church and, hopefully, all of life. Jesus didn’t come into the world preaching encouragement and uplifting messages all the time, he called the Pharisees a brood of vipers (Matthew 12:34), Jesus told His disciples that they will be hated (John 15:18). But if those kind of messages were to be regularly preached in churches today, preachers and Pastors may be called out for not giving an ‘encouraging word to help throughout the week’.
We don’t live in a fantasy world, the thing we need to carry us into eternity is not merely encouragement, but it is more of Jesus. Our church services need more of Jesus. Our singing needs to be filled with truths that point us to Jesus. Our preaching needs to be full of Jesus. Our minds, our hearts and our hands need to be put to action for Jesus. Our service need to revolve around Him!
For that to happen, I often talk about the three essential things that are needed in a church service, the three C’s of church, we need to be…
Convicted of our sin
Every day in the life of the Christian must include repentance, at no point in our Christian life do we outgrow the need to repent of our sin. Likewise, every church service should include a recognition of sin and Christians should be convicted of our sin. It is not the job of the service leader to call out sins from the pulpit of every member every week (we’ve been there in history and it isn’t helpful), but as Christians we should come into a church service recognising that we are about to corporately worship a Holy God and of our own accord we are not, and never will be worthy. That alone should be enough to convict us of our sins. However, as the service continues and songs are sung, as God’s Word is publicly read and then preached, we should be convicted of our constant need for forgiveness and our constant need for the Holy Spirit to sanctify us to become more like Jesus.
Comforted with the gospel
As we are convicted of our sins, we need to be pointed to the truth of the gospel! If we stay wallowing in our sin that helps no-one, if we focus so much on our sin that we are all-consumed by it that helps no-one and if we look to ourselves for the answer to our sin we’re lost. Instead we need to be reminded of the gospel – the glorious truths of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. If our church services are not saturated in the gospel we are not serving the Lord, or His people, well. Whether someone has been a Christian for 10 years, 10 months or 10 minutes, they need to hear the same gospel that will build them up, point them to Jesus and spur them on to live for and serve Him each day. Comforting people with the gospel is not only the job of the preacher or Pastor. The person leading the service, the band and the songs that we sing, the conversations we have before and after over coffee or a meal and the conversation in the ‘pews’ – we all have the responsibility and privilege to comfort people in the gospel. For that to happen church members need to know the gospel well (!) but that’s for another blog post.
Convinced that Jesus is all you need
As you walk away from a church service, if you think “I can face this week, I’ve got this” or if you say to yourself “that sermon really helped me realise that I’m able to make this decision on my own” we’ve failed. People should leave the church building on a Sunday absolutely convinced that Jesus is who they really need! The focus is not on us, on our church or on the size of our faith, the focus needs to be on Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith. He is the one we owe everything to. He is the one we live for. He is the one we worship and He is the one who will bring us through to eternity in the New Creation. Making Jesus the focus of our services means that from start to finished, from the minute the door is unlocked in the morning and locked again later on, Jesus should be on our lips. Calling people to worship at the start of the service, reminding people of the privilege it is to worship a Holy God, should come with the reminder that it’s only possible through Jesus. Our songs should be saturated with Jesus helping us see our need for Him, helping us understand our union with Him and pointing us to our everyday lives and ultimate future with Him. The preaching, of every single Christian church must point us to Jesus. The world tells us we ‘need’ so many material things, we’re being constantly surrounded with messages of the next best thing or the newest upgrade that we cannot live without. The reality is, as Corrie Ten Boom put it “You never know Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you have”. That’s what I pray everyone would walk out of a Sunday service knowing, that Jesus is all they need.
So when you walk into a church service this weekend, don’t be a Duracell bunny, don’t go in focusing on your own feelings or with a desire only to be encouraged and uplifted. Go to church with a desire to glorify God and pray that you would walk away convicted of your sin, comforted with the gospel and convinced that Jesus is all you need.
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