If a job's worth doing... — Gospel Reformation: UK

Nov 24

Nov 24 If a job's worth doing...

If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly… sort of

Firstly, I do not entirely stand by that comment, I have read Jeremiah 48:10, “Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD with slackness…” Of course, when we do anything we do it with all our might to bring glory to God. Not just in Church, but wherever we are.

However, I came across this piece of wisdom from the late Nigel Lee when I was a student. Sometimes Christians see a wonderful outreach work, know that they cannot replicate it, so don’t do it at all. Nigel’s point: bad evangelism is far better than no evangelism. Good would be better, but some things are just so important we just have to do them. Even badly if needs be.

A non-Spiritual example: when I was a student, I also happened to be a qualified swimming teacher, an opportunity came my way to work with QPR for their summer youth programme (I’m still not sure why a football team needed swimming teachers). They just needed my CV and it was an hour away from the deadline. I didn’t have time to go home, so I went to a friend’s office and borrowed his computer and printer. He was horrified at my sloppy layout and wouldn’t let me print it until he had perfected it. I then took my beautiful CV to the careers office, but I was too late. A pencil written note on toilet paper would have been better, had it been on time. Sometimes it’s more important to do the job, and to do so badly, than to be so perfectionist it doesn’t get done at all.

This wisdom applies to our current circumstances. Our return to church is full of frustrations: distancing, masks and lack of singing spring to mind. Now, I am not making a case for how affective or necessary any of these measures are, for now, they just are. But, some Christians and entire Churches cannot accept services at a lower level than they have been accustomed to.

At this point I am going to quote Andy Young, “this is why it is so good to be Reformed”, at which point even fellow GR:UK folk roll their eyes. But, it’s true, it gives us a helpful frame work to shape our service and make priorities. Of course, limiting numbers and wearing masks are lame. And we miss something significant if we do not sing, singing is there in Scripture. However, doing some of a service is better than none. When we are put in the odd situation of choosing: in person and without singing, or singing at home to a computer screen, we should know which is the right answer.

An observation about conservative Evangelicals: often we haven’t put our money where our mouth is. We have been critical of charismatic churches for over focusing on music, so when they say “the worship is better at that church”, they mean the music set was well executed. Conservative Evangelicals respond saying, “It’s all about the Word!” adding in the small print, “so long as it’s packaged well”. Many churches rely very heavily on a well-polished music group along with a fairly large congregation. Let me be clear, I have no beef with either (if anything, just a tinge of jealousy). But right now both are rendered useless! (Fancy spending the 80s arguing over which styles are appropriate for church). Covid regulations have been a great equalizer, large and small churches now look and feel the same.

How can we worship like this? Looking at the various ‘patterns’ that emerged from the Reformation, themselves steeped in history and following a gospel logic (and a gospel structure), it is quite possible to put together a meaningful worship service without singing. The pattern we use: Call to worship, opening prayer of adoration and invocation, cooperate confession, assurance of pardon (a Bible text explaining forgiveness), OT reading, stand for antiphonal Psalm reading, NT reading, sermon, stand to affirm our faith (E.g. Apostle’s creed, or part of the WCF), intercessory prayers, Lord’s Prayer (together), Benediction. This follows a gospel logic and structure, God calls us to him, we call on him, we ask for forgiveness, hear assurance, hear his word, affirm it, respond in prayer and go out with his blessing. And wonderfully, we do this together, encouraging each other then hang out for a bit outside the church building.

An interesting observation about doing an albeit truncated service with restrictions in person, compared to online services. Here in Chelmsford, we have been able to run a direct comparison. As we rent a building and meet after another Church. So, we started in person service with just the evening service but still broadcast the morning. The morning is a simple affair, where I use MP4 videos or PowerPoint text whilst playing an MP3, for people to sing along at home. I’m very grateful for those who have made such resources available (otherwise I’d be leading the singing). This means we use music produced professionally, or from large well-resourced churches (I’m going to show off here, our musicians would not be out of place with them). However, the feedback I keep getting is that our (no music) evening service is FAR better. And that feedback includes those watching at home (we live stream the evening as well, we are limited to around 30 in our building). It seems, even watching online, a truncated service with real people, is better than polished music that’s tinned.

It has been a heartening time. People have been encouraging, understanding and positive. Everyone has offered to forfeit their place for others, many offered to do extra cleaning. I heard of a fairly large church, repeat their service four times through the day to get everyone in.

Would I choose to do services like this? Nope. Will we continue to once restrictions loosen? I doubt it. Would I swap a truncated, limited service for a professional online one. No way. If some thing is worth doing; really it is worth doing badly.