Doing Church

By an increasing number in our culture today, going to church is considered irrelevant. Many consider it an outdated concept, kept alive by the habitual attendance of the faithful few who still believe in God.

Others, who do believe in God, have given up on church because they believe that church is not being done as Jesus intended. They can make an argument, a very convincing one, that what we see when we attend a typical church today is not a Scriptural representation of how the church should be, but rather simply a social, or worse, a political organization simply seeking to perpetuate itself as an institution for the sake of those who run it.

Let me make clear from the outset that I am in at least partial agreement with all of the above-mentioned criticisms concerning the church as it exists today. There are times when it is irrelevant, outdated, unscriptural, and clearly not what Jesus had in mind. But let me make equally as clear that I love the church. I love the church because Jesus loves the church. The church is his body, the only institution he established, composed of people upon whom he set his love and for whom he gave his life. The fact that we have made a mess of what he wanted us to be does not diminish it anyway our responsibility to the church–– to attend it, and to work to make it what it should be.

This brings us to the question: How do we do church? And the first place we ought to look in order to answer that question is the Bible. What does the Bible say? As a matter of fact, I recall an instance in the history of this church when we were in engaged in a process of reorganization, part of which included a rewrite of the constitution and bylaws. I remember addressing the leadership group charged with this responsibility and posing to them this question:

Based on the expressions I saw looking around the table, it was apparent that very few had considered that the Bible ought to be the starting place in a constitutional revision. It on not to be one of the documents we consult. It ought to be the primary source document. I would wager that most constitutional revision committees begin with the current constitution rather than with the Bible. Do you think I would lose my wager?

In the last message, we considered the priority of edification in worship. In the text before us, we will consider the place of order in worship. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul’s subject is "Doing Church," something his readers needed to know how to do, especially in light of the problems they were having. And he has already dealt with important issues concerning the gifts of the Spirit. We have seen that the gifts are all important, are given to each one of us, are given not for our benefit but for the benefit of others, and all should be used out of a motivation of love.

We should notice several very important points here in verse 26. The first is that Paul does not assume that attendance at church is optional. There is no "if" here. It is not, "If you come together." It is, "When you come together." Attendance at the meetings of the church is not optional, it is assumed.

He then goes on to instruct us on what we are to do when we gather together. Notice the emphasis on everyone. When we gather, everyone has... something to offer. He mentions various things–– a hymn, a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue, and an interpretation. But the point is that everyone is to be involved in the life of the service.

It is the principle of participation, where gifts can be used with the entire church in mind. That is why he says that this is all to be done for the strengthening of the church. We do not participate so that we can be noticed. We’re not here to put on a show, or to call attention to ourselves so that we can receive the praise or applause of other people. Our motive is love and a desire to see the entire church grow spiritually, from the youngest Christian to the most mature elder in the church. Consequently, we come to some important questions about how to do church.

It was clear that the church in Corinth had a problem with tongues. Everyone was speaking at the same time with no interpretation. We’re not talking about people speaking under their breath in prayer and praise in worship, but of speaking loudly for all to hear.

The solution that God gives for this problem was that, in a public meeting, only two or at the most three should speak, and only one at a time, and additionally someone must interpret. This would solve the problem they were having of everyone speaking in tongues loudly at the same time and giving any visitors to their meetings the impression that they had lost their minds.

This is how it should work. If someone, who had the gift of tongues, felt led to speak to the group, they could do so. At that point, they were then to wait for someone to interpret. If someone was present who could interpret the tongue, wonderful. Then everyone would be blessed by the prayer or praise uttered to God. But even then, it was limited to only two or three per meeting. If, however, there was no interpreter present who could give the interpretation, there could be no more public manifestations of tongues in that meeting, the speaker should keep quiet in the church, although all were free to speak to himself and God. This obviously refers to a private expression of quiet praise that was not distracting to others.

Having dealt with the question of tongues in the public assembly, he turned his attention to the question of prophecy. And we find that there is an amazing consistency to his handling of this gift as well.

Again, he mentions that two or three prophets should speak. But obviously prophecy, being in the known language, needed no interpretation. However, something else of great importance was needed. Prophecy needed to be evaluated. Paul says that the others should weigh carefully what is said. When he mentions the others, he could be referring to the other prophets, or he simply could be referring to the others present at the meeting. In any case, every prophecy needed to be evaluated, or judged, as some translations have it.

Remember, we are not talking about preaching here. While there can be a prophetic element to preaching, the prophecy he is referring to here is the spiritual gift of bringing a "now" word to the body of believers. It is not a foretelling of the future, but a specific word of encouragement to the church. It is not an adding to Scripture, in fact, the practice in charismatic circles of beginning a prophecy with the phrase, "Thus saith the Lord" is perhaps a bit unfortunate and misleading. We get that phrase from the Old Testament prophets. But New Testament prophecy is not quite the same as Old Testament prophecy. Dr. Wayne Grudem has written an interesting book on the difference between the two. What we have here is someone sharing a distinct impression God is giving them for the assembled meeting. And that is precisely the reason why it should be evaluated. It could be from God, or not. So there is a safeguard built-in.

There are also safeguards to keep any one prophet from dominating the meeting. Paul indicates that if a revelation comes to someone else, the first speaker should stop. The idea here is that we can all participate in turn, but no one should dominate. And no one can use the excuse that they could not stop because they were under the control of the Spirit. Paul says that the spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. In other words, God never make someone do something outside of his control. We have control of ourselves, and God is not a God of disorder.

Here we come to an extremely controversial issue. What is the role of women in worship? This was not just an issue that was a hot potato in that day, it is still a hotly contested issue in the church today, perhaps even more divisive an issue today than it was then.

There are a number of positions contemporary theologians take, but two seem to dominate the discussion. One is called the complementarian position and the other is called of the egalitarian position. While I might be charged with oversimplifying each position, the complementarian position basically holds to the more traditional view that men are to take the lead in both the home and the church, that we have different roles given by God, and that women, while equal in value, are to submit to the godly leadership of their husbands and should not hold the position of elder in the church. On the other hand, the egalitarian position holds that women and men are essentially the same in terms of what they can do in the church.

So what about women? Well there is no doubt that what we read here is not only what Paul wrote but also what God inspired him to write. This is the word of God, whether you like it or not. There are some that try to dismiss it and to make Paul out as some woman hater. I think they miss the point entirely. Back in chapter 11, Paul gave instructions about women praying and prophesying in the church. If he allowed women to pray and prophesy under certain circumstances, namely, under submission to the leaders of the church, then he certainly does not mean to imply that women cannot speak at all in the meeting. He would be contradicting his own counsel. So what is he saying?

I believe the key lies in the word submission. When he discussed their praying and prophesying, it was in the context of their doing it in submission to their leaders. Here we have the same idea being expressed. And it is important for us to understand the context in which this issue was being raised.

Unfortunately, what many women miss is the fact that Christianity liberated women! For the first time, women could worship with men. Before, they could not even sit in the same place, but had to be separated by a screen, and could only observe. Now they could not only sit in the same room with the men, they could pray and prophesy. Undoubtedly, some may have taken this too far, speaking out of turn and creating confusion. Some have suggested that a wife would shout a question to her husband sitting across the room. Paul certainly knew the cultural setting of his day. How would it look to the community of his day for this kind of thing to go on?

Personally, I take the complementarian view. I believe that there are different roles for men and women. It is certainly apparent that men and women are different physically, and I do not see why we would think that a woman is somehow inferior because God has determined a certain order for both the home and the church. Even in the Trinity, there is a definite order. There is equality, yet Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have different roles.

A huge problem in the church has always been pride. You can generally trace most sins back to pride. Some thought they knew it all. They were not willing to submit to Paul, or anyone else for that matter. They were guilty of spiritual pride. God had spoken to them, and if you did not agree with them, they would not acknowledge or receive you.

After pointing out that they were not as spiritual as they thought they were, he gives them a warning. They need to learn to be in submission themselves, or they are in danger of being ignored, not only by Paul, but by God. You see, pride will puff you up and make you believe that you are more important than you are. And when that happens, God will literally put you on the shelf. God will not use the prideful.

Finally, we come to the bottom line. What about the bottom line? What is the conclusion? It is simply this. We need to focus on the best gifts. He tells us here to be eager to prophesy. And he has already identified prophecy as one of the greater gifts. So he is exhorting us to focus on the gifts that best edify everyone.

However, we should never discount any of God’s gifts. That is why he tells us to not forbid speaking in tongues. We might have some problems along the way, but we can deal with those if we are willing to be obedient to God’s word. It may be a little messy, but God will enable us to work it out. It’s worth it.

But one thing is essential. Order is essential. He tells us in no uncertain terms that everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. Why? We should do it for the sake of both those in the church and those outside the church.

If we would only learn to do church the way the Bible instructs us, we might find that people would change their mind concerning the church. The church is relevant. The church meets the needs of people who are hurting, looking for hope, desperate for love, confused concerning life, needing forgiveness and a new start. And there is no perfect church. But by the grace of God, we can be far more than we have ever been. We can be the church Jesus wants us to be. Can I count you in?

Copyright © 2004 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of the copyright holder and may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice.

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