Role of Evangelism in Corporate Worship
by Ellyzabeth
by Ellyzabeth
Purposes
In addressing the place of evangelism in corporate worship, one must address their differences and similarities.[1] A member of a Pentecostal church rightly remarked:
The fundamental difference between a worship service and an evangelistic service can be seen in the different general purposes of each. The worship service is usually intended for believers and is directed upward to God through prayer, praise, and thanksgiving in contrast to the evangelistic service which is directed outward toward unbelievers through witness, testimony, and challenge. Traditionally the Sunday morning service has been devoted to worship and the Sunday evening service to evangelism.[2]
According to the above, the purpose of the corporate worship service is always vertical or God-wards. From this perspective, no worship can ever be evangelistic, since evangelism is people-centered, and worship is God-centered. In other words, any “worship” which has an evangelistic focus cannot be a worship service at all because it would be directed at the unregenerate sinner and his need to accept Christ. It could be classified as a revival meeting or a crusade but not worship.[3] Here we see a dichotomized view of worship and evangelism.
This view of corporate worship, Paul Rydecky claims, is too narrow.
Worship is the display of love for God, which means obeying His commandments. Those include prayer and praise, nurture and outreach. It might be said, therefore, that all evangelism is worship, but not all worship is evangelism, since worship includes much more than that. Since worship is the all-encompassing service of God, worship is the true mission of the Church. Therefore, if public worship is to summarize the life of the Christian, it must incorporate facets from the entire Christian life. There must be hearing of God’s Word, a response of faith, prayer, praise, confession, education, encouragement and evangelism. The magnificence of public worship is that, when done well, it aids the entire ministry of the congregation.[4]
From Rydecky’s perspective, evangelism may be part of the worship service when appropriate.
Similarly, Ellsworth comments that this way of looking at corporate worship and evangelism is unfortunate.
This unfortunate separation has developed in too many churches. The dichotomy requires church service leaders to decide in advance whether the purpose of the service is worship or evangelism. This unnecessary division ignores the fact that the gospel can be presented in the preaching, the Scripture readings, and perhaps most important of all, in the singing of the congregation.[5]
This view is also supported by Ernest Pickering who believes that evangelism comes as a result of worship and is not separate from it. He says,
Most unfortunately, a dichotomy has been created in the minds of many between worship and evangelism. It would seem (to listen to some) that a quiet, reverent worship service is … a deterrent to evangelism. … Were not sinners cut to the heart by the Spirit of God while sitting in the proper and quiet atmosphere… while Jonathan Edwards was preaching? What about the evangelistic fervency of Charles Spurgeon?[6]
So in one sense, the sermon and the worship service could be viewed as evangelistic, at least potentially.
Yet, there is another opinion. Sally Morgenthaler believes that if any worship service that has an evangelistic focus would be a narrow minded interpretation. According to her, evangelism happens anytime believers live out their faith in worship to Christ. If one is living his life wholly to God, then he becomes a living testimony. This according to her is worship.[7] Hence, if a believer is evangelizing or witnessing for Christ in his life, when believers congregate to worship God corporately in a worship service, their devotion to God will be a witness to the unbelievers. Therefore, the worship service functions evangelistically without the express purpose of being evangelistic.
What Sally Morgenthaler has done here however is to confuse the terms and concepts. To understand what she means, one would have to recognize her definition of worship. Firstly, when it is said that believers do evangelism anytime they live out their lives in worship to Christ, this is the concept of life worship (as written about in Romans 12:1-2) and not that of a corporate worship service or as some would term it, direct worship (as opposed to life worship). They are in fact two different things. However, what Morgenthaler has said about life worship and the witness of believers congregating together is still true. But she did not directly address whether a worship service can be purposefully evangelistic.
Agreeing with Sally Morgenthaler is Marva Dawn, who says,
Worship is the language of love and growth between believers and God; evangelism is the language of introduction between those who believe and those who don’t. To confuse the two and put on worship the burden of evangelism robs the people of God of their responsibility to care about the neighbor, defrauds the believers of transforming depth, and steals from God the profound praise of which He is worthy. Furthermore, the distinction is not total, for if believers worship with gladness and passion, anyone not yet a part of the community certainly will be attracted to the One who is the object of their worship. But to focus the worship on evangelistic introduction deprives believers of deeper nurturing toward Church being and deprives God of the intimate and involved worship due him from the Church.[8]
But while agreeing with the witnessing potential of life worship, Dawn addresses an issue that Morgenthaler does not; namely whether a worship service can be purposefully evangelistic.
I looked, reading the Bible through, for passages that connected worship and evangelism and found none! Isn’t that interesting? Anytime the Bible talks about worshipping the Lord, it never says “Worship the Lord to attract the unbelievers.” It always says, “Worship the Lord because the Lord is worthy of worship.” Or “Exalt the Lord, for the Lord is holy.” Or “Praise the Lord because God is worthy of being praised.” Or “Praise the Lord because such-and-so about the character of God.[9]
Here, it seems that Dawn supports an idea whereby worship and evangelism should not be put together. In other words, a worship service should not be purposefully evangelistic.
Yet, still others view evangelism as secondary to worship.[10] As John 4:24 reminds us: “God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” In other words, we must acknowledge the standard God sets for His worshipers, that they should worship Him “in spirit and in truth.” By so doing, the truth of God will permeate our worship and most of all God will be pleased with our worship. So everything in a worship service must be done for God alone. This is something that an unbeliever cannot do.
On the other hand, still others encourage the use of worship services for unbelievers. Thus, Hustad refers to different kinds of meetings that would be primarily evangelistic. He calls these “services of evangelism.” At different times these services have been called “evangelistic meetings,” “revivals,” “missions,” or “crusades.[11] Furthermore, Hustad clearly states that there are two emphases in an evangelistic service. Firstly, the gospel of God’s love, the kerygma,[12] should be the centre of the evangelistic service, proclaiming our lostness and estrangement from Him, of God’s provision for our redemption, together with the urgent invitation to respond. Secondly, the gospel “is related to the personal cognitive-emotive experience of the individual, both the immediate experience at the time of conversion and continued experiences in everyday life as a believer in whom Christ lives.”[13]
The problem is that some people, such as the seekers’ believers would see every meeting as a time for evangelism, leaving no time for the gathering of the church to worship, be equipped, have fellowship, and grow. But suppose there are unbelievers present during the regular worship service of the church, should there not be an evangelistic message and call presented? Otherwise, they will not have an opportunity to come to Christ. According to Scripture, this argument does not hold true. In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul made clear that when the church is gathered to worship, if an unbeliever happens to be present, he will be “convinced by all” and “convicted by all.” And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among them (1 Corinthians 14:24-25). When the church is truly worshipping, the power of the Holy Spirit is sufficient to bring people to salvation.[14]
From the above discussion, we know that there are different views of evangelism in corporate worship. The question is, How to place those views into the church’s context? Allen and Borror clearly define the ministry of a church in three categories:
Firstly, the ministry of worship, that act of expressing to God His infinite worth and glory; secondly, the ministry of love and unity among the body of Christ, including education, edification, admonition, caring, etc; and thirdly, the ministry of outreach, including missions in all forms, witnessing to and winning the lost.[15]
With that, we could see how each of the ministries will have their own purposes. We should therefore consider the best way to use evangelism in corporate worship. Should a worship service have an evangelistic focus along with the other ministries of the church, or should a worship service be separated from an evangelistic focus so that the ministries of the church are clearly divided?
The writer is convinced that there is a place for an evangelistic focus in a worship service. Yet at the same time, there is no need to have this kind of worship pattern always. An evangelistic focus in a service is appropriate for unbelievers who have not yet known Christ. They need to know the gospel of Christ; whereas for believers, a worship service that focuses upon God will be appropriate. At the same time, the writer is aware that if an unbeliever happens to be in a worship service, the Holy Spirit can work upon him even if there is no direct evangelistic focus.
[1] Ellsworth,
Christian Music in Contemporary Witness, 182.
[2] Alford Delton,
Music in the
[3] For a brief discussion of the meaning of revival and crusade see page 3.
[4] Paul A. Rydecki, Worship that Supports Evangelism. Accessed on 16 August 2002, available from http://www.wls.net/Publications/Theologia/vol3no2/RydeckiEvangelism/RydeckyEvangelis.rtf. Internet.
[5] Ellsworth,
Christian Music in Contemporary Witness, 183.
[6] Ernest Pickering,
The Theology of Evangelism (Clarks Summit,
Pennsylvania.: Baptist Bible College Press, 1974), 59.
[7] Sally Morgenthaler,
“Worship Evangelism: Bringing Down the Walls,” Evangelism
8 (February 1994): 53.
[8] Marva J. Dawn, A
Royal Waste of Time: The Splendor of Worshiping God and
[9] Marva J. Dawn, Is
There A Connection Between Worship and Evangelism?,
Accessed on 7 August 2002, available from http://www.trinity.capital.edu/lecturers.asp?cycle=indiv&ID-52.
Internet.
[10] “Evangelism is not the ultimate reason for worship. Non-believers who are in attendance at a time of worship certainly can be touched by the Spirit, but worship implies the believer’s response to God. A non-believer cannot worship the true and living God. Thus an “altar call” should not be the primary focus. Instead, the church should be called to focus on the One who has called them into His family. Then they take what they have heard, seen, and experienced into the surrounding world.” Jerry Solomon, “Worship,” Accessed on 7 August 2002, available from http://www.probe.org/docs/worship.html. Internet.
[11] Donald P. Hustad,
Jubilate II – Church Music in Worship and Renewal, 379.
[12] Kerygma means
proclamation. Liesch also relates the kerygma and
evangelism when he says that evangelism ought to be the
by–product of a believer’s worship service. Barry Liesch,
The New Worship – Straight Talk on Music and the Church
(
[13] Hustad, Jubilate II – Church Music in Worship and Renewal, 381.
[14] Owens and McMurray,
Return To Worship, 88.
[15] Allen and Borror, Worship, 55.