Bluntly put, worship isn’t done by lost, dead people, in ways that comfort their “lostness.” Let me add that corporate worship is not, strictly speaking, evangelism. While it includes evangelism, it is not evangelism per se. And if we confuse this point, if we structure and market Sunday worship primarily for non-believers, we walk a dangerous line. For what it’s worth, men like Moses or Paul would never have seen corporate worship primarily as a form of outreach. Why do you think this is?
Which church would you prefer?
1) A church comprised of born-again believers, but whose corporate worship is wild and unregulated, or:

2) A church comprised of hard-hearted pagans, whose worship style and processes are Biblically sound.

Of course, both options are no good. And unlikely. But this is an article about the “extremes” (or the logical extensions) of some modern church expressions, so let’s roll with it.

Now, the first option is bad for many reasons. A church engulfed in “strange fire” is not going to bring God glory, no matter how many believers it might have. Scripture tells us how we are to approach our God, and when we do so with irreverence, He gets mad. Really mad.

But at the same time, the second option (a Biblically sound worship service, sans believers) would be no good either. If you have great processes, and no penitent hearts, you gain nothing. Worship is to be done in Spirit and truth– it is an act of love and adoration, flowing from regenerated hearts. Without such hearts, worship won’t happen.

So what’s the point?

Well, the point is that corporate worship requires A) believers, and B) Biblical processes. Missing either = frowny faced God, no matter what else you’ve got right. The examples above show that you can be 1 for 2 and still fail, let alone 0 for 2! Churches need a believing membership that worships Biblically in order to please God.

So where does this article stem from? I mean, nobody is planting or seeking churches with the sort of imbalance noted above, right?

Well, a couple of months back, I heard another pastor say “I want a church for the lost; a place where the lost will feel comfortable worshiping.” And that got me thinking about what sort of church would exist at the logical, ultimate extension of those two qualifiers.

Do you see the problem with this pastor’s desire?

Bluntly put, worship isn’t done by lost, dead people, in ways that comfort their “lostness.”

Let me add that corporate worship is not, strictly speaking, evangelism. While it includes evangelism, it is not evangelism per se. And if we confuse this point, if we structure and market Sunday worship primarily for non-believers, we walk a dangerous line. For what it’s worth, men like Moses or Paul would never have seen corporate worship primarily as a form of outreach. Why do you think this is?

Well, because corporate worship is about the body of believers coming together to worship God, and that body is made up of those who’ve previously believed. Or to put it another way, worship occurs when saved people give thanks and praise to the One who has saved them (in the way that He has mandated).

Now, do we want the lost in church? YES! 

Of course we want the lost to attend worship with us; let the gospel’s call ring in their ears, let them hear the Word and be saved. In that sense we do want a “church for the lost,” if one means a church where the lost can be loved on and pointed to Christ.

But if we abandon the principles and object of our worship in order to make this happen, then we’ve failed. We want to save lost people, not lose our own way in the process.

Toby B. Holt is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.