Worship in Many Parts 

What is your favourite element in worship? Do you thrill to the hymns, long for the time of prayer or most appreciate a really good sermon? Of course you are allowed to enjoy all of these aspects of worship but if you could only have one which would you choose? I’m willing to guess that different people in a congregation would give different answers and that this is true whether the congregation is a vast gathering in the hundreds or literally just “two or three gathered in his name,” 

As I write this letter Christian Aid Week is under way and tomorrow I’ll be trekking up and down garden paths to strangers’ doors, asking them to make a contribution to the collection. If asked to design a Christian event that will maximise public participation few of us would think to choose the offering as the element of worship most likely to get a good response. As it happens though, even more people than the number comprising the audience of Songs of Praise choose to take part in this event. 

In worship, with the possible exception of church treasurers, the offering is unlikely to get many votes for “Most Popular Moment in Service.” As far as men are concerned a recent survey of four hundred male readers of the magazine Sorted revealed that for them the most popular part of the service was the talk or sermon (72%). Although 60% of those surveyed liked singing in worship they had a clear preference for proclamational hymns rather than emotional love songs. Those surveyed did not like hugging, holding hands or sitting in circles discussing their feelings in church. 

Some readers of this letter (men or women) may be saying a fervent “Amen” of agreement to all of those views. Some (men or women) may be in total disagreement. Others may love the sermon almost as much as they are attached to hymns that qualify as “emotional love songs” or want more time given to proclamation in our singing but less to listening to proclamation from the pulpit. Just spare a thought for our worship leaders who have to create a service that meets the diverse needs and preferences of a congregation made up of men and women, younger and older, coming from a variety of social and ethnic backgrounds. 

Worship should reflect some of our preferences because they flow from the sort of people that we are and it would be strange to worship in a way that is totally alien to our identity. At the same time, however, since we are a mixture of people, individually and culturally, we cannot expect worship to suit our individual preferences all of the time, not taking into account the different preferences of our fellow worshippers. Also, all of us need to remember that although worship is essential in forming us as people we are not the object of worship. God is the object of our worship and trying to discern what is worthy of a God of creation, love, mercy and justice affects the content and the style of our worship: 

Lord of all good, our gifts we bring to thee,Use them thy holy purpose to fulfil:Tokens of love and pledges they shall beThat our whole life is offered to thy will.                                                A F Bayly (1901-1984)                                                Rejoice and Sing 404Trevor 

The survey of male worshippers is reported athttp://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/newstopics/religion/5278040/Male-worshippers-like-to-sing-macho-songs-in-church.html