“As if” Sunday were special
July 21, 2006 Leave a comment
An article in the London Telegraph entitled, “Church must be more than a Sunday service,” reports the Church of England recently declared that churches must adapt to modern life by offering many more weekday and evening services rather than continuing to act as if only Sunday is special.
Wait. Did they actually say “as if Sunday is special?”
Does not the Lord declare the Sabbath to be special? Are we not supposed to set aside one day of the week specifically for the worship of God? Where in Scripture does it say the commands of our Lord are to be compromised in order to accommodate “modern life?”
The article goes on to report that people will drift away if they are not offered alternative and attractive services that “fit into their busy lives.”
Some observations:
— Church is not supposed to be an entertainment venue for the unregenerate. Church is the gathering together of believers for worship, study, and fellowship. We come together to glorify God.
— When we, as believers, begin to view corporate worship as something we have to “fit into” our busy lives then we need to evaluate our priorities.
— If we have no desire to worship God and fellowship with other believers then we really need to evaluate our lives.
This whole mindset of shifting biblical directives to accommodate ourselves is symptomatic of a much deeper problem. The modern church has become consumed with the notion that God exists for us. We have taken to the idea that it’s okay to conform Christianity to our worldview and our lives in any way we see fit because, after all, if Christianity doesn’t help us accomplish our goals then what good is it? So we shouldn’t be at all surprised to find the Church of England declaring that Sunday is just another day. Hey, as the article points out, “modern-day weekends are full with domestic and personal agendas” that “present difficult choices for many.”
The bottom line: Our “personal” agendas are the priorty. If we don’t view it as important then God needs to adapt to our “modern” lifestyles.
Nope.
We need to get this straight. We exist to glorify God, period. Not the other way around. It’s not all about us, it’s all about Him. He is not to conform to us, we are to conform to Him. Now, I don’t expect the unregenerate to understand this. But it sure is troubling when believers begin to adopt the world’s perspective when God’s Word is so clear.
For a more biblical view of the Sabbath read Dr. David Alan Black’s article entitled, “The Lord’s Day still belongs to the Lord.”