I am certainly not advocating canceling Sunday worship services. However, one wonders whether the plethora of activities found in large evangelical (and other) churches is a sign of something gone amiss. Although the activities are characterized as ministries in service to the membership the natural outcome of such a ministry philosophy is a widespread feeling among church members that the church exists to meet their needs. Often the worship service is designed to meet emotional needs while the many activities during the week exist to meet the multiplicity of needs found in any large number of individuals. Given the unique quality of the individual there is no end to the innumeration and growth of needs waiting to be met.

The ever-growing dependence on the church to meet members' needs has led to increased separation of the church from its cultural context. For one thing, with all the 'opportunities for service' the church provides, very little time is left for members to participate among the lost. But more critical is the ever-evolving concept of church among members of the Chrisitan community which sees the church existing as guarantor of their God-given rights for comfort, safety, abundance, pleasure, and, yes, spiritual edification.

The outside world surely is mystified by an organization which claims to exist to serve God and yet seems to exist to serve itself. Does following Jesus really mean running to the churchhouse every day of the week? And is it not possible that the church, in providing so many activities and 'opportunities for service,' in reality is countermanding Jesus' call to "go into all the world?" How can we go into all the world if we're busy going to the church? Can we trust God to go with us outside the sanctuary? Let us worship and fellowship together but let us never forget that God is waiting to meet us outside the gate.

Very few answers to our questions about corportate worship can be found in the life and teachings of Jesus. The obvious reason is that he was not worshipped until after his resurrection and ascension. The epistles to the early churches, therefore, offer more information and instruction concerning church life and worship. I would dare to say, however, that given Jesus' silence on the subject of worship and the comparative scarcity of instruction in the epistles concerning worship itself, the focus of modern evangelical churches on what occurs inside the church walls as distinguished from what our lives are to be on the outside is out of proportion and even contrary to what is found in the New Testament.

At Fellowship Baptist Church in Armathwaite, Tennessee, preaching occurs one weekend a month. On the other Sundays the church meets for a short assembly, followed by Sunday School. The pastor of this church is a circuit-rider, preaching at a different church each of the four or five Sundays in a month. Perhaps if the church were larger, or if there were more pastors in the area, it could have preaching services two Sundays a month, or even four. The church has probably existed in this fashion since its inception in the mid to late 1800s.

The folks in Armathwaite and the surrounding community simply do not expect the church to take up a large portion of their time. Most are farmers working additional jobs to make ends meet. The question is this: are they wrong in not expecting more from their church? Or is it simply that a rural environment has different needs than urban? Or do they know something the rest of us may have forgotten? More to come.

The recent article on Greg Boyd (http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/disowning-conservative-politics-is/20060729195809990004?ncid=NWS00010000000001) is encouraging. Boyd is a well-known evangelical author and pastor. Perhaps his experience is a sign that evangelicals are beginning to wake up to the realities of American evangelical "success." Hopefully there will be many more to follow in his steps. Some questions church leaders must continually ask themselves as they look out over their congregations each week are: is this what Jesus intended for his church? is this the true spiritual outgrowth of the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus? is this church a revelation of God at work or is it something else entirely? what are these people actually experiencing? where does this worship experience fit in to the calling of God on these people's lives? More to come.