Today, in an age marked by declining church attendance, worship wars and spectator worship, I believe God is calling His people — in a missional movement — to return to a biblical lifestyle that goes full circle in continual worship, discipleship and missions.
Worship in spirit and truth is focused on God alone and moves His children to grow up as disciples and go out as missionaries. God’s primary strategy to win the world is to get His church into the world — not the world into churches.
We are in a rapid statistical decline in almost every category of evangelical life. Eighty percent of our churches are plateaued or declining, and church growth experts say one of every three churches in America will close its doors if this decline continues over the next 10 to 20 years.
Mark Powers
There is good news, however: The same methods the early church used to grow from 4,000 at Pentecost to 4 million by AD 200 are still available to us today.
God is calling worship leaders to focus our worship totally on Him, to become intentional about making disciples who make disciples, and then to lead our worship teams to join God on mission in our communities. Here are four things to consider:
God created worship for Himself.
The biblical words for worship portray falling prostrate at God’s feet and giving up our right to ourselves. Jesus gave us the formula for true worship when He said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all to me.” Regardless of our style of worship, the heart of worship is totally focused on God and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus and understood as a daily lifestyle for all Christians. Why? Because God knows that worship is the context of relationship, and relationship with us is His ultimate aim. Let’s call our people back to worship that lays our lives before Him.
God is calling His people to make disciples who make disciples.
Too often, our goal is to build the institutional church. Self-centered people build self-serving institutions. But worship leaders, too, must engage in an intentional process to make disciples who make disciples. Jesus did not build His kingdom on the crowd — He built it on disciples. He raised disciples by doing life together in a small group, building accountability from relationships, and teaching through storying. Have you ever been truly discipled? Are you discipling anyone?
Culture is a gift from God to connect people with Him.
Culture includes style, language and social patterns. Missionaries understand that they must learn the culture to which they are sent and use it to connect people with God. Yet we often want to put our own culture on the throne in place of God. Discern the heart language of your church and use it to grow the people as disciples and send them on mission. Use your church’s indigenous cultural language to grow “worshiping disciples on mission.” Then lead your church to learn other cultural languages to go reach other communities for Christ.
Where in the Bible does it say we will win the world by getting the world into church?
It doesn’t. The Bible says we will win the world by getting the church into the world! My definition of missions is this: “Meeting people at their point of need, in your community, on a regular basis, to build relationships, which leads to witnessing opportunities.” Worship ministries can lead a church to discover how God grew the early church into a powerful force in the world.
Worship isn’t about who can attract the most people to a church service. Ultimately, true worship always leads to true discipleship and the real call to be on mission.
— Mark Powers is director of the Worship & Music Office of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and author of “Going Full Circle: Worship that Moves Us to Discipleship and Missions,” available at Amazon.com and other providers.