Reimagining Our Sunday Traditions from a New Testament Perspective
Do you have a nagging feeling that something’s missing from your church experience?
You’re not alone. And it’s time to discover a better way.
Church-reform advocate and Bible scholar Peter DeHaan, PhD is a strong proponent of meaningful Christian community. In Jesus’s Broken Church, he uses Scripture to guide us into right practices and away from the off-track customs that most every church adheres to.
The problem is that today’s church follows an Old Testament model. We go to a building where we have professional clergy serve as our liaison between us and God. Then we pay for the whole thing with our tithes and offerings—just like Moses instructed.
But Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament. Through him we are the church, we are living stones. We don’t need to go to a building. As the church, we take it with us wherever we go. And we don’t need paid clergy either. Each of us serves as priests to one another. Or at least we should.
In Jesus’s Broken Church, you’ll discover:
How Jesus moves us from an Old Testament understanding to New Testament enlightenment
The early church’s approach to their meetings, which we neglect to follow today
Essential New Testament practices that are more important than song and sermon
Biblical ideas to inform the activities of our spiritual communities
Seven religious concepts that require reformation
If you happen to like how your church functions, then don’t buy this book. It will only make you mad. But if you sometimes leave your Sunday service feeling let down, that something is lacking and there must be more, then this book can guide you into a new direction.
Get your copy of Jesus’s Broken Church today to discover what’s missing and how to fix it.
Read more about this in Peter’s thought-provoking book, Jesus’s Broken Church, available in e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #19.
We’ve visited many small churches on our journey. Except for this one, all these tiny congregations desperately desired to grow numerically. But is this God’s perspective?
Increasing the number of people in a church is partly for survival, since a church needs to maintain a core base of people to function and pay their bills. However, striving to be larger also buys into society’s unshakable conviction that bigger is better.
Yet evaluating the significance of a church based on their size is man’s perspective. Whereas God’s perspective judges success by a different standard.
I suspect that from God’s point of view, it’s not numeric size that matters. Instead a kingdom focus—one that values unity and spiritual depth—is more important.
This pastor is one man who truly understands this. His focus is on growing the kingdom of God, not the size of his congregation. His view is so refreshing.
He wants to help all of Jesus’ church, not just one branch. We need more ministers like this and more churches with this perspective.
My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
The More Than 52 Churches Workbook: Pursue Christian Community and Grow in Our Faith
You’ve read More Than 52 Churches. Now it’s time to
put thoughts into action. This workbook will guide you—if you dare let it.
Consider 175
thought-provoking questions to propel your faith forward. Discover how the
narrative of More Than 52 Churches can help inform your church community
and reform your spiritual journey.
Explore
the diversity of Jesus’s church and your essential role in it.
Expand
your perspectives of worshiping God and serving Jesus.
Extend
your faith practices to embrace a more holistic perspective of what it means to
truly follow Jesus.
Casual Christians
need not apply.
More Than 52
Churches gave us more faith
communities to consider and more faith practices to ponder. Now The More
Than 52 Churches Workbook provides gentle, but challenging, questions to
turn stimulating ideas into life-altering change.
Move
from spiritually passive to practical.
Transform
from self-satisfied to self-sacrificing.
Change
from a church consumer to a church champion.
Then contemplate the
three keys to becoming an engaging church and the essential role you play in
making that happen.
If you feel it’s time to move from the sidelines and get into the game, The More Than 52 Churches Workbook provides the plan to get you there.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Hanging Out with Those Who Share Our Beliefs May Be Comfortable, But It Isn’t Good
In the post “Can You Be a __ and Still Be a Christian?” we discussed our tendency to judge other Christians and evaluate their faith through the lens of our life and the spiritual decisions we make. But these choices are secondary.
What matters is Jesus. The key, the one essential, is following Jesus. All other concerns dim in importance to this one eternal, all-encompassing truth.
It’s human nature to seek out those who believe like us—just like
us. And in our increasingly polarized world, we more than ever seek like-minded
people with single-minded fervor, pushing aside those who think, talk, and act
differently—even a bit differently.
But when we focus our time only on people who believe exactly as we do, we run the risk of producing misguided beliefs—and then promoting them with unexamined confidence.
I call this spiritual incest, a provocative, yet apt label for an inevitable outcome we should avoid when we congregate only with like-minded people.
Go to Church with People Who Believe Like Us
When we seek a church to attend, we look for a place that aligns with what we’re used to and where we feel comfortable. This makes sense, but embedded in this goal is people who believe like us.
This is what we’re used to and what makes us comfortable.
Yet what we end up with is a spiritual echo chamber that allows us to feel good about ourselves and our choices but fails to produce meaningful, significant spiritual growth.
Instead we should seek a church that will challenge us spiritually to look at our faith, practices, and convictions from different perspectives.
We need spiritual diversity—not uniformity—if we are to thrive and grow into the people God wants us to become.
Don’t seek a church that makes us comfortable—that’s a consumerism mindset.
Instead seek a church that makes us a little bit uncomfortable, that stretches us spiritually, that challenges us to become more than who we are. This is a holistic, spiritual mindset.
Follow People on Social Media Who Believe Like Us
The same holds true for social media. We seek people who believe like us. They support our perspectives and reinforce our choices.
We feel smugly content with their affirmation. Similarly, we push aside those with conflicting ideas because they confront our choices.
We feel uncomfortably unsettled with their divergent ideals. So we ignore them.
I get this. This is my default mode on social media. And I sometimes question if I should be there at all. Yet when I allow myself to truly consider the perspective of someone who believes differently than I do, I grow as a result.
This can produce one of two outcomes. Either I tweak what I thought I knew to produce a more enlightened, inclusive understanding. Or I embrace with greater intellectual honesty what I already believed.
Only now my perspective becomes an examined one and not blindly accepted. Either way I grow.
Read Content from Authors Who Believe Like Us
Continuing this perspective, we tend to only read
content from authors who believe like us. We do this for the same reasons we use
to select what church we go to and who to follow on social media—of who we hang
out with.
However, I doubt that you read my writing because
you agree with everything I say. I’ve never met anyone yet who believes exactly
as I believe.
I suspect, I hope, I pray that you read my writing because I occasionally challenge you to think of spiritual issues a bit differently, to tweak what you believe to be more spiritually enlightened and inclusive.
And whether you agree with what I write or not, my goal is for you to emerge with a more examined honesty in what you believe and why.
I want to move us more in step with Jesus and who he desires us to become. The goal isn’t to produce uniformity of belief, but to help us grow into the unique disciples he wants each one of us to become.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
When we arrive at church portrays something about us. More importantly it reveals much about the importance we place on God and worshipping him.
Aside from conditioned and cultural predispositions towards punctuality, we also have personal circumstances that can interfere with our best intentions.
Having a baby, small children, or many children can all impede our timely arrival. Needing to pick up someone, or something, on the way to church is a variable outside our control. Bad weather, road repairs, or car trouble can likewise delay our arrival.
While acknowledging that items outside our control, or only somewhat within our control, affect our arrival at church, let’s consider our normal practice:
Arrive Early
When we walk through the church doors early, it says we’re eager to worship God, and we enjoy Christian community. It shows respect for God and others. Depending on our personality we may spend this extra time in quiet contemplation, in prayer, or in conversation.
Arrive Right on Time
Some people breeze in right when the service starts. Though they view being late as rude, they see no reason to show up early. They don’t care to prepare themselves for worship. Does worship hold any meaning for them?
Alternatively, they might not value community. If their goal is to avoid human interaction, why go to church? Church should be about connecting with others and ministering to each other. If we don’t care about the people we attend church with, we might as well stay home and watch it on TV.
Arrive Late
Showing up late is inconsiderate of others and even more so of God. When habitual, it reveals we view our time as more important than theirs, esteeming ourselves over them.
Arriving late distracts others who are worshiping, or trying to worship, disrespecting the God we supposedly came to honor.
Yes, there are folks with psychological issues or social anxieties who purposefully arrive late to avoid human interaction; I’ll leave that for them and their healthcare provider to address.
Do we arrive at church with the expectation of experiencing community and in anticipation of worshiping God? Is church something we’re trying to squeeze into a busy schedule? Or is church merely an obligation to fulfill?
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
About two billion people in the world call themselves Christians, more
than those who align themselves with any other religion. But how many will call
themselves disciples of Jesus? The Bible never tells us to make Christians or
even to be a Christian. But it talks a lot about disciples and discipleship.
Make Christians
For most people, at least in developed nations, becoming a Christian is easy. For many it involves saying a prayer. For others, going to church is all it takes. Some even look at their family tree as the only requirement for them to call themselves Christian.
Other considerations that carry the Christian label might involve joining a church, checking off a box on a commitment card, or donating money.
With these things standing as the only prerequisite, being a Christian is
simple and requires little effort. Churches smugly count members, attendance,
or decisions. And that seems good enough for them.
Yet to mean something worthwhile, Christianity must be more than a
trivial, one-time act. It must be a commitment to live a changed life that
makes a difference.
A disciple is someone who follows and wants to be like their master, their
Rabbi. It’s a total, all-in commitment to a different lifestyle.
Look at Jesus’s disciples. To start, they left their old life behind.
Then they spent their time with him. They listened to his teaching and asked
him questions. Later they told others about him and healed people in his name.
This was their training. Their prep. Then, just before he left Earth to
return to heaven, Jesus told them to make disciples throughout the world.
First, they waited for Holy Spirit power. Then, when they told people about Jesus, thousands responded. The disciples continued to heal the hurting and help those in need. They taught people about Jesus and what it means to follow him and be his disciple.
They formed the first churches, which are far different than today’s versions and which pale in contrast to the gatherings that Jesus’s disciples started. They ignited a spiritual movement that spread around the world.
This is what it means to be a disciple. Few Christians do this. It’s easy to be a Christian, but Jesus doesn’t want us to be Christians. He wants us to be disciples. As disciples we point people to him and make a difference in our world—a difference that matters, both here and into eternity.
Go and Make Disciples
Stop being a Christian and instead be a disciple maker. And it starts by becoming a disciple of Jesus ourselves.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Discover the Origin of Having a Local Place of Worship
Another interesting word that occurs only in the New Testament is synagogues. Appearing sixty-six times, it’s in all four gospels, a lot in the book of Acts, and twice in Revelation. That’s it. Notably the word synagogue does not appear in the Old Testament.
Where did it come from? Why did something nonexistent in the Old Testament become a place of prominence in the New?
The Old Way
In the Old Testament God establishes the tabernacle and later the temple as the only place to worship him. It’s a center of their national religion: one place for the whole nation.
To encounter God, the people go to the temple, which they believe is his earthly residence.
The New Way
In the New Testament, the temple still exists as the national destination for religious celebration, but local synagogues also exist. It seems there’s one in every city that has a Jewish population.
The people meet at their local synagogue on the Sabbath.
On Paul’s missionary journeys, he often first goes to
the synagogue to talk to the Jews in that area. If they don’t accept his
message, then he goes to secular locations to talk to the Gentiles.
The Transition to Synagogues
The Bible doesn’t explain why they’re synagogues in
the New Testament. Nor does it explain the shift of emphasis, which makes each synagogue
a local gathering place for Jewish worship.
However, history does provide an explanation. Babylon conquers Judah and forcibly relocates the people. They can’t go to their temple anymore. It’s too far away. In its stead they establish a local meeting place in each city they find themselves in.
This becomes the focal point of the Jewish community: a synagogue in each city.
When they receive permission to return to Judah
seventy years later, they take this idea of having a local meeting place with
them. When they get back, they go about building synagogues in each city. And
they meet there each week on the Sabbath.
God’s Commands
God never commanded his people to build a local place of worship in each city. Of course, he never prohibited it either. What he did command is a central place of worship for the nation, the temple.
Though I’m still looking for it, I’ve not found any place in the Bible where God commands his people to worship him on the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath.
What he does say about the Sabbath is that we are to keep it holy and not do any work (Exodus 20:8-9).
I don’t see anywhere where he says we need to go to church. Instead, this practice seems to have emerged as a manmade tradition.
Though the temple was a place of worship, it was for various festivals and celebrations that God established. Indeed, going to the temple each Sabbath would pose a hardship on most people who would have to travel long distances to get there.
Though God’s people built synagogues and went there
each Sabbath, it wasn’t his idea. He gave no command for them to do so.
Today this tradition persists. We build local houses of worship and go there each week to worship God. I wonder if we should instead focus on God’s command to honor him by keeping the Sabbath holy and not doing any work.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
May My Clothes Never
Keep a Visitor from Encountering God
My parents, especially my mom, taught me to dress up for church. That’s what people did when I was a kid, and I didn’t question it—even though I’m still looking for a biblical command to do so.
Never mind that I’m sure my parents spent money they couldn’t afford to spend so I could look my best.
Dress Up for Church
Into adulthood, I faithfully
followed this practice, even more so when I ushered. One Sunday, wearing my
best suit and a fashionable silk tie, I stood at my station with bulletins in
hand and my most inviting smile beaming from my face.
In walked a visitor. This was good news. We didn’t have many of them. College-aged, his casual attire consisted of torn jeans, wrinkled t-shirt, and tennis shoes. He carried a wide smile. I instantly liked him. We made eye contact.
When he saw a friendly face, his smile brightened, and he walked toward me with intention.
Then he glanced down, scanning what I was wearing. Taking in my three-piece suit and freshly polished black leather shoes, his pace slowed. He looked left and then right. Seeing no one else dressed like him, he made an abrupt U-turn and left.
I should have followed him and assured him that he didn’t have to dress up for church, that clothes didn’t matter. Instead, I took no action, feeling duty-bound to remain at my post.
Indeed, had I abandoned my assignment to talk to him, surely someone would have complained that I was shirking my duty. In that instance, continuing to do my job as usher seemed the right thing to do. But it wasn’t.
Though it may have been the right thing for the people of the church who expected someone to greet them, hand them a bulletin, and seat them, it was the wrong thing to do for a visitor who panicked and left.
I still regret my decision. It haunts me to this day.
Don’t Dress Up for Church
That was the last Sunday I dressed up for church.
If my clothes challenge conventions, I prefer offending those inside my community, not those outside it.
May my clothes never be an obstacle for a church visitor feeling comfortable or faith seeker from encountering God. I never again wore a suit to church—ever.
Though for a while I condescended to wear a tie for special occasions, I soon dismissed neckwear as well. This helped better ensure that my appearance would never be a barrier to visitors and unchurched folk.
Now, when I dress up for church, it’s pulling on a new pair of jeans. Usually I don’t even bother to do that.
I worship God by what I wear on Sunday morning. He doesn’t want me to dress up for church. He wants me to worship him. And one way to do that is being approachable for visitors.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Discover What the Bible and Our Experience Teach Us
In my posts, I write a lot about the importance of community, specifically meaningful spiritual community. I’ve mentioned community over one hundred fifty times. Two related words—or potentially related words—are fellowship and discipleship.
Aside from my posts about 52 Churches, I’ve written about fellowship ten times. And apart from book reviews, I’ve written about discipleship once and the related phrase make disciples, seven times.
Let’s consider community, fellowship, and discipleship.
The Bible mentions community eighty-five times and fellowship ninety-four times. But discipleship doesn’t occur at all and make disciples only appears once.
From a biblical standpoint, it seems we should focus on community and fellowship, while not worrying so much about discipleship. Interesting.
These three words can mean three
different things, or they can all intersect. To me they are one. When I talk
about spiritual community, I imply fellowship and discipleship.
Community
A community is a group of people with a shared interest. In a spiritual context, this shared interest is our common faith in Jesus. To achieve meaningful spiritual community involves walking with each other in our daily lives.
We celebrate blessings and commiserate struggles.
It’s a faith-sharing, faith-growing, faith-inspiring environment.
God created us for community, just as he exists in community, which we call the Trinity. He wants us to live in community with other followers of Jesus.
In the Bible, I get a sense that we need to pursue community over church. But if we do church right, it results in significant community.
Otherwise church attendance means little, other than checking off the “go to church” box on our to-do list.
I long to be part of a deep,
meaningful, spiritual community. That’s when I feel most alive and most
encouraged in my faith.
Fellowship
Growing up I thought fellowship was a euphemism for drinking coffee. Indeed, scheduled fellowship time at my church involved serving coffee and nothing more. The adults sat around tables, drinking coffee and laughing.
As the adults sipped their brew and shared amusing stories, us kids ran around looking for ways to entertain ourselves. Our goal was to have fun and avoid getting in trouble. Usually we succeeded.
Of course, drinking coffee at
church is a warped understanding of fellowship, though fellowship can start
with a beverage. But there’s more to fellowship than food.
Fellowship is a hospitable and egalitarian gathering of people. It implies a close connection, with the words friendship and camaraderie adding clarity. At its best, Christian fellowship is spiritual community.
Discipleship
A disciple is someone who embraces the teachings of
someone else, in our case Jesus. Disciples are active in their adherence. They
share their beliefs with others. Discipleship is the act of being a disciple. Disciples
make more disciples.
In my experience, the church talks much more about
discipleship than about community and fellowship. I wonder why.
Aside from the Bible’s singular command to “make disciples” (Matthew 28:19-20), Jesus gives a related warning to people who do this poorly (Matthew 23:15).
If we smugly think Jesus isn’t referring to us, it’s a sure sign we’re deluding ourselves and that this warning of woe applies to us.
Discipleship best occurs in community. We learn discipleship through example, not discourse. That is, taking a discipleship class falls far short of making disciples.
Instead, people catch discipleship through example, which can happen in a meaningful spiritual community.
Community, Fellowship,
and Discipleship
Community can be a trivial social exercise that
specializes in small talk. Or community can be a significant spiritual
experience that brings us closer to each other through faith and closer to God.
Fellowship can mean sitting around drinking coffee and
avoiding significant discussion. Or fellowship can be a like-minded gathering
of Jesus’s followers who get together to celebrate their common faith and
spiritual life.
Discipleship can mean sitting in a boring class that stuffs knowledge into our heads, void of action. Or discipleship can be living for Jesus and serving as an example to others.
Participating in significant spiritual community results in meaningful fellowship and actionable discipleship. This reveals why spiritual community is so important. Though some churches begin to tap into this level of community, most don’t.
For most of us if we’re going to experience meaningful Christian community, it’s something we must pursue on our own.
Our faith in our future depend on it.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Churches Close for Tangible Problems, But Maybe Some Should Close for Spiritual Reasons
In the book of Malachi, God laments about his people. Specifically he’s down on the priests because they show contempt for him. Their worship is so off-track that God wishes one of the priests would just shut the temple doors.
This would at least keep them from lighting useless fires on his alter, from having useless worship. He’s so frustrated with them that he won’t accept their sacrifices anyway.
So why bother? Just close the temple. This is a shocking thought, a seeming heretical idea.
Churches Close Every Day
We hear of churches closing all the time. It’s usually due to one of two things. Often it’s for a lack of funds—because the people left aren’t giving enough to keep the church’s doors open.
The other reason churches close is a lack of people—for too many have left.
Generally these two items are tied to one another. Attendance drops, and then giving drops. Programs get cut, and attendance drops more. This continues in a downward spiral.
Eventually there aren’t enough people left to do the work and not enough money to pay the bills. Shutting down is the only option.
Spiritually Dead Churches Should Close Too
I’ve never heard of a church closing because they lost their way spiritually, because their worship has become offensive to God. Yet I wonder if this spiritual malady isn’t just as common—perhaps even more so.
That their reason for gathering together each week is too off track from what God yearns for.
I wonder if God grows sick of these misled congregations and wishes they would just close their doors.
These spiritually impotent churches are just as dead—perhaps even more so—as the ones who no longer have enough people or money to continue.
Shutdown Institutional Churches
Most churches (and especially denominations) become institutions over time. As institutions they seek to perpetuate themselves regardless of the circumstances.
In their struggle for survival, they lose sight of why they existed in the first place.
Instead of seeking to serve their community and offer salvation through Jesus, their focus grows inward. Their priority is on self-preservation at all costs.
Malachi Speaks to Us Today
Some would argue that God’s words through his prophet Malachi apply only to the priests and to the temple of his day. This is an Old Testament thing. Projecting them on today’s church is taking the text out of context. Perhaps.
But if we can’t learn from the Old Testament, why bother to read it?
In an appropriate application, Malachi’s words to shut the doors of the temple are a warning that we should take seriously today.
When our churches and their service become spiritually dead, God may want us to close our doors and not further profane his reputation.
Before you assume I’m talking about someone else’s church, take a serious look at your own. Is it time to close church?
Learn more about all twelve of the Bible’s Minor Prophets in Peter’s book, Return to Me: 40 Prophetic Teachings about Unfaithfulness, Punishment, and Hope from the Minor Prophets
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
