WORSHIP-EVANGELISM
Worship is
the lost chord of evangelicalism.
Our drive to
evangelize and our desire to grow numerically have led us to “use” worship as a
tool to reach the lost. We have gone so
far as to turn our worship services, as opposed to evangelistic services, into "seeker-friendly"
meetings, so the world will feel at home when they come into the house of
God. We should always be sensitive to
the unsaved, but nowhere in Scripture are we told to accommodate the world in
what God calls the believer to offer to Him.
Ron Owens
The Worship Service: A Hindrance or a Highway
for Revival, Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 2.
Worship is
a holy expression before a holy God. To invite nonbelievers into such a holy
process is a precarious thing, and to design worship in such a way as to
accommodate their secular mindset is not only ineffective evangelism but also
severely compromised worship.
Bill Izard
The Sensitivity of True Worship, Christian Communicators
Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
The act of
purposefully designing worship to accomplish the goal of evangelism is without
biblical precedent… We may worship through evangelism, but never are we
instructed to evangelize through worship.
Bill Izard
The Sensitivity of True Worship, Christian Communicators
Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
We do not
jettison worship for the sake of evangelism, but evangelize for the sake of the
worship.
R.C. Sproul Jr.
Pragmatic
Principle, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 58. Used by Permission of Ligonier
Ministries.
Evangelism is indeed an act of worship. It is an act of
worshipful obedience to the Great Commission of the risen Christ (Matt 28:19-20,
cf. Acts 1:8).
A. Blake White
A Biblical
Theology of Evangelism and Worship, Sound of Grace, April 2009. Used by
Permission.