I read with great interest that for Quakers their best form of worship is unprogrammed. People come to the meeting house, sit with their Bible on their lap, when moved they read a Bible verse and then share. If no one shares that is fine, a whole meeting can be silent.
We on the other hand think that a programmed church service is the best form of worship. Being stirred emotionally by music and charismatic preaching is what Adventists generally want.
Please, God, help us to stop and listen to your small, still voice. Amen.
Traveling around to many SDA churches, it seems that for many people, having the program done in exact order is the most important thing of the entire service. Yes, i agree that everything should be done orderly, but we have not been given instructions that everything must be done exactly in such-and-such an order. Perhaps we have stifled creativity among the young people, so they go out to churches where everything is done whimsically crazy?
And why don't many church-goers bring their Bibles anymore? One reason might be that they've gotten doped on the powerpoint stuff, so don't see any need. And if there is no one to play the piano, is it really true that no one can sing?
Yet, the Quakers sometimes get "holy-rolling" from what i've read, which is definitely NOT from the Spirit of God... We must test all the spirits, and not stifle God's.
One reason why people do not bring their Bibles to church is that the church uses many different versions and it is very hard to follow along with the version that you may have. There was a time that I remember when this was not so.
Another possible reason could be that many preachers are more an entertainer / motivational speaker than a Bible teacher. So people listen to their preacher who we are told, is a man of God and we believe him and whatever he states. I stopped doing that many years ago, thank God.
Another possible reason could be that people are so unused to even holding a Bible that it would be foreign for them to even think about picking a Bible up and taking it with them. Besides it just might burn themJ
Yet another reason could be that the Bible is not preacher / taught in the church anymore so it is encumbering to carry it.
Yet another reason could be that they do not have faith in the Bible. They do not believe that the Word of God can do what it says it can do nor do they believe that the Bible WILL do what it says it WILL do. They have no real faith.
One more possible reason might be because very few people actually believe the words in the Bible are from God. Almost no pastors believe this anymore, as they are taught in theology schools that only the "ideas" are inspired, not the words. So if the words might have "small mistakes not important for salvation" in them, then the whole Bible thing tends to get classified as just a "good book".
What seems to be missing from many Christian worship services (of which Adventism seems to have retained the form) is making the Word the Central to worship. In visiting a Messianic synagogue in my area, I was relieved by their manner of worship and rules of discipling. Shabbat School was a full two hours with only 10 minutes devoted to prayer and singing. There was no pre-written lesson book, but just the Tanakh and the Brit Chadashah (Old and New Testaments) on a previously decided topic. There was no skipping about but reading entire portions for study and commenting on them in context, They opened and closed with prayer.
The service was much similar in focus. All tithes were inserted in box before entering, thus there was no offeratory. They prayed, welcomed all to the services, sung songs of praise and adoration, removed the scroll of the entire Old and New Testaments from its ark and adored it, had special music; the Rabbi for that Shabbat introduced the reader who stood up and read, the Rabbi commented for clarity as needed, entertained all relavent questions as the arose, the Rabbi gave his synopsis; there was more special music, requests for prayer followed by the closing prayer by the Rabbi, ending the service. Only afterward were there any relavant or important announcements.
In my church, everything is a routine. Sabath after Sabath is the same, a hymn of praise then the doxology (the old one hundred) and then pastoral prayer followed by the tithes/offerings then the kids corner with secular stories about Johnny misbehaving and so on. The Sabath scholl is less than half an hour and well pretty much everything is rush rush rush. I have proposed that we should follow what the great king david did. He built all kinds of instruments to aid in the worship and he wrote and composed many songs to be sung during the service. what more example do we need? I think we should not look what other churches or denominations are doing but to look what is there inside the Bible to guide us thru the Holy Spirit and I'm very sure our services will be enjoyable and exciting without using worldy music.
