Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – Visible Christianity: A Call to Consider the Social Implications of Worship

By Enoch Era
June 2009

In December 2008, following the violent attacks on Christians in Orissa, India, there was a threat that Christians would not be allowed to celebrate Christmas. This resulted in a sense of confusion and consternation on the part of Christians.

A Real Look at Christianity in India
 In an article in the Organiser, dated 1 February 2009, Dr. J. K. Bajaj wrote, “A couple of months after the visit to Uttarkashi, I took the metro from Chennai Station to Mylapore. Suddenly, I found too many of the houses along the track supporting imposing crosses. Christian symbols were always very visible in southern towns.”1

Recently, a friend from another faith was referring to the altars in some churches as the sanctum sanctorums of the churches. Additionally, in India, we tend to think that we make ourselves visible by conducting large meetings or crusades and making the same available through loud speakers to unwilling and invisible listeners.

The above instances illustrate how people perceive Christianity. Is that how the Lord Jesus wanted his people to be in the world?

A quick glance at the Christian landscape worldwide and church history reveals that it is littered with large Gothic structures, ornate ecclesiastical orders, and elaborate worship patterns. The story is the same with the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and even Protestant churches. For most Christians and non-Christians, “church” is something that is visible as a structure or on a Sunday morning.

“Church” is synonymous with the church service and is practically non-existent the rest of the week. What else explains the emphasis most churches give to the planning, preparation, and conducting of excellent Sunday services with military precision? Many mega-churches use the Sunday services to reach the unchurched through polished music, multimedia, and sermons taken from popular culture and other familiar themes.

Do we actually need physical structures in order to worship God? Do we need a Christmas to celebrate the birth of the Lord, so that the detractors of Christianity can use it as a handle to harm us? Why are we so disturbed when our church buildings are demolished? Is the building a sacred place where the sanctum sanctorum is?

The Right Kind of Worship
 First, let me address the issue of right kind of worship. In response to the statement by the Samaritan woman, the Lord Jesus clearly stated that true worship does not depend upon its physical location or its geography, but is in “spirit and truth.” There are two words used in scripture to refer to worship:

  1. Proskuneo means “bowing down” in Greek and is used in the context of temple worship in the Old Testament, the Gospels, and in the Book of Revelation, thus suggesting that it is worship given to God in the context of his “real, physical” presence.
  2. Latreia means “service” in Greek and is used in the rest of the New Testament. This suggests the kind of worship that is given to God in the “church age.” Hence, Paul’s plea in Romans 12:1: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship [latreia].”

Our worship of God is seen in our service to the world. This is not to suggest (according to the popular aphorism) that “service unto others is service unto God.”

Enoch Era is an itinerant preacher and writer based in Hyderabad, India. He mentors two fellowship groups called Aradhana and Ashirvad. He also leads Rupanthar, a group working toward transformation; one of their current projects is for the improvement of traffic safety in Hyderabad. His email is [email protected].