“What’s my name, what’s my station, oh just tell me what I should do… but I don’t know who to believe”
Once upon a time, the practice of attending worship on a Sunday morning in Savannah was woven into the fabric of the city. Everybody did it. Thats not to say that everybody did it for the same reasons, or believed the same things, or was changed in the same way. But there was no avoiding Sunday morning worship in the South. As a member of the community, it was just what you did. It was an unquestioned part of the culture.
Times have changed. There is no longer such a thing as an unquestioned need for worship- even to those who call themselves Christians. This isn’t because some new evidence has emerged disproving the truth of the Christian Story. And we still long for what we do to fit into something bigger than ourselves, something communal. But our city has changed, grown, become more culturally diverse, reflecting the changes in Western Culture at large. And we as individuals have changed- the same technologies which help connect us with those who share our interests in other places has pulled us out of this place, this community, and from the common cultural practices which connected us to those nearest us. And this has made God seem farther from us.
“There is a God, who is Lord and King over all, who is good and does good to all, and is therefore to be praised and served with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. ”
In response to this disconnect between God and the practices of our community, the church has tended to respond in one of two ways. Rightly recognizing that, if God is who He says He is, we ought to worship him, we shout that worship is a good end in and of itself, so we as a community ought to pick up worshipping where we left off. Just do it, just because. Or, on the other hand, rightly recognizing that God rules over all of life, we say that worship was never that important after all, that it matters more what you do with the rest of your week.
Both sides are right. And both sides are wrong. At Christ the King, we believe that worship is both an end and a means. It is right and good to worship the God who made heaven and earth, to come into his presence with thanksgiving and songs of praise, as an end in and of itself. AND, worship is the means to meaning- it helps us remember why we are here, who we are, and whose we are. So that Monday-Saturday isn’t despair, and Sunday worship an emotional catharsis, but instead that Sunday worship empowers our worship the rest of the week.
There’s no going back to some supposed golden age of worship in Savannah, and I’m not sure we would want to if we could. But what if our worship at least helped put back together what has been torn apart? Heaven and earth, God and man, Love of God and Love of Neighbor, Sunday night and Monday morning?
“Its hard, but at least I know why I am here.”