Restoration of Sunday Worship
It has been said that Sunday worship is very important. Then, what should be done first for the restoration of Sunday worship?
First, I believe we must move away from sermon-centered worship in the future. No one can deny the position that sermons occupy in Protestant worship. However, excessive sermon-centered worship can implant a wrong view of worship that "sermon is worship." People with a simple understanding structure of worship tend to think that they can experience the grace of worship only through sermons. If they experience grace through the sermon, they think they have experienced grace through worship, but in the opposite case, they judge that they have not experienced God's grace through worship.
However, worship must be based on a holistic understanding. The various elements that make up worship must be comprehensively harmonized, and worshipers must be able to experience the work of the Holy Spirit through all elements. Basically, worship is a channel of grace. God's grace can be experienced not only through direct linguistic elements such as prayer, praise, and scripture reading, which are various orders and elements of worship, but also through non-verbal elements such as symbols and silence. The sermon is one of several elements that make up that day's worship. Although it occupies the most important position in Protestant worship, the importance of other elements that make up worship should not be diminished by the sermon. Rather, if only the sermon is emphasized excessively in worship, various dysfunctions of worship may appear. Worship where one pastor is excessively central, and intellectual and rational worship centered on learning and teaching, is very likely to become worship that makes worshipers passive. In the future, the proportion of sermons will decrease.
Second, various components of worship must be allowed to reveal their functions well. This is a more concrete implementation plan for the sermon-centered worship mentioned above. As mentioned earlier, all elements that make up worship are channels for experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit and are means of grace. I argue that Sunday worship should have more prayer sequences. Not only representative prayer or pastoral prayer, but also prayer sequences offered with the saints should be included. The congregation participating in worship should be able to pray for their own prayer topics and intercessory prayer topics. In order to lead from passive worshipers who only listen to sermons to worshipers who participate more actively, prayer must be included so that worshiping saints can have a time of spiritual challenge and decision. Prayer can be enriched through tongsong prayer (praying aloud together), silent prayer, praise prayer, etc.
Third, efforts must be made for changes in worship. Most churches under denominations have offered worship according to tradition or denominational worship guidelines. In this case, they are very passive about making changes to the order of worship. They sometimes think that changing the order of worship or trying something new damages the holiness of worship. Rather, there are cases where maintaining the form of worship that has been offered so far is considered a way to maintain conservative and traditional faith. When our church changed the form of the 2nd service to 'Open Worship', there was a lot of opposition. In fact, changing the form of worship has nothing to do with maintaining conservative and traditional faith. On the contrary, if changes are made to worship, it can give challenges and impressions to many saints. Changes in worship can start from small parts. The purpose of attempting change is to have the congregation participate more actively in worship and through that, to experience the grace that God wants to give through worship. The attempt at change is not aimed at simply changing the order and components of worship. Through change, it is to have the congregation participate more deeply in worship and experience the work of the living Holy Spirit through worship.
Weekday Worship
Despite the importance of Sunday, the number of churches worshiping during the week will increase in the future church. There was a time when terms like 'Sunday Grand Worship' and 'Sunday Day Worship' were used. At that time, Sunday day worship was usually worship at 11 am on Sunday. Those who did not worship at this time on Sunday morning were treated as if they had violated Sunday observance. However, there are also significant opposing opinions asking, "How long will we stick to Sunday day worship?" Among them, churches are emerging that worship during the week in consideration of the daily lives of the saints.
Does the Korean church reject weekday worship? Several reasons lying behind it can be mentioned, but first, the Korean church understands the church and the world dualistically. The Korean church tends to identify the Kingdom of God with the church, emphasizes spiritual things while relatively neglecting realistic things, and emphasizes the history of redemption while the historical dimension is weakened. This dualistic thinking becomes a reason why evangelism is enthusiastic but the practice of the gospel in the world is neglected. And while Sunday worship is offered to God, the church does not try to take responsibility for things that happen during the week.
Second, a church-centered view of faith and mission is dominant in the Korean church. Unlike Western churches, the Korean church has grown within a short history of Christianity. As the character of faith is strong, the religious characteristic of coming "from the world into the church" was formed. For them, worship focuses on solving, healing, and restoring the anxiety, wounds, and difficulties that believers experience in the world. And they consider Sunday worship as the best. They not only neglect gathering during the week relatively, but also cannot understand or tolerate offering Sunday worship on weekdays.
Third, the Korean church's view of faith is formed with personal, spiritual, ecclesiastical, and otherworldly characteristics, so it has religious zeal but takes a very passive attitude in social and historical dimensions. Faith toward God is almost represented by "church events" that take place within the church. It is pointed out that the Korean church is enthusiastic about evangelism toward the local community, but lacks interest in the local community, so it does not have deep interest in practice in the social and public sphere compared to passionate evangelism. Therefore, the worship offered by the church also tends to be limited to the worship of believers gathered in the church. For these people, worship offered on weekdays inevitably feels resistant.
Weekday Worship in American Churches
Unlike Korea, in the case of Emerging Churches, which are attracting attention as the next-generation church movement in the United States, the number of churches worshiping on weekends is already increasing. They express the one truth in various ways to the postmodern generation who thinks that truth is diverse, so that they can approach Christian truth more easily. In step with this, there are quite a few churches that offer various styles of worship within one church. In many churches in the United States, the number of churches worshiping on weekends or during the week is increasing. This is because in the unique American environment of a multi-racial country, the jobs, daily lives, and cultural backgrounds of church members are becoming more and more diverse, and accordingly, one form, worship offered on one day, Sunday, cannot be uniformly emphasized. Glendora Grace Church offers 6 different worship services every weekend.
McLean Bible Church is a 'Mega Church' selected as one of the top 10 churches in the United States. This church offers adult worship and young adult worship completely separated into two churches. In the case of adult worship, the music style is different for each of the 4 weeks of the month. In addition, many churches such as Oklahoma Life Church (www.lifechurch.tv) and Granger Community Church (www.wiredchurches.com) are worshiping during the week. Saddleback Church offers 4 weekend worship services, 2 each on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is at 5 pm and 7 pm, and Sunday is at 8:45 am and 1:45 pm. Saddleback Church's weekend worship is expressed as 'Seeker Sensitive Service'. This refers to worship that comes from trying to make a church where those who do not believe or are distant from the church can come and easily adapt.
It is difficult for the Korean church to accept weekday worship emotionally. However, when the situation changes and the requirements of the saints are diverse, while keeping the beauty of tradition, in these days when a decision is needed to keep pace with changes in communication methods due to the change in daily paradigms due to Corona and the spread of digital culture, an expectation arises that the crisis given to us today may become a golden opportunity. It is not to say that we should unconditionally replace worship offered during the week with Sunday worship, or justify weekday worship. It is to examine alternatives attempted in inevitable situations, although not perfect, with an objective and open mind. I think it is natural to prepare alternatives through detailed observation and discussion, and it is the duty of the church to protect worship. Meanwhile, whether we agree or disagree, the number of churches gathering and worshiping during the week and on weekdays will increase in the future church.