Brief history of evangelical worship

The idea of congregational worship that most believers have is that of something that takes place for a few brief moments during congregational worship, mostly as a prelude to the sermon. The sermon, in turn, is seen by many Christians as the pinnacle of the service, as 'what really matters' on the Sunday show.

This emphasis on preaching as the culminating part of worship probably has one of its main roots in the sixteenth century, during the period of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. That time in history coincided with the influence of the Renaissance, a cultural period that was characterized by a great intellectual revival, and a strong appetite for ancient texts of Greek and Roman philosophy and literature.

The sensibilities of the Protestant Reformers were strongly influenced by that passion for the intellectual and rational of the Renaissance. Furthermore, the early evangelicals had been marked by their violent struggles with the heresies of the Catholic Church. That is why they emphasized both doctrine and systematic theology as a central part of the Christian experience. Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, and the other leading figures of the Protestant Reformation were above all great theologians as well as men of action. With the passage of time, the doctrinal and pedagogical dimension of the cult became paramount in the Protestant world.

One consequence of this was that congregational worship, the emotional and even physical aspects of worship, diminished in importance, until it became a secondary part of the new evangelical cult. The ancient visual and sensory richness of Roman Catholic worship diminished in importance, and even came to be seen as an impediment to true worship. The desire to purify worship and strip it of anything that might suggest idolatry led to the elimination of statues, paintings, and typical rituals of the Roman Catholic temple.

The sense of mystery evoked by the incense, the candles, the carved wood, gave way to the simplicity and lack of ornamentation of the Protestant temple. Praise was simplified to the extreme. The cult became much more cerebral, internalized. It came to depend more on what happened in the mental and conceptual space of the believer, than on what happened in the physical space of the temple. The good intentions of the Reformers to eliminate idolatrous aspects of Roman worship also eliminated healthy elements of enthusiastic and fully spiritual worship.

This historical summary undoubtedly oversimplifies what is indeed a very complex subject. But the essential truth is unquestionable: throughout many centuries of Church history, especially during modern times, enthusiastic praise and the symbolic acts that are part of worship have not played the powerful and essential role that we see reflected. in the scriptures. Rather, worship has become mere scaffolding, a prelude to other things that have been seen as more important, such as evangelism, preaching, or teaching.