02-Ideals of Worship
CHAPTER II IDEALS OF WORSHIP
IT may be that the lack of popular interest in public worship is not due primarily to the religious indifference of the community, but rather to the failure of the churches to conduct worship effectively. Only rarely does one find a service characterized by an atmosphere genuinely devout or quickeningly religious. This applies to large churches as well as small, to those which use “prescribed prayers” as well as those which enjoy “free worship.” On the one hand, mechanical orderliness and ritualistic decorum are emphasized at the expense of life. On the other, freedom has admitted slovenliness and irreverence to the sanctuary.
Under both circumstances one misses the dynamic quality which is associated with reality in spiritual things. It is inexcusable that a church or minister should do little else than conduct services of worship, and yet do that so unimpressively that the weary spirit finds no rest in collective prayer. i. IDEALS OF WORSHIP. This ineffectiveness is due to the control of false ideals of worship. One of these is the sacerdotal conception of public worship as “Divine Service,” or a way of serving God. Doubtless there is a measure of truth in this view. If God covets the fellowship of men, as the New Testament represents, men render him a service when they give themselves to him in love. But this thought is obscured by undue regard for the exact performance of the ritual which in the end implies that God is primarily interested in the manner in which men offer their worship. With true religious insight Doctor Fosdick has suggested that public worship is not divine service but preparation for divine service in daily living. Again, the (esthetic ideal is sometimes in the ascendant. Public wor
20 IDEALS OF WORSHIP 21 ship is not distinguished from public entertainment. The aim is to give pleasure to the congregation rather than to induce the people to pray. The musical numbers are professionally excellent. The prayers are rhetorically perfect. The sermon is oratorically effective. One may depart from such a service in the pleasant frame of mind in which a good concert leaves him. But it is not a worshipful frame of mind. God is not necessarily in his thought, though the sermon, the music, and prayers may have dealt with religious themes. More commonly, however, the homiletical ideal controls in evangelical communions. The sermon is exalted to the place of primary importance in the service.
Everything else is incidental. Historically the reformers of the sixteenth century who substituted the sermon for the sacrifice of the mass, and, in their reaction against everything Roman, either abolished from the public service that which appealed to the aesthetic sensibilities or assigned it to a distinctly subordinate place, are responsible for this “sermonolatry.” The influence of this ideal is still powerful, as the common custom witnesses of announcing services of worship as “preaching services.” Under this ideal the pastor permits himself to become absorbed almost exclusively in the preparation of the sermon, giving little or no attention to the music or public prayers. These are regarded as unimportant “preliminaries” to the real means of grace. The congregation too regards them in like manner and is satisfied if it is finally assembled by the time the sermon has begun. Under this ideal the value of the service is determined by the accident as to whether or not the sermon is “good.”
Each of these ideals emphasizes something that deserves careful consideration. There should be enough of ritualism in public worship to make the service reverent and orderly.
There.should be sufficient respect for aesthetic values that the sensibilities of the ordinary person shall not be offended. And the educational value of the sermon should be appreciated to the extent that the minister shall always put into 22 THE PASTORAL OFFICE it his best thought and effort. But to emphasize unduly any one of these admirable qualities defeats the end of social prayer by substituting a subordinate for a primary aim. This aim can never be to teach correct ritualistic action, or to affect pleasantly the aesthetic feelings, or to impart knowledge of religious subjects. It is nothing less them the development of proper attitudes of soul toward God and men to induce the great worshipful moods and give them stability. In his excellent volume on Worship in the Sunday School*
Professor Hartshorne groups the more important Christian attitudes under five heads: Gratitude, Good Will, Reverence, Faith, and Loyalty. Each of these is a composite emotion including many others which in themselves are legitimate ends of worship. For example, gratitude is compounded of joy, tenderness, and the feeling of obligation. Good will embraces joy, pity, sorrow, forgiveness, and kindness. Reverence is a blending of fear, wonder, admiration, tenderness, respect, dependence, love, and penitence. Faith is made up of hope, assurance, joy, freedom, aspiration, confidence, and trust. Loyalty involves the sense of ownership, devotion, and self-surrender. The problem that is set for the leader of public worship is to conduct himself in such a manner and lead the people in such exercises as will arouse one or more of these emotions.
Whatever other values the service may possess, if it fails to do this, it cannot properly be called “public worship/’
2. PSYCHOLOGY AND WORSHIP. The leader of worship should be a student of modern psychology. Educators have long understood the value of this science and no one can be regarded as equipped for the work of teaching who is not familiar with its principles. But Professor Gardner’s comment on the relation of psychology to preaching applies with equal force to the whole matter of public worship: “The works discussing the preparation and de
*Pp. 50-58 IDEALS OF WORSHIP 23 livery of sermons rarely, if ever, approach the subject from the standpoint of modern functional psychology. The psychological conceptions underlying most of these treatises belong to a stage of psychological thought long since past. But there seems to be just as much reason for applying the principles of modern psychology to preaching (or worship) as to teaching.” 2 The minister who desires to become skillful in the art of conducting social worship will take into serious account the literature of this subject, especially that part of it which treats of the psychology of the crowd. His first task is to create mental unity, induce the people to think and feel together. This suggestion may be resented by those who believe that the “crowd mind” is hopelessly inferior in every way. 3 But Gustave Le Bon, the great pioneer in this field, insists that while the crowd is intellectually and volitionally inferior to the individual, emotionally it may be worse, or better, according to circumstances. If human nature sometimes degrades itself in collective action, it likewise, on occasion, glorifies itself thus.
/’Doubtless a crowd is often criminal, but it is also often heroic,” says Le Bon. “It is crowds, rather than isolated individuals, that may be induced to run the risk of death, to secure the triumph of a creed or an idea, that may be fired with enthusiasm for glory and, honor, that are led on almost without bread and without arms, as in the age of the crusades, to deliver the tomb of Christ from the infidel, or, as in ’93, to defend the Fatherland. Such heroism is without doubt somewhat unconscious, but it is of such heroism that history is made. Were people only to be credited with the great actions performed in cold blood, the annals of the world would register few of them.” 4 a Reprinted by permission of The Macmillaa Company. Part in parenithesis the author’s. Charles S. Gardner, Psychology and Preaching, Preface.
“See Martin, The Behavior of Crowds.
4 Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd, p. 37** 24 THE PASTORAL OFFICE
If it is possible to lift one to higher levels of feeling and acting in the crowd than he is likely to reach as an individual, surely it is entirely legitimate to manipulate the crowd to that end. This is the justification of many revival campaigns which are open to criticism from other points of view. After all the objections are entered, the fact remains that for a little while men thought, felt, and acted on higher levels than they were wont to do in “cold blood.”
It may be helpful to summarize the essential characteristics of the crowd mind. A multitude need not be a psychological crowd. It is not, so long as its component individuals think and act for themselves. On the other hand, widely scattered individuals may display the marks of a crowd. You do not have a crowd until mental and emotional fusion has taken place and the individual mind is sunk in the collective mind. This group mind is not a mere summing up of all the individual minds composing it.
“What really takes place is a combination followed by the creation of new characteristics, just as in chemistry certain elements when brought into contact combine to form a new body possessing properties quite different from those of the bodies that served to form it.” 5 In quality this collective mind resembles the “primitive” or “barbarian mind.” It is impulsive, credulous, unstable, mobile, highly suggestible. It does no critical thinking, and quickly transforms feeling into action. The consciousness of numbers gives it a sense of power, and the disappearance of self-conscious individuality creates a condition in which ideas and feelings are very contagious, running quickly from person to person. In these qualities we find the secret of a crowd’s intolerance and also of its generosity, of its distrust and its faith, of its irritability and its patience. The leader of worship must understand the nature of the crowd mind, utilizing its suggestibility to make higher moods and thoughts contagious. His first task is to create ’Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. Le Bon, op. cit.^p. 30.
IDEALS OF WORSHIP 25 mental unity, induce the people to think and feel together. In the beginning of the service there is always a high degree of “self-conscious individuality” in the assemblage. The people are gathered in one place, but they are not of one accord, or one mind. Each is concerned with his own special interests and there is little common feeling. Some are coldly critical, others relaxed and drowsy, while still others permit their attention to wander uncontrolled among ^their personal affairs. 6 The minister must fuse the people mentally so that he can direct their thoughts and feelings into the desired channels.
It would be too much to assert that there is no common feeling at all at the beginning of the service. That would be true only of an assembly which had gathered accidentally. In the ordinary service the fact that persons have come together impelled by a common purpose gives somewhat of psychical unity to start with. 7 This sense of oneness is intensified if the assembly gathers within four walls, and is thus protected from distracting influences from without. The degree in which physical segregation helps to unify the congregation intellectually and emotionally may be realized by holding an out-door service occasionally. Furthermore, if the architecture, decorations, and symbolism of the room are attractive and suggestive, and the organist is playing softly, the sense of unity is deepened. 8 But at best the state of psychical fusion in the beginning of the service is low, and the problem is to increase it to the point where the congregation will receive uncritically the ideas of the leader. 9
Let it be said that absolute fusion is neither to be expected nor desired. This is accomplished only when “the crowd” becomes a “mob” in which the individual ceases to exercise his mental or volitional powers and responds in “Gardner, op, cit, p. 240.
T Gardner, op. cit. f p. 237.
“Cutten, Psychological Phenomena of Christianity, p. 395 9 Gardner, op. cit, p. 210.
26 THE PASTORAL OFFICE stinctively to the influence of crowd-suggestion. To suppress entirely the personality of the individual would be immoral, though it has been done repeatedly in religious revivals and regarded as evidence of the power of God. The leader may attempt nothing more than to secure the interest of every person in the congregation without robbing any of his intellectual independence or paralyzing his will. As a matter of fact this is all that can be accomplished any way except in case of the purely passive. Persons of good mental equipment will resist immediately any unwarranted attack upon their individuality.
Many ministers untutored in the principles of psychology have employed with great skill the methods best suited to promote the process of mental fusion. Great revival preachers have always been masters of applied “crowd psychology.” First, the scattered congregation is brought close together. When people are near each other, ideas and feelings are more readily communicated from one to another because the subtle physical changes of body and countenance are more easily recognized. Close crowding restricts freedom of bodily movements than which nothing tends more to depress the individual self. Professor Ross observes that “the strength of multiplied suggestion is at its maximum when the individual is in the midst of a throng, helpless to control his position or movements...
Often a furious, naughty child will become meek and obedient after being held a moment as in a vise. On the playground a saucy boy will abruptly surrender and ’take it back* when held firmly on the ground without power to move hand or foot. The cause is not fear, but deflation of the ego. Here is the reason why individuality is so wilted in a dense throng, and why persons of a highly developed but somewhat fragile personality have a horror of getting nipped in a crowd.” 10 After bringing the people close together, the leader will “Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. E. A.
Ross, Social Psychology, p. 43f.
IDEALS OF WORSHIP 27 require them to act together. A hymn is announced, and the request is made, “Let all stand and join in the singing.” The creed, recited by all, follows the hymn. After the prayer, the congregation unites in repeating the Lord’s Prayer, minister and people kneeling. And later in the service other provision is made for concerted action on the part of the worshipers. This has the same tendency to wilt the individual self as close crowding. “If all stand or leap or shout or kneel,... or do anything else which may occur to the leader, it develops a consciousness of oneness and breaks up the personal isolation in which the sense of individuality is at a maximum.” 11 Furthermore, if the bodily posture is related to the feeling which the leader desires to awaken, it tends to produce that feeling, or to intensify it, if already present. It is hard to be sad for long if one forces himself to smile. To fall into the physical attitude of prayer tends to create the desire to pray. 12 The emotional unity produced by crowding and concerted action is unstable. The mind instinctively begins searching for some object, or thought, or experience which will justify the emotion that has been induced. If no such object can be found, the sense of individuality begins to rise again in the congregation, and the leader has “lost his crowd.” The skillful minister will see to it that there is no delay in presenting to the congregation those religious ideas upon which he desires them to fix their attention and which correspond to the mood that has been induced. This he may do by following the organ voluntary or the opening hymn (chosen for its rhythmical qualities which promote mental fusion) by an invocation in which there is expressed briefly the desire for the sense of God’s presence, or by a recital of the creed which directs the attention of the believer to the great affirmations of his faith. The hymns, the prayers, the anthem, and the sermon will be used likewise to direct the thought of the worshipers toward those spiritual subjects M Gardner, op. cit, p. 250, “Cutten, op. cit, p. 395 28 THE PASTORAL OFFICE that are related to the feelings which have been aroused, and which will deepen them. Only thus can the condition of psychical unity be maintained and filled with religious significance.
3. PRINCIPLES OF WORSHIP. The attention of the congregation must be held once it is won, and such direction must be given their collective thinking as will intensify the higher emotions and increase the will to goodness. In order to do this, the leader must have regard for certain great principles which always control social worship when it is conducted skillfully. a. The first of these is unity. It implies that all the several acts of worship shall be subordinated to the control of a single purpose and filled with a common spirit. This does not mean that the sermon is to be preached repeatedly in the hymns, prayers, and anthems before the time for the sermon itself arrives. It will be enough if the thought and feeling induced by the music and prayers shall accord with the spirit of the sermon, and nothing incongruous shall be admitted to set up a countermovement of feeling.
Great variety of intellectual content may be entirely consistent with this kind of unity. Let us suppose that the aim of the service is to lead the congregation into a deeper love for Christ. Love, we have noted, is a composite emotion in which adoration, respect, tenderness, reverence, joy, trust, and devotion are blended. The service, ideally, should awaken all these feelings, and they are sufficiently varied that hymns, anthems, and prayers may make their respective contributions without duplicating in the least that which is made by the sermon. The music need not deal directly with the subject of Christ so long as it evokes some of the emotions associated with love. Or, again, the subject is so many-sided that every act of worship may deal directly with it in some aspect without making the service monotonous. b. The second great principle is variety. The occasion for it is twofold. The congregation is a heterogeneous group IDEALS OF WORSHIP 29 composed of old and young, children and adults, men and women, cultured and uneducated. It is not to be supposed that these diverse elements can be interested in the same thing or, at least, to the same degree. Yet each person in the congregation has a right to get something out of the service. If the sermon does not appeal, then the hymns, the Scripture, or the prayers may. But more important, the psychical nature of ev&ry person in the congregation demands variety if his attention is to be held throughout the service. The attention cannot be focused for long upon a single object It is impossible for me to hold my thought to the desk upon which I write unless I break up the one object of thought into many by considering it from different points of view. By directing the attention now to this aspect and now to that, it is possible to make the desk an object of interest for a long time, but in no other way. Of what material is it made? What is its shape? What are its dimensions? How much drawer space does it contain? Is it preferable to a roll-top desk? Only thus can I keep the desk long in my thought, for it is the nature of attention to wander from one object to another. The skillful leader of worship must present varying objects to the attention that will gratify its appetite for change and at the same time keep it close to the main matter. Only so may the thought of the congregation be controlled. And this is as true for every part of the service as it is for the service as a whole. The preacher will soon lose the attention of the congregation during the sermon unless he passes swiftly from one phase of his theme to another. The hymns will grow uninteresting if all are of the same type. It is better for the choir to sing but one number than two which produce the same emotional effect. c. In applying the second principle we are limited by the first. This gives us a third, progress. In seeking variety we are not permitted to seek merely “something different.”
It must be that particular different something which will assist the movement of thought and feeling in the desired 3 o THE PASTORAL OFFICE direction. Conceivably it might be so different as to be incongruous, and divert the service entirely from its proper channels. The demand here is precisely that which we make upon a story for movement and action toward some welldefined end. d. The foregoing principles combine to suggest a fourth. The service should have a definite plan. The leader should know exactly what is to be accomplished by the service as a whole and just what contribution each act of worship will make to the realization of the plan. He will not go to the service without giving the most careful thought to every detail. Hymns, prayers, Scripture, music, and sermon will be woven “into a harmonious whole which shall in its total effect induce the desired change in the minds of the audience.” 13 e. A fifth principle which must control, at least in Protestant worship, is democracy. The Roman Catholic theory is that the clergy, especially the bishops, constitute the church. The laity are admitted only to a position of passive obedience. Participation in worship is the exclusive privilege of the clerical orders. The laymen are only onlookers. The Reformation, however, democratized the priesthood by regarding all true believers as priests. The effect of this upon public worship was revolutionary. Worship became immediately the prerogative of the congregation, and congregational singing was substituted in large part for the chanting of priests. Congregational prayers were introduced, and the whole service was conducted in the language of the people. This was a return to the ideal of the early church, in which all with one accord and one mouth glorified God. 14 The Protestant theory of public worship is that all the action in the service is the collective action of the congregation. In the special musical numbers the choir represents 18 Hugh Hartshorne, Worship in the Sunday School, p.
“Romans in. 6.
IDEALS OF WORSHIP 31 the congregation. Likewise the prayers of the leader are, in fact, congregational prayers uttered by him in a purely representative capacity. He is only the mouthpiece of the people expressing for them their praise and petitions. But the representatives of the congregation should never overshadow the congregation itself. The leader should hold up continually the obligation of the whole assembly to participate heartily in the many parts of the service designed for collective use creed, hymns, prayers, etc. No congregation should permit the minister and the choir to monopolize the service. Its rights in this regard are very precious and were won at great cost.
We should be warned that democracy is threatened by mediocrity of taste and standards. Under an aristocratic ideal the service is in danger of becoming mechanical and unreal from excess of ritualism. Under a democratic ideal it is menaced by disorder, irreverence, extemporaneousness, unwarranted assertion of individuality by minister and members of the congregation, maudlin sentimentality, general cheapness in tone and ideals. One of the chief problems of the leader of social prayer is to open the door for the many to participate in worship without loss of dignity and impressiveness in the service.
/. Finally, public worship should be beautiful. God is the source of all beauty, and in his worship “tasteless and misshapen” forms should have no place. This applies, first of all, to the place of worship. It is difficult for a congregation to worship in an environment that offends the aesthetic sense. Unlovely surroundings will continually obtrude themselves upon the thought of the worshipers, heightening the self-consciousness of the individual and tending to destroy the psychical unity that is essential to social worship. Yet how commonly are things tolerated in the place of prayer which are unfriendly to the spirit of worship architectural styles that are pagan rather than Christian, bad acoustics, poor ventilation, improper lighting, crude attempts at interior decorating, and often un 32 THE PASTORAL OFFICE cleanliness! Such things “impede the spirit’s upward aspiration.” Our churches need not be unbeautiful because we believe in the simplicity that goes with democracy. In reacting from the Roman type of architecture we need not revert to the Greek temple. In protesting against the Roman use of symbols we need not make our places of worship resemble concert rooms. If we do not introduce anything into the environment that suggests religious thoughts, at all events we can see to it that nothing in the surroundings shall offend the good taste and peace of mind of the worshipers.
Moreover, regard for the principle of beauty has to do with orderliness and reverence. There is something very pleasing in a service which begins promptly at the appointed hour and in which it is at once evident that everything has been anticipated and nothing left to haphazard ministers, lay assistants, choir, ushers, and sexton cooperating together with perfect understanding. Furthermore, the service should be radiant with the beauty which inheres in reality in worship worship that is “in spirit and in truth.” Whatever else may be true of it, unless the service is electric with the Divine Presence and worshipers are made to realize the nearness of an invisible world of spirit and power, it cannot be “a beautiful service” in the highest sense of the term.
4. PRESCRIBED vs. FREE WORSHIP. 15 In applying the proper ideals of collective worship, some communions provide an order of service in which every element is prescribed by ecclesiastical authority, and nothing is left to the individual judgment of the leader of the congregation or to the congregation itself. Others delight in free worship, which permits the leader to determine for himself what shall go into the service. The Methodist Episcopal Church
“This section Is little more than a digest of ithe chapter on “Free Worship versus Formularies” in M. P. Tailing’s excellent book Extempore Prayer, p. 2ofL Used by permission of Fleming H.
Revell Company.
IDEALS OF WORSHIP 33 uses both types of service, and her ministers should understand the values of each. A ritualistic service is justified for some by their view of authority in religion. They regard the priesthood as the “exclusive channel of regenerative grace.” The laity are incompetent to think for themselves or to express themselves in religious matters. Hence the need of fixed formularies in which the exact words of prayer, and praise, and instruction are set down for the leader and congregation to repeat according to specific directions. But “prescribed worship” is found among other communions who disavow this notion of authority. Theology ’has little to do with forms of worship. “Any church of any faith might adopt without modification of its tenets a fixed order of worship.” In the Established Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States may be found great variety in theological points of view. These differences seldom manifest themselves in public worship, however, for every priest, whether conservative or progressive, uses the same order of worship. Perhaps this is the reason why a proposal to alter or amend the Book of Common Prayer is regarded as much more momentous than a charge of theological errancy. a. Tailing states the case for a liturgical service as follows: 16 (1) It has a certain stateliness of thought and charm of style which satisfy the ear and cling to the memory.
(2) It makes the worshipers independent of the officiating clergyman, so that his faults do not hinder their devotions.
(3) Affording a common and uniform w&ans of worship f it serves to bind together all the members of the church into one fellowship and loyalty. This unity embraces the past as well as the present. For persons who possess a strong historical sense, the thought that they are using the very same words of prayer and praise that have been found upon the lips of believers in all generations is profoundly inspiring.
““Extempore Prayer, p. 2of. Used by permission of Fleming H.
Revell Company.
34 THE PASTORAL OFFICE
(4) It is especially suitable for old people, because of its unchanging form of words,... and for young people, because their interest is sustained and they have some part in the worship.
(5) Nonliturgical or free worship possesses no uniformity, and the people take but little part in the service, and are exposed to the doctrinal bias and personal peculiarities of the minister.
(6) Free worship is in great danger of suffering from the unchastened promptings of the mind and uncorrected effusions of the heart. b. The case for free worship is summarized thus, (1) Prescribed worship makes overmuch of method, failing to distinguish between the spirit and the form <?/ prayer. Free worship in the nature of the case regards the spirit of worship as allimportant.
(2) Free worship trusts the renewed life to express itself in forms that are entirely appropriate. It believes that where the head and the heart are right the worship will not go far wrong.
... If man were vacant of God, worship would need to be a prepared article offered by hearts incapable of real emotion, but while God is above and within us, worship will tend to take on a suitable mood and a reverent expression.
(3) Fixed forms of worship are the work of periods of calm in religious life, and they tend toward formalism. On the other hand, every great crisis or religious activity called a “revival” or “reformation” has been marked by the casting off of religious ceremonial... For the church, as for the individual, intense religious life takes on its own expression, and it is direct, simple, and spontaneous.
(4) Prescribed worship is not sufficiently elastic to meet the demand made upon if by special occasions. When some years ago Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, was ill, and a call for national prayer on his behalf was issued late in the week, the only church which* failed to respond on the following Sabbath was the National Church”. Because -the bishops had not had time to send down prayers for the use of the clergy, there was silence in Anglican Churches that day upon the very.theme which most occupied the British heart. 17
(5) “Unchastened promptings” are not inherently necessary in free worship. It is possible for the individual leader to correct the “effusions of the heart” by giving careful attention to every “Tailing, op. cit, p. I36f. Used by permission of Fleming EL
Revell Company, IDEALS OF WORSHIP 35 detail of worship and combine the grace of the liturgy with the warmth and spontaneity of free worship. If nonliturgical worship is often marred by indecorum, that proves only that we should teach decorum not that we should take away all freedom of expression.
(6) True worship is always creative effort “an exercise in thinking!’ To this end free prayer must be more helpful than liturgical formularies. To express one’s own mood compels an attempt at original thought that is not demanded in reciting a fixed form.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR FURTHER STUDY Hugh Hartshorne, Worship in the Sunday School.
Charles S. Gardner, Psychology and Preaching, Chapter XL E. A. Ross, Social Psychology.
M. P. Tailing, Extempore Prayer.
Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor, Chapter VI.
L. C. Clark, The Worshiping Congregation.
B. H. Streeter, et al, Concerning Prayer, Chapter VIII.
T. Harwood Pattison, Public Worship.
N. J. Burton, In Pulpit and Parish, pp. 187-204.