In part one of this series, I lamented a disturbing divide that has opened up between preaching and worship. I described preaching that is disconnected from worship as “tuneless preaching,” because it misses out on God’s big harmonious picture. I believe that the most important characteristic of such preaching is its failure to practice an adequate theology.
I know the word “theology” can sound dull and complicated — something abstract, complex and unpractical.
Something you would expect a seminary professor to discuss, yet making little real difference to the job at hand! But when preaching misses out on theology it easily takes its direction from communication practice and sheer pragmatism, rather than from God’s revelation.
Theology is speaking meaningfully about God. Everyone who expresses ideas about God has a theology, whether they admit it or not! What matters is whether theology is scripturally sound or not — whether it is about the Christian God! Christian theology is speaking meaningfully about God in three persons.Sadly,too much current preaching and worship speaks of God in less than three persons.
When Bishop Lesslie Newbigin returned from missionary service in India, he observed that when the average Christian in Britain hears the name of God, he or she does not think of the Trinity and, in consequence, much worship in the West is in practice, if not in theory, unitarian.1 Others have commented about Christianity’s “mere monotheism”2 and the “forgotten Father.”3
Sadly, within that large part of the evangelical church that is non-liturgical, (meaning that it does not use historic patterns of worship), and non-creedal (not regularly reciting creeds), mention of the Trinity appears increasingly rare. Spared even having to mark Trinity Sunday, much worship seldom makes reference to the Father and the Holy Spirit as part of the triune God-head. Jesus is not depended upon as the Mediator and Intercessor with the Father by the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit has become the “missing Person” of the Trinity. We are witnessing the incredible shrinking God.
Recent music trends in worship illustrate this. Robin Parry claims that collections of hymns and songs put together for contemporary singing often tend to have less Trinitarian references. For example, in his survey of 28 worship albums produced by Vineyard Music (1999-2004), he categorized songs in various categories: “three person songs”(1.4%); “two person songs”(8.8%); “one person songs”(38.7% of which over 4/5 were to Jesus; and “you Lord songs” (51.1 percent). He challenges Christian groups to find balance in their singing: “Whatever God-given emphases they have, they must go hand in hand with an emphasis on the Christian God — the Trinity.”4