Churches Cancel Sunday Worship for Tangible Faith
This Sunday, churches across the country are shutting their doors and taking their worship outside to demonstrate one of the most principal mandates in Scripture – faith in action.
Faith in Action Sunday is the culmination of a four-week churchwide campaign that aims to get Christians out of the pews and onto the streets to raise the value of social justice and compassion, serving as Jesus served the church, says one spokesman.
"One of the most integral parts of Faith in Action is that those objectives of serving and meeting needs and sharing the love of Jesus are intricately woven together in this particular campaign," said Lynne Marian, vice president of communications for Outreach, Inc., a national provider of marketing and community resources for Christian churches and publisher of Outreach magazine.
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Outreach has partnered with humanitarian agency World Vision and evangelical publisher Zondervan to create the groundbreaking campaign that invites Christians to mobilize and "be the Church" by practicing their faith. Faith in Action launched in May and has so far drawn the participation of hundreds of churches.
The campaign grew out of a Faith in Action Study Bible that Zondervan and World Vision had designed to highlight Scripture passages that elevated service, compassion and Christ's heart for the poor. Over the last two years, Outreach joined the partnership to create an outlet for churches to embody the teachings and take action.
Although Sunday services will be cancelled this weekend, Marian considers Faith in Action "worship" in a different way.
"This campaign has been transformational," she said. "It has taken people who have just been sitting in pews for years help them understand this is really what church is about."
Also prompting the campaign was an overwhelming inward focus found in American churches. According to a recent survey of churches across the country, nearly 95 percent of the churches' ministries were for the members alone. And many churches had no ministries for those outside the congregation, noted Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources.
"While there certainly should be ministry available for church members, often the balance between external and internal ministries is heavily skewed toward internal," he said in a column featured in Outreach magazine.
And when churches narrow their focus to their own flock, death may be imminent, Rainer cautioned.
Something like Faith in Action Sunday not only inspires congregants to go into the community but invites the community to serve alongside with them, Outreach's Marian noted
But some evangelicals don't fancy the idea of canceling worship services to do visible works.
"Canceling worship for the sake of these perfectly fine projects is, essentially, a publicity stunt, so I guess it's no surprise that there are two media companies sponsoring it," David Fischler, assistant pastor for Church Planting at Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Kingstowne, Va., wrote on his blog.
"But whatever the reason for it, it's wrong, and it's a misplacement of priorities," he added, noting that worship is the central purpose of the church.
In response, Steve Haas, World Vision's vice president for church relations, contended the meaning of true worship.
"The purpose of foregoing a Sunday gathering at a local church in favor of that same fellowship ministering to their local community is not in any way intended to denigrate worship, the church or its mission," said Haas.
Haas says participants of Faith in Action discover "the critical ingredient of faithful obedience as a normative part of daily worship" - an aspect of church that he believes has been forgotten.
"Worship was never to be confined to a single time of a single day during the week but a whole body experience of faithful obedience to a risen Christ," he said.
Marian admits closing church doors on Sunday is a shocking move, but doesn't see controversy with serving the community in place of a canceled worship service. Meeting social needs "provides a platform in which the gospel message can be shared," she said.
"It's up to us individual Christians to know when and where to preach the gospel with words and when to preach it with action," Marian added.
The campaign isn't intentional about drawing attention, according to Haas, but recognizes that a church reaching out in compassion may attract some.
"For this, we rejoice as the Good News is declared through life, word, signs and deeds," he said.
Churches that sign up for Faith in Action (www.putyourfaithinaction.org) engage in three weeks of preparation through sermons, small groups and daily devotionals before closing their doors on Sunday to reach out to the community.
