My family and I once visited a church of another denomination. The service was fairly traditional, the music was reasonably good, and when the pastor started his sermon I was hopeful. But at one point he seemed to be building to a climax, and I was anticipating his next words. And with great conviction he said, “And that just goes to show why we all should read our bulletins!” That is not what I thought he was going to say.

Church bulletins date back to the middle of the 19 th century. The first regular church publication was started in January 1859 by Rev. John Erskine Clarke, Vicar of St. Michael’s Church in Derby, England. Then in 1884, Albert Dick Blake invented stencil duplicating, brought printing to the local church, and so was born the Sunday morning bulletin. It was modeled after theater programs. It contained an order of service, news of the local church, and various other items of interest (hopefully).

On occasion, I’d like to have traveled back in time and slapped John Erskine Clarke and Albert Dick Blake upside the head, because sometimes church bulletins can be a real pain. One church secretary told me their pastor would often have her redo the bulletin two or three times, until it was all to his satisfaction. That seems a little obsessive. I mean, let’s give it our best shot and all, but I think it’s important for us to remember that Jesus and the apostles never passed out church bulletins.

Sometimes church people place too much importance on the bulletin. One Sunday morning we had a great service, and some people joined the church. Afterward there was a general atmosphere of joy and rejoicing. Then someone came up to me to point out a typographical error in the bulletin. It seems to me this individual was focused on the wrong thing, rather like that old poem: “Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?” … “I’ve been to London to look at the queen.” … “Pussycat, pussycat, what saw you there?” … “I saw a mouse sitting under her chair.” There were more important things to look at than a mouse. Unless you’re a cat, I suppose.

Don’t spread it around, but word on the street is that you can worship God without a church bulletin. But you didn’t hear it from me. I do confess, though, that when I visit another church, I like to get a bulletin. I like to know, at least generally, what’s going to happen next.

And I’ve seen all different kinds of church bulletins. Some are black-and-white and have little more than the order of service. Others are colorful booklets, chock-full of information, but with no order of service. Most bulletins come from a publishing house, with a nice picture and a Bible verse on the cover, and then the church prints its information on the inside.

Our bulletin has changed over the years. When I first came, we just kept printing the bulletin as it had been done before. But I began reading books on worship and discovered some of the history of Christian worship. As I gained a deeper, more Biblical understanding of what worship really is, it changed how I planned the services.

Accounts of early Christian worship describe believers gathering at dawn on the first day of the week, in the woods or some secret place (for fear of persecution), singing hymns to Christ “as to a god,” reading the Scriptures, listening to one who presided give exhortations, praying together, sharing a common meal (i.e., the Lord’s Supper), then departing, encouraging one another to be good citizens and neighbors. Roman officials, such as Pliny the Younger writing to Emperor Trajan, were trying to figure out just what made Christians so subversive. The subversive thing was that they were worshiping Jesus Christ as God and refusing to worship the emperor or the state.

I always thought that you should be able to take a Christian from the 1st – or 2nd -century, drop him or her down in the middle of one of our church services, and they ought to be able to recognize what we do as Christian worship. For all the differences in time and place, language and dress, musical styles and even the use of buildings, how we worship today ought to be recognizable to ancient Christians. If it isn’t, there’s something wrong.

We should still gather together on the first day of the week (the Lord’s Day), at a specified time and place, to sing praise to Christ as God, read the Scriptures together, pray together, and listen to a Christian pastor- teacher explain the God’s Word and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We should baptize, partake in the Lord’s Supper together, and encourage each other to be godly people in an ungodly world. And I’ve tried to build all those things into our worship services.

The opening song is meant to “sing them in,” to let everyone know the service is starting and it’s time to take a seat. Many churches have a formal “call to worship” that’s usually drawn from a prayer book of some kind. The best prayer book is the Bible, especially the Psalms. So, I find a passage from the Psalms to focus our hearts on worshiping God. Then I lead in a prayer, based on what we just read (a wonderful way to pray is to turn Bible passages into prayers). Then we sing a couple more songs together. (Or we’re supposed to. You’d better sing, or someone from the choir will come out there and hurt you. In Christian love.)

Then we have what is always intended to be a brief time of announcements and church news. Announcements can be helpful, but aren’t necessarily worship. Our catechism time is really a brief time of teaching the basic truths of the Gospel, with a short Scripture reading. Then we sing another song, and sometimes someone will sing a song for us. But the music is always intended to help us worship, and not be for show. There is a difference between a worshiper and a performer.

Then the pastor (usually me) will read from the Bible, explain what it means, and appeal to us all to respond to what it says, especially about trusting Jesus. Then there is a closing song, meant to help us think about what we’ve just heard, with a call to pray. We start with a call to worship, and end with a call to pray. And all of this is intended to help us to worship God and to connect us with a long line of worshiping Christians in history.

I think it is important that we keep singing the grand old hymns of the church. If we don’t, we’re casting away part of our Christian heritage. If people can still listen to secular songs from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, then why do Christians want to discard all of our old songs?

But on the other hand, the Bible tells us repeatedly to “sing to the LORD a new song” (Psalm 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1; Isaiah 42:10; Revelation 5:9; 14:3. If you only want to sing old songs in church, you’re disobeying God. (Besides, the Bible said all of this before any of your favorite hymns were written. If the old hymn writers hadn’t written new songs, none of the songs you like would exist. Just sayin’.) This year, we have sung almost two dozen new (or at least, new to us) songs in our worship services. That number will only increase. I think we need to sing about equal parts old songs and new songs. We are in the process of turning this church over to the next generation of Christians. That is as it should be. That’s what’s supposed to happen. It’s only fair we sing their favorites, too. (Who knows? You might even like some of ‘em!)

The point is that all these things are meant to help us worship God “in spirit and truth”, because Jesus told us “The Father is seeking such people to worship him.” (John 4:24) And because Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life,” (John 14:6) we can all come to the Father through Jesus, have our sins forgiven, and be called His children.

That’s worth singing about, don’t you think?

Soli Deo Gloria!

Pastor David