Randy's Ruminations

The sermon "What Are We Doing Here Today" (Click Here to listen) looked at the worship assembly in Corinth then and here today. Each epoch and setting has to wrestle with practical, functional questions while remembering the higher purpose. Here are some comments on both by Alexander Campbell in his time (1830's). I suspect most would disagree with his advice in the first quote.

The members of a church, when strangers are present, should always, if possible, sit together during their meetings for worship. It is impossible to preserve good order through the day if they are dispersed among strangers or occasional visitors.

Kneeling in prayer is always to be preferred, if it can be made convenient. Standing up in the celebration of praise is more rational and Scriptural than sitting...

To be habitually late in attending the appointments of the brethren, is most indecorous; and, except in cases of sickness, to withdraw from any meeting before the final amen, is a violation of the most obvious rules of good order. Next to those who permit barking and fighting dogs and screaming children to torment the audience, I know of none more obnoxious to censure than those disturbers of the peace, who are ever and anon on foot, going out and coming in, as if to arrest attention, or disturb the speaker and the audience. These, and they who whisper and mutter to their companions while one is addressing the audience, except on some paramount occasion, belong to the first class of transgressors of the plainest principles of good education and good order.

At the close of all social prayers the whole congregation that unites in the petitions, should, like the primitive Christians say, with an audible and clear voice, Amen.

The radical error...is a want of a deep and solemn conviction that the church is the house of God—the temple of the Holy Spirit—and that we are, especially and emphatically, in the presence of the Lord while we are engaged in his worship.

He has redeemed our spirits from sin and our bodies from the grave, and both should be dedicated to him.