I recall the days when the Salvation Army called the Sunday Morning Service the "Holiness Meeting" and the Evening Service "Evangelism Meeting." That is a careful and workable distinction was made between a service for believers of worship, edification and calls unto holiness and a service to which others were invited with a view to converting them to Jesus Christ.
Today I think that many churches, especially those who are much into "church growth," have conflated, confused and complicated the relation of evangelism to worship.
In the Early Church only the baptized who were in good standing (and not under church discipline) were allowed to stay for the second half of the Eucharistia [The Thanksgiving] on the Lord's Day. Visitors and certainly Catechumens were dismissed at the end of the Ministry of the Word. To be in preparation for church membership was not sufficient a basis for attendance at the Lord's Table.
The Sursum Corda, "Lift up your hearts!", was/is a call unto the baptized believers who are the assembly of the elect gathered before the Lord and his Table to be raised in the Spirit to the heavenly banquet. By its very nature and definition the Sacramental half of the Eucharistia cannot be open to any but those who are prepared in heart and mind to eat the body and drink the blood of the once crucified and now exalted Lord Jesus. To encourage people to attend who are not worthy participants in the heavenly celebration is to make a big mistake and to put their souls in spiritual danger.
It will be recalled that the classic BCP of the Anglican Way has several Exhortations to remind the baptized what a solemn and high privilege it is to receive the Body and Blood of the Saviour and thus right preparation is necessary before reception. Other churches have similar means to exhort the baptized.
Turning now to Non-Sacramental Services, the public services of Morning and Evening Prayer with the Litany [or the equivalent in Lutheran, Presbyterian and Methodist traditions] are by their very nature and contents services of thanksgiving, of hearing the Word and of petition, in the first place, for the baptized, repentant people of God.. Yet they are of such a kind that there is no need to expel unbelievers from them for they can truly benefit from the offering of Thanksgiving, hearing the Bible and engaging in public Prayer. Further, after the Office is completed they can benefit further and very specifically when the Sermon is on certain occasions addressed to unbelievers or seekers and afterwards there is opportunity for personal prayer and counsel.
Mission services on weeknights in Anglican churches were often in the past shortened forms of Evening Prayer (or the like) with special addresses, aimed at seekers, unbelievers, etc.
I realize that this is easier said than done, but if we are going to have specific Services for Evangelism we need to construct them in such a way that we do not have people who are not converted (who are seekers and backsliders and nominal Christians etc.) singing hymns, saying prayers and making statements that are truly only the language of the converted. For example, the "Our Father" is most specifically a prayer for the adopted Children of God. We should not be causing people to act and speak as if they were what we judge they are not but what we want to them to be through evangelism.
There is plenty of scope for words of thanksgiving and praise to God, for statements of the Gospel of God concerning His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and so on, which can be uttered by a seeker or nominal Christian in a service for evangelism. Their utterance does not necessarily presume a faithful baptized Christian saying them and so they can be used.
But one type of mentality we must avoid - thinking that believers are edified by a constant hearing of a "simple" Gospel message when we dumb-down public worship!
When we do not provide for the baptized believers of the congregation the fullness of Christian worship, that is when we dumb it down continually to cater for seekers and backsliders and invited guests, then we do not edify the church of God. Only a proportion of services ought to be devoted to evangelism on a Sunday, because Sunday is the Lord's Day when the Lord's people meet with their Lord in Word, Sacrament and Fellowship to be blessed and edified and enriched by him. To miss out on the latter due to an erroneous judgment about the pressing need to evangelise is a very great loss for the people of God. You cannot edify the people of God by telling them every Sunday to make a decision for Christ. Having made that decision they need to be led on into the riches and mysteries of the Christian Faith!
Worship, especially at the Eucharistia, is only for the baptized elect people of God. But entry into the Catechumenate is for all who seek and wish to find.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
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