You might be wondering right now what an article entitled “The Orderly Assembly of the Immersed” could possibly be about, so let me go ahead and tell you, I’m probably not going where you think I’m going (if you have any idea at all). I want to speak briefly with you about the importance of priority and emphasis when it comes to the expression of biblical ideals.
Let me explain. One time I went to this fair sized congregation consisting primarily of elderly members. Much as expected, they were very traditional in the way they “did church.” Most of the prayers were made up of “thee/thou” language, the preacher usually quoted from the KJV, all the songs sung were composed at least by the 1950’s, and everyone sat quietly in their front facing pew as long as someone was behind the pulpit. Now there is nothing biblically wrong with any of this (I would argue that for the sake of being culturally relevant and thus missionally engaged, that some changes would be beneficial -1 Cor. 9:22) but so far, no harm, no foul.
What I do hold against this congregation and others like it is there improper emphases. During the Sunday morning worship, every prayer that I heard spoken included an admonition to the Father that the service be “orderly.” Every one! I didn’t know that Paul’s single contextualized command to an extremely disorderly church (1 Cor. 14:40) deserved so much priority in this 21st Century congregation! What’s more, is that many churches like this carry out the “orderly” in their services often times at the expense of the heartfelt, the Spirit-led, and the true. They’ve blown this ideal out of proportion and given it an over exaggerated preeminence which overwhelms the more important elements of devotion to God. Yes, our worship should be orderly. However when I walk into an assembly of Christian worship that’s already got an atmosphere set for focus on Christ (aka orderly), I don’t need to hear a prayer asking God for an orderly service. What would do me good is to hear a prayer asking God for His Spirit to act on hearts and for members to be heartfeltly engaged in praising the Master.
The point I’m making is that first things should be first. The less important should not be emphasized over the central otherwise you run the risk of wrapping your heart around the secondary instead of placing your heart on what’s truly important. Or as Jesus said, “Where your treasure (time, talent, money…might I add emphasis) is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:34). Not only that but most assuredly you will give others the wrong impression about what it means to be a Christian, which leads me to the “immersed” part of this article…
Have you ever overemphasized baptism, so that faith and Jesus and grace fade into the background? Yes, baptism is an essential part of it, but once again we can’t neglect the more important matters of salvation by giving baptism more lip-service than Jesus. Have you “neglected the weightier matter of the law” (Matt.23:23) in your over emphasis of the less important?
