Church Administration Course

One of your key tasks as a pastor is going to be organizing and leading the weekly worship service. In fact, if you ask someone on the street what a pastor does, they probably think that this is your ONLY job.

I once heard an older, famous american pastor say that one of the key part of his life is that "Sunday is always coming." For me, it's not just Sunday, it is Sunday night and wednesday that are always coming.

Where did this idea of a church service come from? Has it always been like this? What is the purpose of it? How is this a tool in your ministry? Let's cover all of that.

What the Bible has to say about church services

The church as we know it really started in Acts when Peter preached at Pentecost. That story is told for us in Acts 1 - 2. But the immediate aftermath of that story is interesting. Look at Acts 2:41-42 with me:

[!bible] Acts 2:41-42 - KJV 41. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 42. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

There are several things to note here:

First, it says that those who "gladly recieved his word" - i.e. Those who got saved got baptized and were "added unto them."

Who is "them?" That's the church. There is a number. About 3,000 souls. (Later it says 5,000 more were added.)

So they had some kind of membership list from the beginning. They had a clear in and out from the beginning. We will come back to that later.

Then it tells us what these new church members did:

They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine - so they were taught by the apostles regularly. They were regularly listening to Bible preaching.

They continued steadfastly in fellowship. So they were spending time together. They were doing things together as a group.

They continued steadfastly in breaking of bread. This probably means two things: they were eating together and they were taking the Lord's supper together.

Finally, they continued steadfastly in prayer. So they were praying together.

So from the very beginning we see the church is meeting together regularly for prayer, fellowship, the ordinances (Baptism and the Lord's Supper) and prayer.

But there are other parts we see in the New Testament to the worship service. Look at Colossians 3:16

[!bible] Colossians 3:16 - KJV 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Ephesians has an almost identical verse that also talks about "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." So another thing they were doing in the early church is they were singing together. Singing was a part of the early church.

There is more in the New Testament that tells us what was going on in the church. Look with me at 1 Corinthians 16:2

[!bible] [1 Corinthians 16:2 - KJV](https://bible-api.com/1 Corinthians+16:2?translation=kjv) 2. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

From this verse we get a few more pieces of the puzzle. It says "on the first day of the week" - so they were meeting together on Sunday. It seems like from the very beginning, Sunday became the "Lord's Day." Sunday was when Jesus resurrected. Sunday is when they met together.

This verse also tells us that when they came together on Sunday they took up an offering.

There is one more verse I want you to look at for some clue as to what the church services were like in the New Testament. Look at 1 Timothy 4:13.

[!bible] [1 Timothy 4:13 - KJV](https://bible-api.com/1 Timothy+4:13?translation=kjv) 13. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

So in this verse, Paul is telling Timothy, the pastor, what to spend his time on in the church and it is three things "reading" - that is the public reading of scripture. Exhortation - that is preaching. Doctrine - that is teaching.

So we can put these together and get a very clear picture of what church services have always been like:

They meet together on Sunday
They have a time of public prayer
They sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
They take up an offering
They have public reading of the scripture
They have teaching and preaching
They observe the ordinances of the Lord's supper and baptism
They spend time eating and fellowshipping together.

These are the key elements in a church service in the Bible.

But what about in history?

Church services in history

The oldest non-Bible account I know of of church services comes from a man named Justin Martyr. Justin Martyr was not a pastor, just a layman in his church who lived from about 100-150, so very soon after the apostles. Justin ended up writing a book about being a Christian and this is how he described church services:

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things, Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying, Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And those who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows, and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds, and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them those things, which we have submitted for your consideration.

Do you see what I see in that paragraph? All of the elements are there - except for maybe singing.

They meet together on Sunday
They have a time of public prayer
They have public reading of the scripture
They have teaching and preaching
They take up an offering
They observe the ordinances of the Lord's supper and baptism
They spend time eating and fellowshipping together.

Now, in Justin's account he calls the pastor "the president." But it's obvious who he is talking about. He's talking about the pastor leading the service.

Sometime after the time of Justin Martyr, the church got pulled into what we know today as catholcism. And the devil did a very good job of muddying up what church was for most of history. But we can see from the very beginning that the way we baptists do church is the way it was done in the New Testament and by the early church.

Around the 1500s, there was a great awakening and revival in Europe called the protestant reformation - and a lot of them rediscovered these things and tried to go back to the way church services were in the Bible. If you read about Martin Luther in Germany or John Calvin in Switzerland or William Tyndale in England - you find out that one of their great goals was to go back to the simple Biblical church.

I've read biographies of pastors from the 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, 1800s and 1900s and in each of them, I've found that church services in faithful churches are very much like we do them today.

So listen, when some Roman Catholic tries to tell you that you aren't doing church historically right - they don't know what they are talking about. When some Seventh Day Adventist tries to tell your people that church was always on Saturday - they are wrong and ignorant.

We didn't make up the way we do church services. This came from the Bible and has been passed down throughout history.

So, we've talked about church services in the Bible and in history. Let's talk about...

The purposes of a church service

I think there are three main purposes for gathering together every week. They are worship, edifying and equipping. Let's look at each one:

Worship

[!bible] John 4:23 - KJV 23. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

We call it a worship service because we come together to worship God. To glorify God.

Worship is not music. Worship is everything that we do that glorifies God and makes much of Him.

Listen, in your church service, you need to work hard to make it all about Jesus and all about God and not all about you.

As a pastor, you have a central place in the service. You are preaching. You are leading the service. If you are not careful - you can be the center of attention.

It is your job to always deflect that attention to God, to God's word, to Jesus. It's not about you. It's not about your talents. It's about God.

So the church service is about worship. The second purpose of the church service is...

Edification

To "edify" means "to build up." When you come together in your church services, a big part of that is to build up God's people.

Let's look at some scriptures:

[!bible] Romans 14:19 - KJV 19. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

[!bible] [1 Corinthians 14:26 - KJV](https://bible-api.com/1 Corinthians+14:26?translation=kjv) 26. How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

[!bible] Ephesians 4:29 - KJV 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Every part of your service should build up the saints: - The music needs to build them up. - The prayer needs to build them up. - The scripture reading needs to build them up. - The sermon needs to build them up.

Edifying isn't done quickly. Think about how you build a church building. You do it one block at a time. You lay the foundation, then you come back and maybe you put up the frame. Then maybe you come back and you add the windows. Then you come back and you put the insulation in or the electrical wire. It takes time to build a solid building.

And your church services are building up God's people. It doesn't happen in a single service. But over time, over years, the word of God does it's work and builds God's people and God's church up.

Equipping

Look with me at Ephesians 4:11-13

[!bible] Ephesians 4:11-13 - KJV 11. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

This is very similar to edifying. It goes hand in hand with it. But one of your jobs in the worship service is to equip God's people to do "the work of the ministry." The pastor doesn't do all of the ministry. Every member of the church is involved in the ministry. Your preaching and your church services should be equipping people to serve God.

In my church, I like to spend some time as part of our Sunday night sermon equipping ministers. Teaching them to study the Bible. Teaching them how to teach. Teaching them how the church works. Teaching the deacons to be good deacons.

I also believe you can use your church service as a training ground for others. (We'll talk about that later in the course.) You can use the service to train other people how to preach. To train them how to lead music.

So worship God, edify the saints, equip God's people to minister. If you are doing that week in and week out, your church services are "successful."

So we've talked about Church services in the Bible, Church services in history and the purpose of church services, let's talk about...

How church services are a tool for your ministry

If you are going to be a pastor, you need to embrace the rhythm of church life.

You aren't trying to get it all done in a week. You are trusting the Holy Spirit and the word to build people up over decades.

Look with me at Isaiah 28:9-10...

[!bible] Isaiah 28:9-10 - KJV 9. Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. 10. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

You are letting the word build people up a little at a time. A sentence, a paragaph of the Bible at a time.

Think of it like raising a child. It takes about 18 years to turn a baby into a man. And what do you do as a parent for those 18 years? You feed them. You take care of them.

Do you feed them fancy gourmet meals? Maybe sometimes. But most of the time it's just normal stuff. Maize porridge. Bread. Maybe rice.

In the states it would be macaroni and cheese. Mashed potatoes. Chicken caserole. Not fancy foods. Sustaining foods. Foods you can grow on.

Your job as a pastor is, week in and week out, to feed people. The weekly church service is where a lot of that happens.

Getting them to come regularly is crucial to their growth as a Christian. It's like you don't grow if you don't eat every day. You don't grow as a Christian without the regularly ministry of the word and worship with other Christians.

I tell our people regularly that church should be a habitual priority in their life.

Habit - means they don't think about coming. Coming is automatic.

Priority means that if something else is going on. Church wins by default.

How to organize your church services

Let me quickly touch on how to organize your church services.

I am going to tell you how we do it in America and why we do it this way.

We have three services a week. Sunday Morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday evening. Each of those services has a different feeling and purpose.

Sunday Morning

This is our best attended service and our most formal. We sing several hymns. We have a special song and a choir song. We do what we call "responsive reading" which is reading scriptures out loud together. We take up an offering. I usually preach through a gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) or a New Testament epistle (Like Romans or Ephesians) on Sunday morning.

Sunday Evening

This is a slightly less formal service for us. During this service we hear from a missionary (usually by reading a letter), we sing a few hymns, we have a time of prayer were we pray for ministry or spiritual needs. We usually here one prayer request and then have one church member pray aloud for just that request. Then we have a shorter Bible message.

The Sunday evening service is the place where we do three things we almost never do on Sunday morning: - We take the Lord's supper (once a month) - I will sometimes teach for five to ten minutes in addition to preaching. - This is where preachers in training get to preach.

Wednesday Evening

During the wednesday evening service we have a few hymns. We usually take prayer requests for health needs and I preach. I almost always preach from the Old Testament. We usually have some kind of kids program or teen program going on on Wednesday and that is the lightest attended service. So if I am preaching to 110 on Sunday morning, I may only be preaching to 60 on Sunday night and 40 on Wednesday.