Is Our Worship Really Inclusive?
Is Christian worship cultic or evangelistic? When I was growing up the going assumption in Methodist and then United Methodist churches was that every worship service should in some way prompt people to become followers of Jesus Christ. Every worship service ended in an altar call. But there was an assumption behind this: Everyone was a cultural Christian. They might be sinners, but they understood the language of imagery used in church. How did we get there? Let’s go back about 1700 years, to the time of the emperor Constantine. Christianity had emerged from the shadows to become the official religion of the Roman Empire. Vast numbers of new Christians needed to be welcomed into the church. How did the church respond? It responded as it had for some decades, even centuries: it adopted familiar places and practices for its teaching and worship. It moved from house churches to public buildings. Churches were built in the basilica form. It was a form familiar to every pagan Roman