July 20, 2026
Monday, July 20
People are creatures of habit. We find great comfort in sameness, routine, predictability. At my last church, we renovated the sanctuary, so we had to meet for worship in the gym for several weeks. On our first Sunday in the gym, a woman walked up to me, stared at all those metal folding chairs on the basketball court, and said, “How do I find my pew?” She wasn’t joking. I’ve told that story to several pastors of non-Baptist churches, and they tell me it’s the same in their church. People like to sit in the same place. Every. Single. Sunday.
But in other ways, church people can be strikingly different. In Baptist churches, we have a standard template for worship: roughly thirty minutes of preaching, and thirty minutes of singing. We sing two kinds of songs: some written between 1850 and 1950, and others written within the last ten years (though not in the same service). Our songs tend to be intimate, songs about our personal walk with Christ, with some sung directly to the Lord.
Other types of churches don’t have a long sermon, but more of a ten minute homily. The main part of the service is made up of pre-written prayers, Scripture readings, and a communion ritual. They sing too, but mostly what my Baptist forebears would call “high church” music. Those songs are much more lofty than intimate, with complicated melodies and eloquent lyrics that talk the greatness of God.
At Black churches, the music is a whole other category. It’s emotional and repetitive, because it originally rose from the spirituals the slaves sang in the fields. And the service doesn’t stop at precisely one hour; if you are hoping to get to lunch on time, you’re going to be disappointed.
In the Church of Christ, you’re likely to hear some wonderful music, but no instruments. Whereas at a non-denominational church, you’ll likely encounter something resonant of a rock concert.
And that’s just in American churches. Worldwide, Christian worship is so varied, it would take an entire book to describe the different styles.
Here’s the surprising thing: None of us can biblically say, “My church does it the right way.” The only ultimate judge of our worship is King Jesus, and He never told us how to do church….with two exceptions. There are two rituals our Lord commanded us to perform until He returns. All the rest of our posturing and arguing about worship details is simply a matter of opinion.
We’ll identify those two divinely ordained rituals by the end of the week, but now let’s get back to the story of Exodus. When we left Moses and the Israelite slaves, they were watching God pour out judgment on Egypt for 400 years of slavery and brutality. Nine different plagues fell on the land of Egypt, devastating their economy, reminding them of their sins, and proving that Yahweh alone was God. This week, we’ll examine the last of the plagues: the death of the firstborn. We’ll consider how a loving, righteous God could do such an awful thing. And we’ll see why, in Exodus 12, He made observance of this event the high point of the year for His people.
“Father, I was made to worship you. Remind me of that whenever I get irritated at the details of the worship service in my own church; it’s about you, not me. Bless us, and help us to worship you in spirit and in truth. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
