Who’s the Seeker?

                                                                                                                                                                Vol. XII, No. 8, September 1999

[This is an excerpt from a column by William H. Smith in World magazine, 17 July 1999.]

How did we get here? Evangelicals seem to have forgotten what Jesus told the Samaritan woman about the identity of the seeker in worship: "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks" (John 4:23). The Seeker in worship is God the Father who is seeking worshippers who will focus not selfishly on themselves, nor altruistically on others, but exclusively on Him. The goal of worship is neither conversion nor rededication of the seeking human but expressing the worth-ship of the seeking Father. The conduct of worship is determined not by the needs of the human seekers but by the glory of the Divine Seeker.

One of the sad and inevitable results of the shift from seeking God to seeking man in our services is that we are failing to reach the human seeker. Because [modern] worship is so non-threatening, there is little possibility the unbeliever will be overcome by awe and confess, "God is really among you!" Because we have little confidence in offering the only thing we have to offer -- the ministry of Word and sacrament -- we send the seeking soul away entertained but empty. Because we are afraid to offend and so want to help, we baptize pop-psychology with a Bible verse or two, rather than proclaim the timeless gospel which alone is the power of God unto salvation.