I have read that many churches, worship service is man-made and they are
following in the foot steps of Abel not Cain. But I have also thought
about the way we worship outside the church; we should be able to do
inside. example playing instruments while singing. many people sing along
in their cars or at home to gospel music, praising and worship.

You might be surprised if you did a careful study of what the
New Testament says about worship that in general, not a lot of specific
instruction is given. What you will find is principles which can guide
our worship, but very few rules. I believe you will find that the
majority of what we tend to assume to be “doctrine” about how to worship
God is in fact tradition and opinion of men. Jesus had some very strong
negative words to say about those who “teach as doctrine the tradition of
men” in Matthew 15:1-9.

Let me start by listing some principles of worship in the New
Testament. Our worship should be organized and orderly, rather than
chaotic (1 Cor 14:26-39). Our worship should be focused on God and on
our fellowship and unity with one another (1 Cor 11:17-34). We should
meet together often (Hebrews 10:25). Beyond that, there are a number of
really good examples of worship in the New Testament, which, while not
binding, help at least provide a starting point for worship. Acts
2:42–47 mentions preaching, prayer and fellowship. 1 Cor 11:17-34
mentions the taking of the Lord’s Supper. Ephesians 5:19 mentions singing
to God (although not necessarily commanding that this be in our communal
worship). Several other passages and principles for worship could be
mentioned, and I will leave the finding of some of these to you.

Having mentioned these things, there remains a huge area of
freedom for us to worship God as we choose. Do we have to take up a
contribution at worship? There is one example of the early church doing
so (1 Cor 16:2), but it is not commanded. That is optional. Do we need
to take the Lord’s Supper every week? More often? There is evidence that
the primitive church did so every Sunday, but believe it or not, it is not
commanded in the New Testament. The local church should decide. Some say
that having musical instruments involved in our worship is sinful and not
allowed. The problem with this statement is that it is not taught in the
New Testament. If the local church chooses to worship with a capella
(non-instrumental) singing, fine, but binding that on people falls into
the Matthew 15 area. How many songs? Is a sermon required? Who should
lead the prayers? Should we have Bible readings? All this is left by God
up to the local leadership. We would do God a disservice to make dogmatic
statements about any of these things. Some have gone so far as to say
that taking the Lord’s Supper with more than one cup is sinful. Let us
put such foolishness behind us! God has given us freedom.

Therefore, your claim that “other churches” are worshiping
according to man-made worship is accurate, but it is also biblical.
Almost any form of congregational worship, if done to honor Jesus Christ,
and to build up the disciples of Jesus is allowable based on the New
Testament. In other words, God has left it to us. No matter how we
worship, the forms will be man-made. The songs will be man-made, the
order of worship will be man-made. We should be extremely careful to
label the form of worship of another group as being “of Cain” unless one
has clear biblical teaching in black and white to support such a claim.
It is my experience that almost all of such arguments are not based on the
Bible, but on tradition.

A word of caution. I am not saying that everything goes.
There are some things which would be worldly and not supported by God.
There are also some restrictions on the role of women in teaching and
preaching publicly, although the specific application of the relevant
passages is controversial.

It is entirely possible that you have specific questions not
answered by my rather general response. Feel free to send me more
specific questions. Perhaps that would be best done by personal e-mail
(john.oakes@gcccd.net)

John Oakes

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