Worship that looks like heaven

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” —Revelation 7:9-10

The privilege of serving as president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention has been a great highlight of my life and ministry. Working and serving the churches of this convention has been a joy. As the time approaches for my time of service to end, please allow me the opportunity of extending a heartfelt thanks for the wonderful support of the hardworking SBTC staff, all volunteer committees, Executive Board members and churches. Your words of encouragement the last two years have contributed to making this time of service a great experience.

It was also a privilege and honor to preach and teach in congregations where you are entrusted with the care of Christian souls. These times of multi-cultural and interracial worship were a reminder of what worship services will resemble for all eternity in heaven. Each time we shared in worship, we broke down walls that racially and culturally segregate us on Sunday mornings. I know God was pleased and the devil was horrified. As a convention, we are Christians from multiple ethnic backgrounds. We have a great deal of commonality in Christ, and yet we are so different in our ethnic styles of worship. The SBTC, as recent as 2011, was composed of the following ethnic churches: 1,572 Anglo, 212 African American/Black, 166 Hispanic, 75 Korean, 37 Other, 14 Chinese, seven Asian/Other, seven Vietnamese, five Burmese, four Filipino, three Asian-Indian, three Indonesian, two Laotian, two Nepali, two Cambodian, one Thai, one Brazilian, one Japanese and one Native American. The enormity of diversity in this convention is a wonderful sign of God’s approval. When we see the diversity of churches from all nations and kindred of peoples, one could say that we represent what heaven will look like for eternity. 

I believe the coming together of all people for worship is included in what Christ intended when he asked us to pray, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). While we are blessed by our diversity, we must be concerned if we have no personal relationships among the diversity of our pastors and churches. The reality is we don’t know each other. The SBTC has been given a great opportunity to show the rest of Christendom and the world what it truly means to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39) by developing a time for multi-ethnic congregational worship services. Our SBTC Executive Committee has asked a racially diverse group of pastors and lay people from various churches to serve on a committee called the Look Like Heaven Committee. This committee is charged with the task of establishing a movement where SBTC pastors and churches across the state of Texas will be encouraged to participate in worship services with one or more churches from different ethnic backgrounds.

If postmodern Christianity is to overcome human divisions, it will involve struggling with the tough issues of living in an imperfect world. We must start with the command of Christ to love our neighbors. This includes loving fellow pastors and churches that are different from ourselves—ultimately this will take a tremendous effort and sacrifice by all pastors and churches if we are going to develop worship relationships together. The call for worship that looks like heaven may mean reaching out to those unfamiliar to us, and/or challenging contrasting practices or attitudes of the world that have invaded Christianity and keeps us divided. As Christians, we are often protective of our comfort zone and find it difficult to leave the conveniences of our places of worship. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray in Matthew 6:10 “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven,” this instruction is applicable for Christians to pray and step outside of our comfort zones into the kingdom of God. This may mean developing personal relationships across boundaries of race or culture. Christian theology has long valued racial and cultural differences since the beginning. However, Christians haven’t always followed through on the practice, as we can see today. Living in our neighborhoods, working on our jobs, and worshiping in multicultural environments may make us uncomfortable at first, if we are not accustomed to practicing this.

Author George Yancey reminds us that “Christians are also members of the Church, the multicultural, multiethnic, body of Christ. As Christians we must also learn to see our primary identity as Christians. When we meet other Christians, we must see them as brothers and sisters in the same family. This belonging to a new community is our eternal identity. Our oneness with other Christians is deeper than the identities that divide us on earth, such as ethnicity (Jew or Gentile), class (slave or free), and gender (male or female), which are not eternal. In the church, at least, Christians should manifest this eternal reality, and not be captive to the world around them. And all this must be modeled by those who are mature in faith. But Christians must do more than tear down the walls that divide people so deeply. We need to celebrate our oneness and build relationships of unity and love.”

What a divine opportunity we have as SBTC churches to start a trend of worship services that look like heaven. As we build unity and oneness among our churches and establish it on earth as it is in heaven—we look forward to the day when “a great multitude, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” We should be reminded that our worship on earth is a rehearsal for our eternal heavenly worship. We will stand among every nation of people, in all the splendor of God’s glory, and give worship to the Lamb of God.