Sometimes we grow so accustomed to things being the way we’ve always known them to be that we cannot think of doing them any other way. I remember pulling up to a gas station several years ago and a man asking me what kind of gas I wanted and if I wanted my windshield cleaned. Having spent most of my life in a “Self Service” world at gas stations, I wasn’t sure why this guy was bothering me about my gas. What I had always known was “Self Service,” and I didn’t even realize that “Full Service” still existed anywhere, and I wasn’t sure that I even wanted “Full Service.” I was comfortable with what I had always known and always done.
This is definitely not an exact parallel, but sometimes when friends come and visit the church of Christ, they quickly realize that there are some things that are different than what they’ve always known, and sometimes they are not sure that they could “go to a church that doesn’t have thus-and-such or do this-and-that.” When religious folks visit a church of Christ—folks who have grown accustomed to (or only ever known) mechanical instruments (like pianos, organs, guitars, bands, orchestras, etc.) and choral groups being used for music and singing during a worship assembly—these folks will often wonder how a church could exist without those elements in its worship and wonder if they could even personally be part of such a church. It is like they have pulled into a gas station with an old-style service—how could anyone be satisfied or comfortable with this “plain worship style”?
Why doesn’t the church of Christ have instruments of music and/or choirs in its worship like so many other churches do? This could be answered in a number of ways, but let me kindly offer these thoughts for you. The church of Christ does not have these things in its worship for the same reason that it does not have: Saturday night worship services as an alternative to Sunday worship; speaking in tongues; healings; burning incense; holy water; reciting the Nicene or Apostle’s Creed; genuflecting and making the sign of the cross; changing of the bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus; women preaching; altar calls using the sinner’s prayer; etc.
Again, the church of Christ is not going out of its way to see how different it can be from everyone else. Here’s the simple and only reason these things are absent from our worship: they are not found in the New Testament as authorized avenues or elements of worship. The New Testament is the sole source of Divine wisdom for worship. Jesus taught that our worship must be done “in truth” (John 4:24), according to God’s Word (John 17:17). So, it may sound overly simplistic (and maybe even naïve), but if something is not authorized by God in the New Testament, how could any man add it (Rev. 22:18)? Don’t drive off too quickly. Think it over.