Keep Your Shenanigans to a Minimum
Don’t tell anyone, but I like to drive outside the lines. It’s just to remind myself who’s in charge. I’m not going to let some bureaucrat at the department of transportation tell me what to do! Pretty rebellious, I know, but some of you go even further with your “off-roading”. You know who you are!
It’s not that I enjoy chaos, I just want to feel free. But I also want to arrive home safely, so I keep my shenanigans to a minimum. Overall, I’m a pretty cautious person.
Which is why I enjoy traditional Baptist worship. I like the volume turned to medium, no more than a handful of songs, and a sermon about the same length as an episode of Jeopardy. Pentecostal or charismatic church services just aren’t my jam. I’ve attended a few but didn’t hang around long enough to make the discomfort wear off.
Not that I’m resistant to the Holy Spirit. In fact, I was about eight rows back, stage right at a Vineyard service in college, when the “guest healer” pointed me out and called me to the front. He asked me what needed healing, and I remembered that my shoulder was sore from baseball practice. He gave me just enough of a nudge to let me fall backwards if I felt like being “slain in the Spirit”, but nothing happened. I wanted to believe, but nearly 30 years later, my shoulder still hurts. Me of little faith, I guess.
To the point, I don’t think I would have enjoyed the church at Corinth. Their shenanigans would have been a little too eccentric for me, and I think Paul felt the same way in 1 Cor 14:26-40:
26 What then, brothers and sisters? Whenever you come together, each one has a hymn, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Everything is to be done for building up. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, there are to be only two, or at the most three, each in turn, and let someone interpret. 28 But if there is no interpreter, that person is to keep silent in the church and speak to himself and God. 29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should evaluate. 30 But if something has been revealed to another person sitting there, the first prophet should be silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that everyone may learn and everyone may be encouraged. 32 And the prophets’ spirits are subject to the prophets, 33 since God is not a God of disorder but of peace.
As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but are to submit themselves, as the law also says. 35 If they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, since it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. 36 Or did the word of God originate from you, or did it come to you only?
37 If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, he should recognize that what I write to you is the Lord’s command. 38 If anyone ignores this, he will be ignored. 39 So then, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But everything is to be done decently and in order.
The first thing I notice after reading this passage is that Paul would have stuck around the Vineyard church longer than I did. Multiple prophets and tongue-speaking make me uncomfortable, but Paul seemed to be just fine with it, as long as it was done orderly and “for building up.”
Also, “silence” seems to be an important part of the gathering of the saints. He tells three groups of people to turn down the volume:
Tongue speakers without an interpreter (v. 28),
Prophets who’ve already said their spiel (v. 30), and
Wives (v. 34) or women (it’s hard to tell).
Many readers get sidetracked with the issue of women being silent in church. I don’t think that’s the point of this passage.† (for more on this difficult passage, see footnote) The point is that there should be an overarching sense of order and peace anytime the saints gather. Why? Because that’s who God is.
But does God want church to be Baptist boring instead? I don’t get that impression from the text. There seems to be space for the Holy Spirit to move powerfully and for plenty of emotion.
We see an abundance of stories throughout scripture of all three persons of the Trinity acting wildly and untamed—whirlwinds, whips, tongues of fire, etc. We worship an awesome God who commands us to fear him. Would God feel at home in church services with three songs and a sermon?
My conclusion is that God partakes in some “off-roading” while making sure we get home safely. He is a God of joy and of peace. He’s a God of power and of comfort. He is a consuming fire, and he clothes the lilies of the field. He’s certainly not boring, and dare I say, is up to a few shenanigans.
And as it pertains to the three commands in 1 Corinthians 14 to be silent in church, I think it all boils down to remembering who God is. Any time we try to re-create him in our image, into what we’re comfortable with, we’re doing it wrong. “Since God is not a God of disorder but of peace,” we should all attend church with an attitude of humility, submission, quietness, and awe-filled wonder.
† Likely thousands of scholarly papers have been written by people smarter than me on this difficult passage, along with 1 Cor 11:5 and 1 Timothy 2:12, and whether women should be allowed to preach. One thing that makes it difficult is that the people to whom Paul was writing did church and life a lot different than you and me. Context is important.
Also, we already know from 1 Cor 11:5 that Paul permits women to pray and prophesy, which means he can’t be commanding complete silence in 15:34. But, one thing that seems to connect all three passages, in context, is a posture of submission to male leadership in church and marriage. The best explanation I know for that is in Ephesians 5:22-33, which is part of a larger teaching on mutual submission. Why must we all (not just women) demonstrate a posture of submission? Because of the profound mystery of Christ and the church.
Many great resources on this topic are accessible to all, and I’ll point you to a really great podcast episode I think you’ll enjoy: https://youtu.be/NLYuGaUt2t0?si=Qw7BtYKQ_iuDSpeo
