Stage, Altar, or Table?

I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience of being invited into someone’s home for dinner. You walk in, and everything looks great. The place is beautifully decorated. The smell of the food is amazing. The family seems welcoming. But as you sit down for dinner, you start to feel it — tension.

There’s a thick awkwardness in the air. You can tell something’s off between the people at the table. They’re in disagreement. There’s strain in the room. And even though they’re trying to host you well, you find yourself counting the minutes until you can politely exit.

I’m concerned that this is the experience people are starting to have in the church today — particularly in the West.

Something massive has shifted. We’ve gone from being pushed to the margins of culture — even viewed with suspicion — to suddenly becoming a place people are turning to again. They’re asking spiritual questions. They’re curious about the Bible. They’re looking for God.

It’s a dramatic and unexpected shift. And it happened fast.

From Unity to Division (Again)

While we were still marginalized, something beautiful happened: we united. Across our differences, we linked arms — Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Charismatic, Evangelical. People who used to beat the drum of their distinctives put those drums down. We stood together.

Together, we stood firm against cultural forces that undermined the precious things God cares about in people’s lives.

But now? Now that we’re advancing from the margins, now that spiritual hunger is rising again… well, here we go again.

We’re back to the old game.

The “come to us, we’re the real Christians” game.

The “don’t go to them, they’re doing it wrong” game.

I’m seeing it everywhere. Social media, blogs, Youtube. All the old debates are bubbling back up — not just theological arguments, but worship wars, stylistic snobbery, and petty tribalism over what amounts to non-essential distinctives.

And among the biggies is a new (and old as the hills) flashpoints…

The Stage vs. Altar.

Yep. With people wanting to know Jesus, that’s the conversation many in the church want to have now: should we worship at a stage or at an altar?

With the toxic tendancy to be “better than” or “more right” than the other church, I believe there are some principles that should be guiding us, both for the sake of guests and the sake of the world.

Principle 1: Don’t Divide Over Non-Essentials

If the movement of Jesus is going to expand — and it is — then you can bet new ways to divide will try to keep pace.

So let me say this plainly:

Don’t divide over things like the stage or the altar.

The Apostle Paul certainly didn’t. Imagine him in Ephesus during the riot in the amphitheater (Acts 19). He wanted to go out and speak — on that literal stage — to clarify the gospel. What if people had started playing worship music and calmed the crowd down? Would Paul have said, “Hold up! Not on a stage!”

Of course not.

Now imagine Paul walking into a more traditional worship setting — a beautiful altar, liturgy, reverence. Would he dismiss it and demand a platform and spotlight? Again — no.

So my encouragement to us as Sherpas, especially those of us who shape what our churches put out:

If it’s not in the Nicene Creed… don’t even debate it.

I love the quote often attributed to Augustine:

“In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love.”

Let’s get back to that.

Principle 2: Form Doesn’t Dictate Function and Size Doesn’t Equal Substance.

Say it with me:

Form does not dictate function. Size does not dictate substance.

In Jerusalem, the first church met in Solomon’s Portico — a giant porch outside the temple. It was functionally a stage. They met there because they had to — the temple was busy on Saturdays, and thousands of people needed a place to gather.

Contrast that with a typical synagogue of the time. No stage. No altar. A podium for reading the scrolls. Seating arranged in a circle. Interactive teaching and dialogue.

Totally different forms. Same function: proclaiming the truth.

And don’t forget — the early church also met from house to house. Most of the time, the “platform” for proclaiming the gospel was a table in someone’s dining room.

That’s why it’s a waste of time to argue over style of music, language used, worship space design, or the presence of a literal altar.

The function is what matters.

• The function of proclaiming the gospel.

• The function of celebrating and experiencing worship.

• The function of connecting people to Jesus and to one another.

Let the function determine the form. Never the other way around.

Principle 3: Go Back to the Table

If we’re going to revisit first-century worship, let’s be honest:

It wasn’t about stages or altars.

It was about tables.

Gene Appel, our lead pastor at Eastside Christian Church, says something I love:

“Water is always purest at its source.”

And what was at the source of our whole movement in the 1st century? It was people gathered around meals, in homes. It expanded largely through conversations about Jesus over shared bread and shared stories.

Yes, sometimes there were stages. Yes, sometimes there were religious buildings. But most of the time?

It was a table.

If we let this table-vs-stage-or-altar stuff become a measuring stick — trying to prove who’s “more right” — then we’re working against something sacred.

We’re working against the one prayer Jesus prayed for us in John 17:

That we would be one.

Not that we’d all be most right….That we’d be one.

When It’s Time for Dinner at God’s House…

When we open the doors of our churches and people walk in — people who are hurting, doubting, seeking — they are coming to a family dinner.

Let’s not concern ourselves with whether they’re encountering an altar, a stage, or a table.

Let’s make sure they’re encountering Jesus.

Let’s make sure we’re functioning as his body — with love, unity, and humility.

Let’s be Sherpas who guide others to the summit of full connection with God and with others.

• What is the most sacred thing about your church or church tradition? Is it currently in the way or revealing the way to seekers and guests to your church?

• Is there a group of Christians your church loves to disagree with or warn others about the most? Why do you think that is? How might a guest feel about or experience that discussion?

• If you could train the Sherpa teams to not get distracted by your church’s hobby horses in a pre-huddle or other training type session, what might that training look like? When can you offer something like that?