Worship in the Church: Part IV
This is part 4 in a series I am doing on what to expect when you come to church. If you have not read parts 1, 2, or 3, I encourage you to do so.
Whether it be simple or complex, focused or unfocused, consistent or irregular, every church has a liturgy. Liturgy is simply not an option when people gather for corporate worship. The term liturgy often causes people to conjure up images of the smells and bells of the catholic church, or of rigid structure and stagnant worship. To many folks, liturgy means boring and stuffy high church. It is unfortunate that this is what some think of when liturgy dawns the door of a conversation. Liturgy is far more than people realize. The question is: what is liturgy, what does it communicate, and what does it do?
Liturgy is a frame for worship that is designed by revelation, founded on the gospel, and serves to assist the believer in worship. First, liturgy is a frame for worship; that is, it frames our worship service. One might think of architecture. Many buildings are put together with purpose. Some are simple and serve a simple purpose; a storage shed merely exists to hold objects. Others are more complex and are designed to communicate information; an art museum is purposely designed to lead the observer through the art period that the museum is dedicated to. With regard to liturgy, if it serves as a frame or a kind of worship architecture, is our worship designed like a storage shed or a purposefully laid out museum? Liturgy’s simplest purpose is that of a frame for worship, and no matter what church you attend, there you will find some kind of liturgy. So, what should our liturgy communicate?
Fundamentally, a church’s liturgy ought to be designed by revelation and founded upon the gospel. First, when the liturgy is designed for each week, the designer goes to God’s revelation, God’s words found in the Old and New Testaments. Just as the Bible ought to shape the believer’s life and practice, so the Bible ought to shape the liturgy, the worship of the church. From the call to worship to the benediction, liturgy is designed to communicate Bible truth to the church. Second, the liturgy is founded on the gospel. In one sense, as the church participates in the liturgy, they do so because of the gospel; when God calls, we respond positively because we have been reconciled to God in Christ Jesus. In another sense, the gospel is the founding principle that brings us to the liturgy on the Lord’s day. Believers are those people who have been called by God, have seen and believed who He has revealed Himself to be, have had their eyes opened to sin and have repented, who express thanksgiving in response, and who are the blessed people of God. On the Lord’s day, God’s people re-enact and re-affirm Gospel truth as they participate in the liturgy.
Lastly, liturgy simply assists worshipers to worship. The goal is that word-shaped gospel-founded liturgy would, both on the Lord’s day and in everyday life, shape believers worship. On Lord’s day worship, liturgy brings much focus via specific prayers, songs, and Scripture readings. By doing so, God’s people will go through praise, thanksgiving, and lament; they will receive a call from God and a blessing from God; they will focus upon their sinfulness and the grace of God applied to them. Mike Cosper calls liturgy a rhythm of grace. What does one do when they want to gain proficiency at a particular activity? Some have stated that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at something. The repetitive, over and over again, shapes a person. Liturgy is the over and over again of God, His word, His gospel, and His glory. What blessed effect might we all expect at the end of our lives when memory is short, but the gospel is deep? Or, when a husband has been short with his wife, how quick might he be to repent after participating in the prayer of confession of sin for the last 15 years of Sunday liturgies? The rhythm of grace in liturgy will have, with the Spirit’s work, major effects upon God’s people. The focus of liturgy helps believers worship God on Sunday and throughout the rest of the week.
For those of you who have participated in these last 4 blog posts on what to expect in worship, we will now shift our focus. For the next several posts I write, I will focus on each of the liturgical elements of worship that we go through every week. We will examine everything from the call to worship to the benediction. I am looking forward to this as I expect it will shape yours and my own understanding of each part of our worship service.