A Liturgical Worship Service

In our part of the country a Reformed liturgical worship service is fairly uncommon. By liturgical most people have in mind a service where both the minister and the congregation recite, pray, sing, and read printed selections of text. This is what we mean by liturgical, although it should be noted that there is a sense in which almost every corporate service (even among those who are opposed to liturgy) is a liturgical service. If the congregation is doing the same thing at the same time--singing, praying, listening, eating--there is a liturgy. It may be memorized, announced as it goes along, published, unpublished, etc., but if there is a form such that everyone is supposed to act together, you have a liturgy.

What the Word Liturgy Means

We get the word liturgy from the Greek word leitourgia, which means "work of the people." The liturgy is the work of the people. This is why a liturgical service such as ours has a high degree of active congregational participation. We worship together and it is not a spectator event. Our culture offers us nearly constant opportunity to be entertained--to have people perform before us for a small offering. This is not Protestant worship! The 16-17th century Reformers fought hard so that the people could worship and not have someone do it for them vicariously.

Objections to a Liturgical Service

Increasingly in popular culture there is an attitude that formality equals insincerity and informality equals sincerity. We can observe this trend in language, clothing, and the various arts. Because a liturgical service is by definition formal , i.e., it has a set form, many have come to view such worship as insincere or dead orthodoxy. However, if one gives more thought to this, he will find that formal might equal or encourage insincerity, but informal worship may do exactly the same thing.

To the contrary, many of us have found that having a set form in worship is very helpful in encouraging sincerity in worship. In other words, we recognize the sinfulness and weakness of man and understand consequently we are going to need some help to keep our hearts and minds on the most important matters at hand in worship. It is very easy during a worship service to slip into thoughts of grocery lists, the week's schedule, or that leaky transmission in the car. Liturgy helps keep us engaged in worship so we don't have to shoulder the whole burden.

Some have objected to saying prescribed words. "But those aren't my words! " Our culture places a premium on extemporaneity (or at least the appearance of it!). For instance, presidents of the United States used to make speeches from paper on their desk or podium, but now they use Teleprompters to give the appearance that it's from the heart when really they are mostly reading the text just like always. The same has been true for pastors in preaching. For much of Christian history pastors wrote their sermon and read it (hopefully in an engaging manner). Now we have video screens with PowerPoint. But still, nothing has changed that much: good sermons are written and delivered according to prior study. Sermon study is not necessarily any less Spirit-led than extemporaneous speech.

It is true that there are not many other instances in life where we read words together aloud. That means the whole idea of reading words out loud ought to be given some thought. Could it be that words read aloud corporately may be just as sincere and meaningful as words made up on the spot? We think so, particularly if the words are Scripture. In fact it may be that prescribed words are actually better for much of worship. Carefully crafted selections for worship can be more biblical, beautiful, and substantive.

The last objection to liturgical worship heard commonly is that it's just a matter of style or personality-type. One of Evangelicalism's favorite clichés has been that we need to change the method without changing the message. The intention of those who put this idea forward is not in question. What should be called into question is the veracity of the idea. Do all forms (methods) equally leave the message unaffected? Of course not. Message affects method just as method affects message. Media matters!

If one looks in scripture, we do not find a worship service in full. We do find parts of them, however, and at every point they are antiphonal/responsorial over monologue, corporate over individual, repetitious over ingenious, doctrinally dense over charming, declarative over conversational, historical over occasional, and God-centered over man-centered. We are seeking for our liturgy to reflect these same characteristics. We believe the message is best conveyed and fostered by a liturgical service, even if it's not the most popular way of doing things and offends certain preferences.

Some Benefits of a Liturgical Service

Besides being an effective method for conveying the richness of God's redemption of his people, creating greater opportunities for congregational involvement, and helping shoulder the burden of paying attention in our weakness, a liturgical service ensures that we can be more biblical and Trinitarian in our worship than we might be ordinarily. It is difficult without prior work to incorporate lots of scripture in worship. A liturgical service is well-suited for those who value God's word over their own word in worship.

Another great benefit is that our focus can become more Trinitarian. Specifically, the Holy Spirit will not be ignored. This quiet person of the Trinity is essential for making the preached word understandable to us, the sacraments effectual to us, and testifying with us that we are indeed children of God. Yet, we typically worship addressing, praising, and acknowledging Father and Son. A liturgical service, because it is prepared thoughtfully beforehand, can help remedy this situation.

Although several benefits could be mentioned (such as the fact that the liturgy helps us to be Christ-centered when we tend to be self-centered), we should not overlook the usefulness of a liturgical service in training children and helping them enter into corporate worship at an earlier age. Because of the repetition involved in liturgical worship, children will find familiarity such that even pre-readers can participate in large portions of the service. At Heritage we strongly encourage worship at home, or family worship. A printed, liturgical service is easy to take home and use in family worship for training and edification.

Conclusion

Not unlike any good thing, simply because some people have had a bad experience with it or misused it doesn't mean we should abandon and prejudice the thing. We recognize that a Reformed liturgical service can be a very new and unfamiliar experience for many people. For that reason we invite folks to give it a try for a few weeks before reaching a final opinion on the matter. It has been our experience that some people have been adamantly opposed to this kind of worship, yet now, after repeated experience, are some of the staunchest defenders of the liturgical service. For further study, the following books are helpful: A Better Way by Michael Horton, Recovering Mother Kirk by D.G. Hart, and Worship: Reformed According to Scripture by Hughes Oliphant Old.