A Liturgical Worship Service

In our part of the country a liturgical worship service is fairly uncommon among Evangelicals. 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. It may be thoughtful, as we try to be at Heritage, or it may less carefully ordered, but 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 It may be memorized, announced as it goes along, published, unpublished, etc., but if there is a form such that everyone is supposed to act together, you have a liturgy.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 that the people could worship and not have someone do it for them vicariously. It seems ironic that so many Protestants today have, and even defend, spectator or vicarious worship.

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 and some are even carrying Palm Pilots around in the pulpit. 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. 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. Here's an example

Formal: Dear Father of mercy, according to your promise of the power of the gospel and your Spirit, grant us love for our neighbors and even our enemies. For we know in Christ that you were reconciling the world to yourself, not counting our trespasses against us, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Informal: Lord, we just ask that you would just help us reach out and love the people around us. We just want you to know that we love you.

That may seem like an unfair caricature, but one can find the informal version and worse without any difficulty every Lord's Day in scores of bible-believing churches in every American town.

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. Liturgical forms cover exactly these. 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 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.