[THO] Worship VI

It is important to understand the parts of worship as well as how these various parts interact with each other. If we understand what is going on in the part of the liturgy (service) then we can better know where we can improve the liturgy.

Liturgy
The whole of the service is called a liturgy. The liturgy literally means the work of the people. It is interesting that a secular term was employed by the early church to define what it was they did when they came together to corporately worship God. We sometimes think of work as a bad thing, or at least an exhausting activity. But work in this sense indicates that it is something we all come and participate in. It is something we do together as a community. And it is something that accomplishes. The liturgy then is not meant to be a task we come and experience once a week. But it is something we come together to be a part of doing that builds us as the people of God. Worship must have goals.

This might seem odd to some of us, we love worship and the idea of worship as being utilitarian seems just a bit perverse. I think we need to hold the creative tension of worship, but it does do something. In fact if we can't see worship as being intentionally oriented towards accomplishing certain goals then we will not know how to judge if our worship is growing more worshipful. These are not arbitrary goals, they have to do with the whole idea of liturgy.

Work of the People
Worship creates a people. Worship has the goal of creating community. It points a gathered body of people in the same direction. It shapes the community as one that comes together before God to be God's Church (ecclesia). Far from a mundane task, worship is about togetherness. When worship becomes all about the self it loses much of its creative potential. There are many moments in worship that are intensely personal, but it is the shared aspect of these deeply personal experiences that makes us the people of God's presence. This is why we have people share their experiences in worship. There is much about the liturgy that is oriented specifically towards building this common shared experience.

But what is this work? It is the worship of God. Worship must also have a goal of actually worshipping our God. This is done through a variety of ways. We could spend a whole series just on what is worship. Worship is presenting ourselves to God. Worship is glorifying God. Worship is telling God's story faithfully. Worship is giving our time, energy and money. Worship is loving God. Worship is encounter with God. Worship is singing praise. Worship is resting in God's presence. Worship is all these things and more. Different communities will emphasize different aspects of worship, and they should. There are few wrong ways to worship God who is worthy of all worship and praise. The goal here is not to cover all the bases, but to know that at the end of the liturgy God was worshipped.

I think the temptation is to make it more complicated than that. Surely there must be more goals then I've listed. Really I've only given you two goals: that it brings us together and that God is worshipped. We might want to add a goal of our own transformation, perhaps. But when we do we begin to shape what God wants to do with us as a people, and this is dangerous territory. Our prayer, as a people, is always "Your will be done."

Three Crescendo
The typical Vineyard service is not unlike other evangelical churches. We have what is known as a three crescendo service. Each crescendo, for us, is important and not subserviant to any other. Each crescendo is important in and of itself. There are a lot of liturgical forms, in fact we use quite a different form when we celebrate the Eucharist. But there is something profoundly powerful and the typical Vineyard liturgy.

Worship in Song
We begin with worship in song. For us that is all about singing. We sing intimate songs to God and sometimes lovely songs about God. There is often some interaction between those leading and those participating, but it is all about the singing in this section of the liturgy. There is something about this time that gathers us together and transports us before the very throne of God. And for this liturgical structure worship isn't about the teaching or the giving or anything else, it is simply a time for us to corporately express our love to God.

Teaching of the Word
The second cresendo for us usually occurs after a break. There are technical elements such as prayers, offerings, etc. that occur around this time, but those are often treated in a very peripheral way. The crescendo here is a message that is most often an exposition of scripture. My community is lectional, but that is not the case for the majority of Vineyards I've been to. But there is a strong value of the bible as our foundational text. This section of the liturgy orientes us towards common values and often draws us into a common story.

Ministry of Prayer
The final crescendo in a Vineyard service is a time of prayer. This is important to us as a community. It isn't like an evangelical altar call, often it has nothing to do with the actual teaching. But it is a time for us as a people to gather around each other and be the body of Christ. Of all the things we do in our services it is this crescendo that has touched people the deepest.

The Flow
Even though there is a seperation of these crescendos, there is also a flow that goes through them. We begin together, open before God and asking for God's visitation. From there we listen to God's word, letting it orient our hearts towards God's own heart. Finally we put this into practice, being the people of God who are so moved by His love for us that we reach out in love for each other. Like any good liturgy each part flows into the other so that we accomplish the goals of worship: being God's gathered people and worshipping God.

We could analyse other liturgical structures in a similar way. Knowing how each part functions helps us to understand how well these parts are functioning both independantly and corporately. Understanding that there is a flow that moves through our service of worship helps us to see if the parts are functioning as a whole. Understanding all this we can continue to develop our worship so that it gets better and better.

Next Worshipaholic!