September 1, 2023
Defining worship, revisited
Last week I introduced you to the work of Lester Ruth who provided categories for describing Christian worship that are not biased or pejorative. As I mentioned last week, Dr. Ruth came up with three categories to define worship, one of which was “how does a congregation see itself in relation to other churches?” He provided a range from “Congregational” to “Connectional,” I put us solidly on the Connectional side of the scale. Some of you responded with your affirmation of that. It is not a simple category for all churches, however. I once drove by an “independent Bible church” in California which proudly advertised on a large sign outside their church “We play Hillsong Music”—much the same way the refectory at Fuller Seminary advertised “We serve Starbucks Coffee.” This is why these categories are on a range, not either/or questions. Churches are somewhere on the scale, but probably not at one end or the other, like this “independent” church which connected itself to another group of churches in its worship. For me this illustration raises another question: I wonder if the early Christians worried about how they branded their worship?
The other two categories are a bit more straightforward. One is “whose story is the primary story told in worship?” Ruth identified two dominant options. The first is the “personal story” being central. These are churches whose worship is primarily focused on the story of a person’s coming to faith. The Baptist tradition in this country developed this mode of worship arising out of camp meetings and revivals. These churches organize their worship in a pattern of “Preliminaries” (or those things that prepare you for the sermon), “Preaching,” and then “Response.” Often the response was a call to commit or recommit of one’s faith, sometimes including baptism in the moment. On the other end are “Cosmic Story” churches, whose worship focuses on the story of God’s creating, redeeming, sustaining, and ultimately renewing creation and we human beings who inhabit it. Often these churches will read more than one scripture text, pray and sing about the state of the world and church in and through history, and focus on the salvation of the world as much or more than the individual.
I think this is a helpful range, though I have taught that the scriptures describe worship balancing them both, placing the story of the individual into the larger story of God. I use baptism as an example. In the Covenant church we include an ancient prayer over the baptismal water in our Book of Worship that marks the way God through the Spirit has used water in history, from creation, to the Ark, to the Red Sea, to Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. It then invites that same Spirit to be present at this baptism. It grafts that person’s story into the ongoing story of God in the world. This is different from a personal story baptism, which would only have a testimony by the baptized and not pray over the water. Again, these are descriptive not evaluative categories, but one can see how we ourselves have preferences or biases.
The last category asks: “what is the center of gravity, or focus, of a worship service?” Traditionally there have been two options for Christian worship on the Lord’s Day, Word and Table. These are the two parts of the most basic from of Christian worship: Gather, Word, Table, Dismissal. Our earliest evidence is that there was a balance between the two. As the churches entered the second millennia, a strong emphasis on the Table was seen in both East and West. Later, Luther (as well as Calvin and Wesley) sought to return the balance of the two in worship. However, many Protestant churches downplayed the Table, instead emphasizing the Pulpit after the Reformation.
The Reformation also created another category in this question: Music. Music entered human rituals in general, and Jewish and Christian rituals in particular, as a way of joining our voices together more easily in prayer. Music was a way something was done, not a thing in and of itself. In fact, one of the origins of the choir in Christian worship arose out of people delighting too much in their singing music and it was thought they were losing sight of the fact that they were first and foremost praying. So the church created a group to sing for the congregation, so some would sing but all might pray—at least in theory.
After the Reformation, we began to see the development of music that was not part of the worship service (like singing the Lord’s Prayer, or the Doxology) but was an independent resource that could be used from time to time. We take this hymnic tradition for granted, though it is a rather recent innovation. However recent, it is very common, so much so that music has become a central focus of worship for some. Many churches have extensive amounts of music in their services as a way of allowing the Spirit to prepare people for the Word or the Table or both. Some go so far as to simply identify “worship” with music, and then call the service of the Word “teaching” which is distinct from worship. So this category does not consist of a line with two distinct options at each end, but a triangle, with the corners identified by Word, Table, and Music.
The genius of these three categories is how they are descriptive of structure and content but not style. You could have two churches with a music-centered, personal story, congregational worship approach. One could be a formal, “tall steeple” Baptist Church with choir and organ and the other a contemporary church with a praise band worshipping in a warehouse. It invites people to look beyond the worship style for the content and intent of the worship service.
How would you describe the worship of First Covenant Church today? How might you like it to change? We are considering applying for a worship grant to help us explore how we might enhance and enrich our worship and your participation in it. There is information about that below. For now, I will simply invite you to reflect on this: We recently read a lesson from Romans where Paul declared that the worship and ministry of a church is the result of the gifts given to its members being used together or “in concert.” Do you think of your contribution to, even presence in, worship being vital to the worship and ministry of our church they way Paul does?
Blessings on you all.
~ Pastor Todd