The Art of Worship

It is useless, I think, to treat worship in our services as bearing no importance as to its form and character. Let us not forget that the early church was a worshipping church whose teaching was not easily dichotomized from their worship. What they confessed they learned; what they learned they confessed. I want to lay out one major problem in worship that could be remedied and several principles for forming a wholesome and helpful worship service.

Remembering our reformation heritage we find that Church leadership often got too much in the way and instead of being a bridge they became a blockade. Many reformers before and after Luther emphasized the need to give the people the Scriptures. In many ways, we are facing the same situation with the protestant churches at large today. Let me illustrate what I mean by stating several negatives:
1) the pulpit is not an opion desk, bandwagon opportunity, or outreach (here I am referring to at least Sunday morning)
2) the worship leader is not the voice of the people and especially not the substitute of the people in worship

With this very simplistic portrayal of a big issue, let me state some principles that would help the formation of worship in our services.

Leaders,
1) assume that the people want to worship and confess both their sins and their beliefs
2) make sure you provide an opportunity for them to do this
3) get out of the way
4) every detail of the service is important so pay attention to detail

Think of it this way, when I come to worship service I want to worship with the people of God. I often think to myself: "Please do not rob us of our worship!" It has been said about the NBA that a good referee is one who is never noticed. Apply this principle to the leading of a service. The leader is there not to be noticed but to provide direction and order. This means trying not to be noticed.

This can be accomplished by several means: make sure that your voice is only hear when the people get off track. Second, don't sing harmony but leave that to the choir since the people are not themselves singing harmony. Third, don't give mini sermons and exhortations every time you get up; this is a distraction and assumes the inauthenticity of the worshipers. Fourth, assuming that the people want to come to worship, provide for them an orbit (an order of service) in which to enter.

Imagine if every time we sang a hymn I stopped in the middle of the verse to pray or explain something or make an announcement or give an mini-exhortation. How frustrating! Instead, get out of the way and leave the exhortation to the reading of the Word and trust that the people do not need anyone to continually remind them of what the song means. Let the song and the prayers and the Scriptures speak for themselves. Additionally, it is the people's voices that should be heard and not the overarching sound of either the instruments or the lead singers (bridge rather than blockade).

In the same way, the service as a whole is an offering and a rythm. It is not helpful to break it up into disproportionate chunks. Let it be a flow from one thing to the next. We confess our faith by saying corporately the Lords Prayer or the Apostolic Creed or whatever, which leads us directly into a song of worship. If announcements are needed or if direction as to what to do next (such as sitting or standing or greeting) are needed this is better done by putting it in the bulletin. In this way, the rythm is not broken and the people know when to stand, sit, and say amen without having someone continuously be narrating the service (distraction). An order of worship in the bulletin accomplishes this.

I cannot say enough that whatever gets emphasis and attention off of the individual leader helps the people to be the focus of the service. Thus the congregational prayer is not an opportunity to teach or preach but is a prayer offered in behalf of the people. Written prayers that are prepared should be encouraged seeing that they indicate careful preparation and deliberate care. This also gives an opportunity to utilize some of the faithful prayers of the church historical and discourages counting on the happen chance prayer that can in fact indicate a lack of care.

Also, it is good for the people to pray and confess (confession of belief) corporately and responsively. Responsive readings are beautiful when done well and give the people a way of participating and actually leading the service. Thus we the people become active in the service. Not only does it give the people a chance to be active but a chance to be united; a chance to be public; a chance to hear themselves and others speaks about Jesus as Lord etc. We unite our voices to state emphatically and dogmatically what we confess to be true.

I think it is not very helpful also when we make our services equal to evangelism. Once again, do not take away the opportunity of the people of God to worship and be encouraged by the word. This is their service.

Paying attention to music, we must acknowledge that everything we do creates an atmosphere. Music can convey happiness, authenticity, sorrow, expectation, mystery, and so on. What we sing is important just as what we preach is important and careful attention should be given to the beauty of the words as well as the soundness of the ideas portrayed and expressed. The same would hold for the prayers, the sermon, and the confessions of faith. Not only what we sing, but the arrangements are important since they produce a certian atmosphere on their own as well as the order in which they are done. Care taken can make for a sound and goergeous service.

Use images and art that faithful portray and create the presence of truth and mystery and expectation. Do this both in the architecture of the place of worship and in the scenery of the church in so far as is possible.

Lastly, this is not really about contemporary verses traditional. Actually what many call traditional is only several hundred years old and not that traditional. This issue might be approached by noting several factors to keep in mind:
1)there is a difference between sacred music and music in general (since they do create an atmosphere and a state of mind)
2) both may be utilized in an asthetically pleasing and metrical fashion
3) doing this is difficult
4) we want to utilize the history of the church's sacred worship while also baptizing the culture we are in so as to use its unique gift of art and music
5) there is also a difference between corporate music and general music

It takes greater care to do this well and my post is not meant to sound critical (its not) only helpful in portraying what seems to me to be some helpful ideas. Don't think that "form" equals "inauthenticity". Do not forget that the worship of Israel instituted by God himself gave careful attention to detail and form. Jesus never criticized the form but the lack of the authenticity. The same is true for singing, corporate prayer, and corporate confession. Authenticity is not decided by form but is a choice. One may sing the most emotional contemporary song and be wholly inauthentic. I had better stop.