Part 1 implies that there will be a Part 2. Be sure to check in tomorrow to hear a contesting of my own thoughts and seek some resolution to the issues raised here today.
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First, some background.
I was raised in the Free Methodist Church during the fifties and
sixties. No worship teams – unless the
pianist, organist and song leader counts as one. We enjoyed the ‘song service’ and then came
the preaching and invitation. It was
simple; freestyle.
I attended Asbury Theological Seminary for three years
(1973-76 but did not graduate). It was
dominated by United Methodists (although they had a Free Methodist president
for a spell). I began to become
acquainted with a more liturgical form of worship. It was ‘comfortable’ and ‘reasonable’. I enjoyed it and found that it had potential
to add meaning and value to worship.
After a few years in the ministry, I saw the need to
complete my seminary education. Going
back to ATS with my family was not a viable option. Instead, I enrolled at Pittsburgh Theological
Seminary and attended for the next eight years completing my Master of Divinity
degree. These years the seminary was definitively
split between four theological perspectives:
feminist theology (my classes usually had more females than males),
liberation theology, process theology and Calvinistic theology. It was like being in a free-fall before
opening one’s parachute. I told my superintendent
at the time not to let just any FM candidate attend this liberal school.
I encountered a newer level of liturgy in worship at
PTS. I experimented with it in the FM
church I was leading at that time. I
found no strong backlash – people generally accepted the forms as I offered
them.
From 1990 – 1992, I attended the Franciscan University of
Steubenville where I attained my M.A. Counseling. Liturgy took a new leap in this charismatic
Catholic environment! I worshiped in
this community every day that I attended classes (Noon Mass). I became comfortable with the scriptures,
responses and prayers. My classmates
seemed to enjoy seeing my responses to a different way of doing things.
In 1997, through a turn of events too complicated to explain
here, I ended up on staff at the Cornerstone Church (formerly FM) in Akron,
OH. This congregation was growing
extremely fast under new (female leadership).
She estimated that 75% of the congregants were
first-time-believers; UNHEARD OF! I would describe it as respectful chaos. These people were new to church life and didn’t
know how they were supposed to behave and respond. Baptisms were met with hoots and hollering
and exuberant applause and shouts. People
stepped into the aisles during the worship time to move to the music and
express their joy! Pastor Brenda Young’s
messages were riveting and instructional!
Liturgy was not a word that anyone there would recognize. It was COMMON.
I deliberately tried to replicate this when I went to the New
Middletown FMC. The church grew and
prospered with very little liturgy – although I did use some (especially
regarding Holy Communion). Worship was
vibrant; the church was nearly always
full; new converts were coming to
faith!
To finish the story, I’m now worshiping in an Evangelical
Presbyterian congregation. Sunday
worship is TOTALLY predictable! It
reminds me of going to my daughter's new church in Connecticut. As we took our seats and the worship team
went to the front, my grandson leaned toward me and said: “Poppy, there’ll be three songs, a prayer, the
offering and announcements and the message.”
He nailed it!
There’s a creative gene somewhere in my DNA. I like to keep people guessing. I love to change things up. There were a number of times that I opened
the service of worship by preaching and then brought the worship team up to
lead us. Back in the days of Sunday
night services, Martha Anderson once said to me: “You know what I like about you, pastor? When we come to church on Sunday nights, we
never know where you’re going to have us meet!”
I just read an incredible story in Jim Cymbala’s book, FRESH
FAITH: What Happens when Real Faith
Ignites God’s People, (chapter five).
He speaks of enjoying the ministry of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir,
when suddenly he felt an impulse to get up and give his message. He thought:
“…maybe I’m just getting a little emotional. Or maybe Satan was tempting me into some kind of
weird behavior.” “Then I thought, my
goodness we haven’t even taken the offering yet! This isn’t the time to preach and give an
invitation; that comes at the end of a
meeting, not this early.”
Shortly after, he states:
“ I felt that if I did not respond I would be grieving the Holy
Spirit. I silently prayed, ‘God, I don’t
want to fail You by not doing Your will.
I’m going up there at the end of this song. Somehow stop me if I’m wrong.”
The choir and director (his wife, Carol) were obviously surprised
when he stepped into the pulpit. He gave
a ten minute message and an invitation.
Dozens responded from across the auditorium. The sound of weeping could be heard as people
repented of their sins and embraced Christ.
After they prayed with every person, they simply resumed their worship
where it had been interrupted.
That week, a man called the church office asking for sheet
music for a song the choir had sung on Sunday.
After a discussion with Jim’s daughter, he asked her to give Jim a
message:
My family and I were just on a visit to New York for the
weekend. We have a nineteen-year-old son
who has totally hardened to the things of the Lord. We brought him up to be a Christian, but he
has drifted away…
On this trip, we invited him to come with us. I promised him we would enjoy the city
together, but our real plan was to bring him to your church in hopes that God
would somehow reach him.
On Sunday, as we took a cab to your church for the afternoon service,
I checked our tickets and realized I’d made a terrible mistake. We wouldn’t be able to stay for the whole
thing.
But then early in the service your dad walked up to the
platform and started to share the gospel.
Suddenly my son was standing up with the others and heading for the
altar! He broke down before the Lord,
calling out to God for forgiveness. When
he came back to his seat, he was a different person.
This has been the most incredible transformation that you
could ever imagine.
I know; this could
have just as easily happened in a liturgical church. I get that.
But, I feel it would be less likely to occur in a liturgical
church. The liturgy tends to
dominate. We depend on it instead of the
Holy Spirit to direct us to God.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m
not anti-liturgical. I’ve tried to
clarify that above. Given my
personality, my love for creativity and my affection for unpredictability – I get
bored pretty quickly with the same old format repeated every week.
OK, now let’s talk about something else – like saying the
Lord’s Prayer together in worship. 😉 No, no, no, you’ve had enough of my opinions
for one day…
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