God works in extraordinary ways. Perhaps you’ve heard this truism. I suppose it’s true. But usually, God works in ordinary ways. What we do each week in church is all very ordinary–it’s an invitation to work the simple means of grace.
Sing. Pray. Confess. Preach. Eat. Drink. Listen. Think.
Just like we see in Acts 2: teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, praying.
When God’s people commit themselves to the simple means of grace, they grow. Every. Single. Time.
Going to church is a lot like eating. Every meal is not the best. Every meal is not your favorite. But every meal nourishes you. Every meal sustains you. Miss a few and you feel it.
Our services are not necessarily designed to quickly draw massive crowds. They are designed with particular attention to Scripture, with attention to the Christian past, and an openness to other Christian traditions so that we may get all we can get to grow as deep as we can grow in our walk with God. They are not designed to make us academics, they are designed to make us Christians.
These serves are designed to shape us over a lifetime when we show up with faith and a willingness to be present.
As we do these simple things with love and faith, then I believe God will move powerfully. Fathers, this is the most important thing you can do for your family. Your family will know what you prioritize. They’ll see it. Make sure the church is at the top of that list.
So why do we do what we do in church? Why do we observe specific liturgical elements?
26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
I Corinthians 14:26 (ESV)
This entire post is a reflection and application of one verse and a few of the elements of every service at Resurrection Church:
- Call to worship
- Confession of sin/assurance of pardon
- Confess creeds [Apostle’s and Nicene]
- Give
- Announcements
- Pray
Call to worship
We gather because we’ve been invited. God calls out to us and we respond in faith and worship. Something begins anew every time we gather.
In worship we rehearse the story of God. In a sense the service begins like the Bible begins. In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. Into nothing, God spoke and worlds were created. The world itself is a response to God’s word; it is itself a form of worship. We respond to a call to join the world in worship when we begin with a call to worship.
The beginning of the service rehearses creation. It invites us into a time of worship. And the end of the service rehearses the consummation of creation–the end of all things. Where is the story of God going? To the worship of God! We sing the doxology in praise of the Triune God, just like we will for all eternity.
In one sense, the storyline of Scripture frames our worship service. This is foundational.
Confession of Sin and Assurance of Pardon
Often our services include a time of confession. Together we pray a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer which guides personal and corporate worship. Most Christian traditions have included some time for penitent reflection and confession in the liturgy.
I really love the prayer because of its thoroughness, honesty, and beauty.
Almighty God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole hearts; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us, that we may delight in your will and walk in your way, to the glory of your name.
In confession of sin, we rehearse the fall. We acknowledge the reality of sin in our hearts and in the world. We need to remind ourselves of these things. We need to be reminded of sin’s presence and veracity so we can do battle with it, so we can remind ourselves and the devil that we defeat sin through the victory of Christ.
In the Psalms, David comes before God in worship, bringing a whole range of human emotions before the Lord–including contrition, sadness, and forgiveness.
The all-knowing Lord sees our hearts. He sees our Sunday morning hearts, Saturday night hearts, and Monday morning hearts. We hide not from his penetrating gaze. We lay ourselves bare. We come before God not as we wish we were, but as we are. We confess to God how far short we have fallen.
We come before God, then humbly, but we come before God confidently.
He has forgiven all your sins through the Lord Jesus Christ; you are free to turn from the darkness and walk in the light. If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed.
Other weeks we do not explicitly rehearse this fall/redemption framework through confession of sin. Other weeks we confess the content of the faith that we have received by together confessing Christian creeds.
Confess Creeds
For a couple years we have confessed the Apostle’s Creed and we have recently begun confessing the Nicene Creed.
The Apostle’s Creed was not written by the Apostles, but it is perhaps the oldest Christian statement of faith. It sets forth Christian doctrine, as one has said, “in sublime simplicity, in unsurpassable brevity, in beautiful order, and with liturgical solemnity.” It is a summary of core biblical doctrines, compiled together for the education and instruction of the saints.
In some primary source documents, Luther referred to it as “the children’s creed”–Christian parents would use this creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the 10 commandments, to teach their children about God.
The Nicene Creed is a statement of the orthodox, catholic faith–written to combat heresy (wrong doctrine) and establish the church in the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. It focuses a bit more, then, on the biblical understanding of what we mean when we confess that Jesus is both fully God and fully man–what it means that God is one nature and three persons.
If worship remembers, rehearses, and anticipates the story of God, we need to know this God who we worship! We need to remember the ark of the story. We must not lose the plot!
So why creeds?
Why do we do these things?
1. To build up the saints in the knowledge of God. Simply put, we do this to instruct the people of God.
- Adults and children alike. These creeds are RICH in Christian doctrine. If you can internalize these things, oh man, you’re doing well.
- If the service is intended to build up the believer while being accessible to those outside the faith, what a great way this is to do that.
2. Major on the majors. We want to emphasize our most important doctrines. Let’s get the foundation right. Not to say other doctrines don’t matter. They do! But these are the things which are of first importance as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15–that Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead according to Scriptures. Confessing these creeds is, frankly, an attempt to provide a foundation in a day and age where so many churches are rootless.
- Many Evangelical churches have raised a generation to know how to talk about politics but no clue how to talk about the Trinity. Why do many walk away? Simply ask several questions about the core doctrines of the faith and you may find your answer.
3. To pass on that which we receive. “Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Tradition is the living faith of the dead.” –Pelikan
- We are not the first Christians ever! We are heirs of a vibrant, living faith. This is an historic faith and a spiritual faith. Our faith is grounded in history–the Christ-event and the God-given meaning thereof. We are a people with a history.
- We emphasize the way Christianity is unique more than we want to emphasize the way our church is cooler than the church down the street.
- This is a missiological decision. We want to reach people who are not Christians, teach them to be Christians, and walk with them through the Christian life. We aren’t competing with the church down the street, we’re competing with the devil!
4. To participate–to join the voices of saints who share this confession, here and across time and space.
- You are adding your voice to that great company of voices.
- It’s an opportunity to not be a passive consumer, but a part of the service.
This is obviously theological, of course, but we also do other stuff, like giving, for example.
Give
Most people give online, but we keep a time for giving in the service as both an opportunity to give and a reminder that giving financially is worship. We remember that what we do outside the walls of the church is not without consequence–that God desires our worship inside the church building and out in the world.
Perhaps no one vies for your affection, devotion, attention, and dare I say worship, than money. The Scriptures are clear–you cannot serve God and money. We give to the church as worship because all we have has been given by God. God has always called his people to give sacrificially in worship.
Announcements
We give announcements. This may seem silly, but it’s important. The church is a community and it’s important to know what’s happening in that community and to make every effort to be part of it.
Our community is as good as we make it. If everyone were as committed to the community as you, what kind of community would we be?
Pray
We pray. We pray at 10:30 before the service begins. A small team prays for our elders every Sunday around 10:45 in the study. If you want to be part of that, let us know. The more the merrier. I pray at the end of the service to ask God to take everything I’ve just said and move in power and grace. Corporate prayer is important. It’s powerful. It does something. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Prayer is a great way to anticipate the story of God–to ask him to move in our hearts, in our families, in our church, in our communities, in our state, and in our world.
None of this is spectacular. But it doesn’t need to be!
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
Psalm 122:1
