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If you are relatively new to Christ Church, chances are you
probably have questions about our worship. Euphemistically
speaking, it is for many visitors so . . . "different,"
so . . . "regimented," so . . . "Catholic."
Or it may even be that you've worshipped with us for quite
some time, and the novelty of ancient worship has gone away,
but you have forgotten why we do what we do. Either way, God
wants you to worship with understanding. And so we have assembled
some answers to questions you might (or ought to) be asking.
We're glad you asked. Whether stated
or not, every church has an "order of worship" or
a "liturgy." In many modern churches this order does
not necessarily seem to be self-consciously thought through.
But something as important as a meeting with the living God
should merit some reflection. As we have studied the subject
of the flow of worship, it seemed fitting to follow that suggested
by the order of sacrifices in Temple worship.
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"When more than
one kind of offering was presented (as in Num. 6:16, 17),
the procedure was usually as follows: (1) sin offering
or guilt offering, (2) burnt offering, (3) fellowship
offering and grain offering (along with a drink offering).
This sequence furnishes part of the spiritual significance
of the sacrificial system. First, sin had to be dealt
with (sin offering or guilt offering). Second, the worshipper
committed himself completely to God (burnt offering and
grain offering). Third, fellowship or communion between
the Lord, the priest, and the worshipper (the fellowship
offering) was established. To state it another way, there
were sacrifices of expiation, consecration, and communion." |
This quotation comes from an unlikely but broadly evangelical
source-the NIV Study Bible (P. 150). It makes sense that
when we worship the Holy One we first deal with our sin (confession),
then we dedicate ourselves completely to Him (consecration),
and finally God seals his covenant promises to us through communion.
You may have also noticed that the sacrificial system and our
order of worship follow the order of salvation. First we are
justified (sin offering; confession); then we are sanctified
(burnt offering; consecration); and finally, we are glorified
and have intimate table fellowship with God (peace offering;
communion). Add a call to worship to begin, and a commissioning
to send the saints out with, and you have our order of worship:
Call to worship, Confession, Consecration, Communion, and Commissioning.
This is often referred to as "Covenant Renewal Worship"
because through this worship, God renews his covenantal promises
to us, and we pledge our continuing love and loyalty to Him.
Only in the same way that dinner is
the same every night at your home. Just because all the food
groups are always represented and served in the same order
doesn't mean every night you have a salad, meatloaf and potatoes,
and then cap it off with chocolate cake.
There is a bit of irony at work here.
In many modern churches, we are anxious to hustle the kiddies
out to children's church so the adults can worship in peace
and without distraction. But then when we finally have gotten
rid of them, we worship like children anyway, complete with
hand motions accompanying our trite choruses. In contrast,
we believe that God meets with his people, even the small
ones, on the Lord's Day. Not wanting to deprive our children
of time with their God, we do have children's church, but
it is no different than our normal service in which we all
seek to mature like little children. But given our current
culture, where children (and adults) simply have very little
practice sitting still, we all have to be patient with one
another. Also, we have a mother's room downstairs with a speaker
so that those that need it can hear the service.
There is a bit of irony at work here.
In many modern churches, we are anxious to hustle the kiddies
out to children's church so the adults can worship in peace
and without distraction. But then when we finally have gotten
rid of them, we worship like children anyway, complete with
hand motions accompanying our trite choruses. In contrast,
we believe that God meets with his people, even the small
ones, on the Lord's Day. Not wanting to deprive our children
of time with their God, we do have children's church, but
it is no different than our normal service in which we all
seek to mature like little children. But given our current
culture, where children (and adults) simply have very little
practice sitting still, we all have to be patient with one
another. Also, we have a mother's room downstairs with a speaker
so that those that need it can hear the service.
This is part of the "consecration"
section of our worship. God tells us what to believe-with
the creeds we say back to God, "this is what we understand
You are telling us to believe." More than intellectual
assent, the creeds are our declaration of Whom we trust. We
believe (trust!) the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit: The Triune God.
God made us with bodies, and he wants
us to use them in worship. Kneeling and lifting up the hands
are biblical expressions of worship (Ps. 95:6;1 Kings 8:54)
. Kneeling-like prostration-is a posture associated with humility,
reverence, and penitence. It is a posture appropriate for
subjects before their King. Kneeling at confession expresses,
with our bodies, our sorrow and submission to our Lord. Lifting
hands is a posture of supplication and entreaty-think of your
child lifting up hands to be held. At the end of our service
we lift our hands up together as an expression of praise.
Amen! And neither is ours. Our relationship
with God is unlike that which we have with any other. He is
at the same time our Father and the Sovereign Ruler of the
Universe; our Lord and Judge, as well as our Friend. But this
Friend isn't like any other friend we have. That is why the
psalmist calls us to "Worship the Lord with reverence,
and rejoice with trembling" (Ps. 2:11). Also, God calls
us to do all things "properly and in an orderly manner"
(1 Cor. 14:40)-and the context of this passage is corporate
worship. In obedience to this, well-planned worship is our
way of honoring and loving God. So our worship is somewhat
formal, yes, but this enhances and does not inhibit our intimacy
with Him.
Well the quirks of the Cantus Christi
belong to our friends down at Canon Press. They think that
the time signatures should be obvious. Whether or not that's
the case, we couldn't do without the glorious music. If you
hang around for a while, we think you'll be spoiled forever.
Your observation is correct, we don't
sing choruses, but focus rather on psalms and hymns. This
comes from both theological and musical convictions. Theologically,
many choruses are wanting in accuracy and depth. Even those
that are accurate (like those which are simply singing Scripture)
when taken as a whole body of work tend only to emphasize
attributes of God with which our culture is comfortable (his
mercy, love, and grace, for instance). While these are glorious,
no doubt, and we love them too, God is also majestic, transcendent,
just, unchanging, etc. Older hymnody, and especially psalm-singing,
emphasizes all the perfections of God. They also emphasize
something we just don't see in modern worship music: antithesis.
You are either with God or against Him. There is no neutrality.
We see this in the psalms. There is the usual section churches
sing about the faithfulness of God to bless His people. But
then also in the psalm are verses speaking of the fate of
those who refuse to love the Lord. These parts the modern
church has edited out of its hymnody. We sing whole psalms
because we want God's inspired Word to shape our whole minds.
So we sing not only the blessings, but the curses as well.
There are also musical reasons for our preferences. The hymns
and psalms are more excellent and beautiful. They have rich
harmonies and rhythms we just don't find in most choruses.
Generally speaking, Christians have not demonstrated as much
skill in composition today as we did a few hundred years ago.
And so we have found psalms and hymns to be the more appropriate
medium to convey the rich perfection of God. While this is
hard work, God calls us to sing skillfully to Him (Ps. 47:7).
So though we aren't there yet, we certainly are seeking
to grow in skill and faithfulness.
Is our love of older music just a fad? An example of what
C.S. Lewis calls "chronological snobbery"? Do we
love old psalms and hymns merely by virtue of their age? Of
course not. Beauty, and not age, is the issue here. And surely
the church has some beautiful new music to look forward to
that has yet to be composed. It just so happens that we are
finding beauty in old music, and having a harder time finding
it in contemporary compositions.
It's true that many of these songs
are difficult to sing. And some of the Genevan ones sound
funny on the ear at first. But difficulty should not keep
us from excellence. In fact, the preface to the Genevan Bible
says, "All things are difficult which are excellent and
fair." Expressing God's glory is surely excellent and
fair, and so it shouldn't surprise us that it is difficult.
Worship is something to prepare for during the week-practicing
the music so we can sing our best for our King.
We have found when the saints really apply themselves to learn
this music that they are blessed. Their former notions of
what constitutes glorious worship have been challenged and
transformed, and they can never go back. So come to psalm
sing and learn with us as we pursue all 150 psalms, and recover
many of the magnificent ancient hymns the church has left
behind.
That's a good question, and gives us
an opportunity to address the difference between faith and
presumption. Presumption is assuming privileges you do not
have. Faith, on the other hand, is grounded on real promises.
We only claim that which God says is ours for the asking.
Applying this to confession of sin, our Father promises us
repeatedly that if we confess and forsake our sins, he will
forgive and heal us (1 Jn. 1:9; Prov. 28:13; Rom. 5:1 etc.
etc.). The minister is simply to say what God says. So after
we confess our sins, it actually would be arrogant for the
minister not to declare our sins forgiven when God
makes that declaration.
Long is a relative term, isn't it? Several
centuries ago, you could easily find yourself listening to a
sermon of a few hours in length. The listeners at the
time had the mental stamina to listen and profit from
that. Yet today, many modern churches have sermons half the
length of our usual 40-50 minute sermon. Ironically, this seems
to match the length of your average sitcom: 22 minutes without
commercials. This seems to say more about the impact of television
on our attention span rather than dictate an ideal length of
sermon.
One reason for the length is there is so much to learn and know
in God's Word. When God spreads a table for His people, he does
not present "California-cuisine" sized portions. You
may have encountered them before: three green beans, a 2"
by 2" piece of grilled chicken breast, a dozen or so grains
of wild rice-and all of it ingeniously presented. Many
sermons in modern pulpits are just like this, and though entertaining,
it doesn't make for robust spiritual health. Sitting for a long
time under this preaching, God's people begin to show their
ribs. Now, there should be creativity and beauty in the
pulpit, but never at the expense of nutrition. God's people
need milk and meat in the teaching-and that takes a bit of time.
It might help also to think of it this way. Where ever you are
on Sunday for worship, the preacher is to speak, as it were,
the very utterances of God (1 Pet. 4:11). In fact, historically,
the consensus of the church has been that to the extent the
pastor is accurately declaring the Word of God, to that extent
it is the voice of Christ, and not the pastor, you are hearing.
Herman Hoeksema explains this:
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"Through preaching
you do not hear about Christ, but you hear him. The difference
is easily understood. When you hear about someone, he
is not present. You do not hear his own voice, but the
voice of someone else who tells you something about him.
But when you hear someone, you hear his own voice. He
is present with you. He is addressing you personally."
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Well that changes things a trifle, doesn't it? If it was announced
that Jesus were speaking for forty minutes on Sunday at such
and such a place, who wouldn't flock to hear Him? The point
is, He is speaking for forty minutes on Sunday-at your church.
But are you listening for Him? Do you come with that sense of
anticipation that God is going to speak to you this Sunday?
If you do, would you mind if God "went a little over"?
The thought would never cast the merest shadow on the threshold
of your mind.
That depends how you view the Lord's
Supper. If it is merely a memorial, an opportunity to remember
the sacrifice of Christ, then perhaps it should be
celebrated less frequently (just as you only pull your photo
album out once in awhile). But even this seems flimsy reasoning.
Should we then have communion only once a year? Then it would
be really special. We think a more biblical way to
look at the Supper is that it is not only a memorial, but
a means of grace. Through the Lord's Supper we commune with
Christ, are given Christ as bread from heaven, and somehow
(mysteriously) we are strengthened spiritually. So we liken
the Lord's Supper more to the importance of eating three square
meals, and less to paging through a photo album of past events.
Think of it like getting married. You
may love your intended before the wedding day, but you cannot
go on the honeymoon until you say your vows. The wedding is
a covenantal ceremony that changes your status from outsider
to insider. Once inside the marriage, you have the privileges
of marriage-but not before then. Baptism is a covenantal rite
that formally acknowledges you as a child of God and grants
you access to the privileges of the family of God. Just as
you are born once, so you are baptized once. But that child
gets dinner every time the family eats. So baptism is a sacrament
of initiation, and the Lord's Supper a sacrament of continuation.
Baptism is an individual sacrament, and the Lord's Supper
is a community sacrament. So if you love the Lord, please
talk to us about baptism, and then come to the Table.
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