DESIGNING WORSHIP: CONVERSATIONAL WORSHIP (1A)
PLANNING WORSHIP BY ANSWERING WHY
What are you trying to accomplish when you design a worship service? What is the reason for the way you organize services?
15 years ago, I was sitting across from a guy in a Thai restaurant, and we were getting to know each other. He had just become involved involved in the worship ministry I was leading. He was asking about the process for choosing our songs, the order of service, and about other service elements. He finally asked the big “why” questions I started with in the above heading.
While I had firm reasons for the choices that I made, I had never taken the time to write it out and clarify it for our team and congregation. I’m grateful for those kinds of questions, because they jolt me out of routine and force me to examine and clarify the reasons behind the structure of our time of worship together.
I have found that there are 2 big ideas that help facilitate a rich, biblical worship gathering.
Conversational: Revelation and response
Formational: Story and practices
I’ll cover conversational worship in these first two posts. Then I’ll cover formational worship in couple of other posts.
CONVERSATIONAL WORSHIP: REVELATION AND RESPONSE
Let’s be abundantly clear here. The deepest desire of everyone who shows up on Sunday is to meet with God and to learn to be in a relationship with him.
It’s not about having the most modern music played by an amazing band. It’s not about having the best communicators who tie the Bible into everyday life. Those things are wonderful, but they do not drive the desire that makes people long to come to church. Most people’s deepest desire is to meet with the living God, to know him, to experience his love, to be changed by him, and to learn how to partner with him in his work.
In church, we need to hear God speak (revelation), and then we need to respond (response).
God's revelation of himself comes through several avenues.
Creation- Psalm 19:1-4, Romans 1:20 (God is powerful, intelligent, creative, personal, kind, gracious, and righteous.)
Conscience- Romans 2:14-15 (He has preprogrammed individuals to know that certain actions are right or wrong. Moral laws point to a moral lawgiver.)
Christ- John 1:1, John 1:18, John 5:18, John 8:58, John 14:9, Hebrews 1:1-2
Canon Scripture- John 20:31
In his book Christ Centered Worship, Bryan Chappel says that throughout the entire Bible and all through the last 2,000 years of Christian worship, men and women have had common responses to God’s revelation.
Our response to God's revelation is evidenced in several different ways.
Adoration- Recognizing God's character (greatness and goodness)
Confession- Acknowledgment of our personal character (sinfulness and repentance)
Assurance- Affirmation of grace (Experiencing God's mercy)
Thanksgiving- Expression of devotion (for his mercy and blessings)
Instruction- Acquiring knowledge in order to grow in God’s likeness and to please God (expressing more love for God, his creation, and his creatures)
Communion- Communing with God and his people (God's holiness, provision for our sin, Jesus's second coming)
Baptism- Recognizing God's holiness (provision for our sin, encouraged by Jesus's coming again)
Petition and Intercession- Desire for aid in living for God
Charge and Blessing- Living for God with his blessing (our responsibility to live out what we have heard and believe)
So how does this play out in the average Sunday morning time of worship? Let’s get really practical on what this looks like in my second post on conversational worship.
