Within the last week I have written a couple of posts ("Advent, worship, creeds and the Church of God", and "Rick Warren's Creed") that were prompted by my observations concerning Advent and a lectionary-driven church calendar. In many church traditions worship has played a teaching role, retelling the gospel story through worship liturgy, supplemented by preaching. Certainly worship is not the only way this is being done. Creeds have been used for the same purpose, as has Sunday School curriculum. Even Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life has filled that role in an Evangelical church climate that seems to be lacking in its ability to provide a comprehensive framework for its constituents.
I want to go back to the whole issue of worship. In a future post I want to present a fresh perspective of worship that is more in keeping with Scripture and our theological perspective. But, first let's examine worship in the Church of God from a historical perspective.
Anderson School of Theology Professor Emeritus and Archivist, Douglas E. Welch, in an article in the Church of God Historian (Vol. 4 No. 3) notes that there is virtually no discussion on the philosophy and theology of worship among our pioneers. They "did not talk about worship, they simple did it" (emphasis mine). References to worship in early writings suggested that it was
generally impromtu, unstructured, and charismatic. This involved the spontaneous singing of hymns and spiritual songs, the giving of exhortations and testimonies from the participants, and extemporaneous sermons - often more than one and usually lengthy. ("Jottings", page 6)
In the subsequent years our movement has struggled to find its way concerning worship. While generally rejecting formalism, we gradually adopted worship practices of other Christian groups around us. Since we rarely approached worship with intentionality, the result has been a wide diversity of worship theology, philosophy, and practices across our churches.
It is interesting to note (cf. Communion, Nov-Dec 2005, Vol. 6 No. 3) that a "Society for Church of God Worship" is being formed to discuss and strengthen worship across our movement. Obviously, years of wandering around the worship wilderness is leaving many looking for more. And, the worship "wars" of recent years have left many feeling battered. While I applaud the opportunities for dialogue on this topic, I am increasingly becoming concerned that we may be missing the true point of worship. More on that in a few days.
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Why do we reject formalism? What assumptions are we making about formalism? Could some of those assumptions be wrong? Is there something wrong or less holy about an order of worship that reflects historical components of worship? Is there something sacred about being unstructured? As a minister of music, dealing with incongruent notions of what constitutes worship, it is clear to me that a theology of worship is essential.
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