Notes on worship Definitions: Worship: the corporate attribution and acknowledgement of God’s worth Service: the privileged corporate occasion when we serve God by praise, thanksgiving, adoration, etc., and God serves us by Self-giving “The ongoing song and dance of Jesus Christ.” The occasion when the church fulfills itself in ritual and symbolic form as the Body of Christ.

Handy Rhythm First remember God’s activity and nature Then respond in an appropriate manner

Basic Actions Praying Proclaiming Offering ourselves Uniting ourselves Praising Thanking Adoring Confessing Lamenting Petitioning Interceding Proclaiming Telling the Big Story Saying its for us here and now Offering ourselves Uniting ourselves

Where Methodism is in the Broader Protestant Liturgical World From our liturgical front porch you can see the whole world But some worlds we don’t visit: reliance upon tradition rather than liturgical Biblicism (having to find explicit scriptural mandate or example for a practice) Roots: Pietistic Anglicanism; result: Form and Freedom Text and Extemporaneity

Beatitudes Clustered: Context and Content: Trinitarian Worship Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which uses Trinitarian naming practices in order to reflect a Trinitarian logic or grammar of worship. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation whose worship content reflects the New Testament tendency to name all three Persons in close proximity. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which shapes its worship to be a joining in of Jesus Christ’s worship of God his Father. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which seeks, asks for, and is dependent upon God’s provision of the Holy Spirit.

Beatitudes Clustered: Content: The Biblical Story of God Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which remembers God’s activity as essential content of worship. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which creates some sense of this whole-Bible story in every service; blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation who creates a clear sense of this story over a reasonably short period of time. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which includes in its remembrance the breadth of God’s activity from cover to cover of the Bible, even that before the coming of Christ.

Beatitudes Clustered: Content: The Biblical Story of God Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation whose worship content places the story of God in Christ as the key to the entire biblical content of its worship. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which makes the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus the lynchpin and cornerstone of its worship content. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which allows its worshipers to step into God’s story found in the Bible, to use that story to find the language for Christian experience.

Beatitudes Clustered: Essential Actions in a Sound Order Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which makes praise and thanksgiving a critical and recurring part of its services, a kind of default setting for corporate worship as well as daily discipleship. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which first remembers God’s activity and then responds appropriately. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which places passionate bursts of praise within a larger backdrop of biblical remembrance.

Beatitudes Clustered: Perspective and Commitments Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which realizes its worship is not just its worship. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which expects and listens for the divine voice to directly address it today in worship. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which assembles itself as a resurrection people by speaking edifying words to each other.

Beatitudes Clustered: Perspective and Commitments Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation which anticipates our future destiny in worship. Blessed and wise is the worshiping congregation whose worship content both expresses the faith of the congregation and also forms the faith of the congregation. Blessed and wise are worship leaders, whether pastoral or musical, who respect their stewardship, their sacred trust, of speaking the congregation’s faith, the Christian faith, in worship.