Structure in Worship: Good or Bad?



A couple of years ago during a joint Christmas service with a group of other church denominations in my town, the minister who was leading the service did something radical, and completely unacceptable - he read a prayer!




Well, let me explain. It was unacceptable according to a young, enthusiastic teenager who was with me and who had known no other expression of church other than that of the evangelical where prayers are almost always made up on the spot and are 'from the heart'. I could understand his reaction to this different approach, however I did not agree with it.

Don't  you find that as we try to do things in church a little more 'freely' we have put a strong emphasis on the spontaneous? There is definitely a place for this. Following form and structure rigidly and absolutely can lead to just simply going through the motions and can rip the heart and meaning out of anything - even church. We should and must leave space for the Holy Spirit to be able to move in our midst and to change the agenda or the structure of a service if He wants to.

I remember when I was a teenager, my grandfather bought me a fantastic book as a gift for my confirmation (I went to an Anglican school in Zimbabwe). Yes the Anglican tradition is very formal and structured - you follow a service structure written down in a book, say responses in all the right places, stand up and sit down when you are supposed to. You see, I have been on the other side of the fence so-to-speak. And yes, there were many times when the liturgy, the formula and the structure were just simply an exercise to endure and get through for the next hour until you got to the other side when you could be set free from the hard wooden pew and be able to go and do something else. However, there were times when the liturgy (although not changed in any way) spoke to me. There was a beauty within the phrases that lifted my heart and turned my head towards God.

Back to the book I was given - My grandfather gave me a book called 'Prayers That Avail Much For Teens'. It was good in that it contained prayers linked with topical themes that nearly every teenager would face at one time or another. I remember how I found using the written prayers very useful not only to pray for myself and make my own, but they also gave me something to ponder and meditate on. It was great too because nearly the entire prayer for each topic was made up of different Bible verses all seamlessly woven together, so I know what I was praying was The Word of God. I don't think I would have been able to make these sorts of prayers up for myself so having something that others had carefully crafted for me to use as a vehicle and a tool to connect with God was excellent.

Points to Ponder:


  1. Structure and planning can get in the way if we hold on to it too tightly, but it is also important to have it. Without structure and planning our church meetings would collapse into a heap with no one really knowing what was going on or who was doing what. We need some form of structure, no matter how loose.
  2. Maintain a connection with Christianity's rich history. Never forget that many have walked this way before you and have found certain tools or ways of doing things to be very helpful. Just because they are centuries old (or indeed only a couple of years old) do not dismiss them. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. You may just discover something that may help you on your journey.
  3. Stretch yourself and experiment. Be brave and open-minded enough to try out styles or methods of worship that do not usually fit neatly or comfortably within your church tradition or what you are used to. This may be just the thing that by-passes some of your barriers and lets God reach you in new ways.




Comments

  1. I have certainly come to believe and see that pastoral structure is truly a fertile seedbed for the fruit of the spontaneous

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  2. Thanks for this article Matt! For sure the Holy Spirit can be just as present in the formal/planned as He is in the informal/spontaneous expressions of prayer-praise-worship. The key is our motivation and intent, as you have pointed out here. The Lord bless your ministry bro!

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