Rhythms of Worship (Pt. 2)

RHYTHMS OF WORSHIP (PART 2)

The church needs good rhythms - healthy, weekly and repetitive corporate actions that invite us into worship and form us into a redeemed community over time. In Part 1 of this blog, we explored the God-given rhythms found in scripture and how these patterns make up a church’s liturgy - the structure and gospel order of a worship gathering that orients us to God and his kingdom.

STRUCTURE AND SPIRIT
Of course, there isn’t one perfect liturgical structure out there that will guarantee a worshipful spirit. In The Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster reminds us that “Forms and rituals do not produce worship, nor does the formal disuse of forms and rituals. We can use all the right techniques and methods, we can have the best possible liturgy, but we have not worshipped the Lord until Spirit touches spirit." We can’t go on a quest for a perfect format. None exists. Scripture doesn’t prescribe an order of service for us to follow that will magically create a heart of worship.

But this doesn’t mean we abandon good liturgy. Foster is correct in saying that forms and rituals do not produce worship, but they do affect worship. Liturgies are not neutral or powerless forms. Just like 70% percent or more of communication is non-verbal, so the structures, rhythms and non-verbal forms on Sunday communicate powerfully in and of themselves. As Marshall McLuhan famously said, “The medium is the message”. A dark auditorium and a brightly lit stage is saying something. Corporately confessing our sin each week is saying something. Weekly communion, quarterly communion, an evangelistic altar call, reciting the historic creeds, a Marvel superhero sermon bumper video - it’s all affecting, shaping, and changing us some way or another. As worship leaders, we have the privilege of helping build Christ-like structures that will encase worshipful spirits.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
Did you learn to ride a bike by reading about it or by practicing how to ride one? Perhaps both; however, all of us intuitively know that we don’t primarily know how to do something by simply receiving information about it, but through experience and repetition. This is true for children as much as it is for adults. My five year old daughter learns about kindness not only by me explaining kindness to her, but through repeated acts of kindness toward others. In the same way, I learn about God’s love not only through listening to a sermon, but through multi-sensory and tactile worshipful experiences week after week. Each Sunday I have the opportunity to stand, sit, kneel at the altar, eat the bread, drink the wine, sing, pray, listen in silence, recite, lay hands on, corporately confess, and do it all over again seven days later. These action oriented rhythms have changed me. As the proverb goes: “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.”

What does this have to do with you and I as worship leaders? Aren’t we just over the music? Well, we need to see how the entire church service is a worship service with music as one of the elements. What this will do for you and I as worship leaders is allow us to see ourselves not as isolated innovators that simply pick and sing a few songs, but as wholistic integrators that paint music onto the larger canvas of the liturgy. We have the joyful responsibility of equipping our church with songs to sing God’s truth, goodness and beauty alongside the rest of the liturgy. Doesn’t that make our jobs more complex, interesting and collaborative? I love what we do!

DRUMMERS
Have you ever played with a really good drummer? They can hold down a song with a repetitive and solid beat. Sure, they might throw in a fill here and there, but it’s to compliment the already established rhythm, not to replace it. If they’re constantly throwing in fills, it becomes harder for the band to lock in together. The church is the same way. If there is a constant quest for novelty and impressive fills, we lose the beat. The more steady and grounded the rhythm, the easier it is for everyone to participate (and it makes the fills that much more tasty).

So what rhythms are you playing at your church? How did they get there? What story is your liturgy telling? What kind of people are your patterns forming your faith community into over time? Perhaps you can meet with your pastor and leadership team to ask how you can support them in thoughtfully considering your church’s liturgy. Meet with a local worship leader friend in your city that you can chat with about this. If God has a good sense of rhythm, then let’s follow his lead and be good drummers who equip our people with healthy rhythms of worship.