Is there an issue with Liturgical worship?

[psalms 91]

How does having God's Word throughout the service keep God in a box?

How I see it if the service is set and follows arigid form then there is no room for a Word from God to be spoken, no room for anything besides the service as set forth. The Methodist church I go yo has a contenporary service that is not so set and allows for movement of the Spirit, these people are actively seeking that. I love both services for what they are but this is how I see it.

 

[rivulet]

I've heard some say that Liturgical worship is rather a waste of time and really doesn't allow one to connect.

I personally really like the Liturgical Worship Service. It's much more interactive and I really mean those liturgical words when I say them. I feel connected with God and people.

Perhaps you ought to check out a liturgical service and make up your mind for yourself?

I have spent many years in a non-liturgical setting as well and have enjoyed both styles.

 

[Tigger]

I personally really like the Liturgical Worship Service. It's much more interactive and I really mean those liturgical words when I say them. I feel connected with God and people.

Perhaps you ought to check out a liturgical service and make up your mind for yourself?

I have spent many years in a non-liturgical setting as well and have enjoyed both styles.

Oh George is Eastern Orthodox. They do some SERIOUS liturgy.

 

[Lamb]

How I see it if the service is set and follows arigid form then there is no room for a Word from God to be spoken, no room for anything besides the service as set forth. The Methodist church I go yo has a contenporary service that is not so set and allows for movement of the Spirit, these people are actively seeking that. I love both services for what they are but this is how I see it.

Where God's Word is, so is the Spirit. The liturgy is filled with God's Word.

 

[psalms 91]

Where God's Word is, so is the Spirit. The liturgy is filled with God's Word.

However that is not the only way God communicates.

 

[George]

Oh George is Eastern Orthodox. They do some SERIOUS liturgy.

Loooool yes we do. I love the liturgical worship. I can do contemporary but it's an issue when it just becomes a rock concert show.

 

[TurtleHare]

However that is not the only way God communicates.

Didn't you just tell her that God wouldn't be around if there was some rigid form even if his Word was present? It would seem to me that God would be more present in a service where his Word was prevalent and not some happy clappy pastor makes it up weekly to try to entertain service, am I right?

 

[psalms 91]

Didn't you just tell her that God wouldn't be around if there was some rigid form even if his Word was present? It would seem to me that God would be more present in a service where his Word was prevalent and not some happy clappy pastor makes it up weekly to try to entertain service, am I right?

If that is what the service is yes but the services I go to offer a lot of Word andf a l;ot of faith. The pastors I am around are not happy clappy as you say

 

[Brighten04]

Well, I like liturgy, I like contemporary, I like non-denomination, I like Baptist. They are all beautiful services. They all have a lot of word, praise and worship. Chose which one you like and find no fault with the others. The Bible says where two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus, He will be one in the midst. That is a promise.

 

[tango]

Where God's Word is, so is the Spirit. The liturgy is filled with God's Word.

The way I'd see it is that too much liturgy can still put God in a box, so to speak. For example, if you read Ecc 3 you'll see the whole thing about "for everything there is a season". And that's as true today as it was when it was written. But if you read that same Scripture every single time, what if God was really wanting you to focus on the danger of false prophets performing lying signs and wonders, or on the meekness and humility of Jesus Christ, or some other passage in Scripture?

It seems to me that too much structure risks creating a situation where people know the words but miss the God behind the words, while too little structure results in some of the excesses within the charismatic movement where some people appear incapable of staying silent for more than a few seconds without pronouncing their latest vision, or when people fight to be heard.

 

[tango]

Well, I like liturgy, I like contemporary, I like non-denomination, I like Baptist. They are all beautiful services. They all have a lot of word, praise and worship. Chose which one you like and find no fault with the others. The Bible says where two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus, He will be one in the midst. That is a promise.

That's a very good point, and it really highlights the difference between having theological issues with something and having preference issues with something.

Church services that are very heavy on liturgy don't work for me - it's a preference thing. Some people like it more than I do, and I wouldn't tell anyone that they shouldn't be doing it.

 

[Tigger]

A YouTube video for those whom have never experienced an Orthodox liturgy.

I've heard some say that Liturgical worship is rather a waste of time and really doesn't allow one to connect.

 

[MoreCoffee]

I've heard some say that Liturgical worship is rather a waste of time and really doesn't allow one to connect.

Seems to me that God ought to have the final say about how he is to be worshipped. In the old testament he stipulated in detail how he wanted to be worshipped and said he would punish anybody who deviated from his stipulated way of worship. There was nothing in the laws about worship that said "you need to connect" just "you shall ...". Consider the story of incorrect worship recorded in Leviticus.

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the LORD spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honoured.'" So Aaron, therefore, kept silent. Moses called also to Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, "Come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp." So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had said. Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the LORD has brought about. "You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for the LORD'S anointing oil is upon you." So they did according to the word of Moses. (Leviticus 10:1-7)​

The Liturgy has a credible claim to being worship according to God's stipulations given first to Israel then revised and renewed by the apostles of Christ and followed in the Church ever since. The use of incense and of lamps and of water, bread, and wine are all laid out in the holy scriptures and recorded in the early Church fathers. The same cannot be said about allowing 'one to connect'.

 

[Josiah]

I've been to LOTS of churches: "Evangelical", Methodist, Baptist, Non-Denom, etc. ALL of them have a customary order of service, a customary way in which the service is done. THAT is their "liturgy".

It's just that some are rich, well thought out, well done and very biblical. Others are pretty sloppy and shallow.



A blessed Holy Week to all....


- Josiah

 

[MoreCoffee]

Roots of the Liturgy