“Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. — 1 Corinthians 10:23-24, NIV
By now most readers have taken a look at the service I attended Wednesday evening. Rather than take it play-by-play and say what I didn’t like about it, I think it’s more constructive to suggest positive practice.
I’d like to start by reiterating that worship is not about us. We’re to do good to our neighbor 365/24/7, rather than just making them feel better an hour a week. Worship is about God and what He wants, which is why babbling babies have as much right to hear the Word of God as the contemplative pastor.
St. Paul gives us some guidelines in 1 Corinthians 14:26-40. Check out verses 26 and 40:
What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church…But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.
St. Paul gives more instruction in 1 Timothy 2. Looking at verses 1-4:
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
These things must be done for the strengthening of the church. They must be done in an orderly way. God wants everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. All of these things must happen in worship.
The church strengthens when people are saved. St. Paul tells us what has the power to save in Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” The gospel must be present. The message that the Son of God came down from heaven and was made man, was crucified, died, was buried, and rose from the dead, purchasing and winning us from sin, death, and the devil, must be heard.
In a traditional Lutheran service, this layman identifies three opportunities in the worship service where the gospel is proclaimed: liturgy, hymnody, and homily (sermon didn’t have three syllables 
).
Liturgy
One argument for liturgy has been previously covered: it is all scriptural. For some sample liturgies, one may check out the five settings of the Lutheran Divine Service, checking out the verses to the side of each section.
Secondly, the settings provide fitting and orderly ways to worship. Are they the only orderly ways to worship? Not at all. But there needs to be something. A visitor should be able to be seated and know what’s coming; it only seems courteous.
Thirdly, a liturgy serves the pastor, not only in deciding what should be done, but it serves his soul too. Quite often reading blogs I see a pastor get something new out of the liturgy, for himself as well as for the congregation. He receives as he gives in the role of a priest.
Finally, the liturgy speaks of Christ. It contains the gospel.
When I was back in KC, we had a female member whose husband attended a Baptist church. She was asked why he didn’t come, and she said it was because he didn’t like hearing how bad we are. He might have been referring to this:
Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment. For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name. Amen. (Divine Service 5, Confession)
The truth damns us, but the pastor gives us the full story in the Absolution:
In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for His sake God forgives us all our sins. To those who believe in Jesus Christ He gives the power to become the children of God and bestows on them the Holy Spirit. May the Lord, who has begun this good work in us, bring it to completion in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And to that, we can’t shout Amen loudly enough. Speaking of loud…
Hymnody
I love to sing. If only being a cantor paid my bills… 
I don’t know if because traditional Lutherans fear getting noticed for their individual singing, or what, but we do some damage to good hymns when we don’t sing from the diaphragm and project. To “Lutheranize” a hymn today is a pejorative well earned.
This is not an excuse to dump hymns, especially for songs that have good beat but bad theology. Hymns have the opportunity to preach Christ and have the added blessing of being more easily remembered than simple hearing.
Compare:
| “Jesus Lives! The Victory’s Won” by Christian F. Gellert, 1715-1769 Translated by Frances E. Cox, 1812-1897 1. Jesus lives! The victory’s won! 2. Jesus lives! To Him the throne 3. Jesus lives! For me He died, 4. Jesus lives! I know full well 5. Jesus lives! and now is death The Lutheran Hymnal |
Artist: Phillips, Craig & Dean Album: Let My Words Be Few Title: Come, Now Is The Time To Worship Come, now is the time to worship One day every tongue will confess Copyright/Label: Brian Doerkson; Artist: Jars Of Clay We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord We will work with each other, we will work side by side |
There is more Christ and gospel in the first verse of the hymn on the left than in two whole songs on the right. Cut off the first line of “Shout to the Lord”, and we’re 0-for-3. For brevity I won’t go into the decision theology of Phillips, Craig & Dean.
We need to return to “the singing church”. For more information, the LCMS website has a good article: “The Singing Classroom“.
Homily
Even in a nonliturgical setting with Christian American Top-40 songs, there is still another opportunity to share the Gospel with the congregation. By “sharing the Gospel” I do not mean give a sales pitch by which someone says how being a Christian influenced their life. Someone may join the church looking for a better life but become discouraged if it doesn’t happen immediately.
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles…” —1 Corinthians 1:22-23
Sermons must preach Christ crucified. Check out Rev. Cwirla’s sermon on Jonah 3 and compare it to Wednesday’s. See how he takes this book from the Torah and brings it into our New Testament life:
The book of Jonah is a reminder that God has made peace with the world in the death of Jesus. The Ninevites and the Verleens of this world. People who can’t keep their life straight no matter how hard they try, who haven’t a clue that God loves them, that they have a life in Christ, that they have a Savior in Christ, until someone takes a left turn instead of a right and tells them. It’s about grace that knows no conditions, no lines, no boundaries, no walls or fences, no ifs, ands or buts about it. It’s about stepping out of our own comfort zones, because the Son of God stepped out of His. It’s about seeing the world as God sees it, through the cross of Jesus. Looking at that other person as someone for whom Jesus died.
Three Opportunities
Churches put incredible amounts of time and money into outreach. Once the net is cast, and we bring these people to church, our job is not done. People struggle with their faith. People can fall. They can choose to hear another “truth”. We can’t afford financially and spiritually not to preach Christ crucified through our services, our hymnody, and our homilies. Each time we take the gospel out of one or more of these we lessen the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to work. The Lord has seen fit to create faith through His Word (Romans 10:17). For the good of others, we need to use it in every opportunity.
Update, Feb. 27thth, 6:19pm: Aardvark Alley handed out a Golden Aardvark (Aardie) for this post. Thanks!
iggyantiochus on 
Dan
Amen, Amen, and Amen. This is a ridiculously great post!
Outstanding! My gast is well-flabbered.
# aardvark Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 9:21 pm
Outstanding! My gast is well-flabbered.
Is that why you have been absent without leave, O furry, snouted one?
Congrats upon receiving a big, fat Golden Aardvark Aaward.