Good Liturgy Is the Best Instructor: How Your Church’s Order of Worship Teaches What Your Church Believes
Every church has a liturgy, and every liturgy teaches. How does a Reformed order of worship catechize God's people from cradle to grave?
Repetition is the mother of skills. I learned this maxim the hard way. The summer before I and several of the best players in the South Bay of Los Angeles went off to college to play basketball, we prepared by gathering every morning at 6:00am in the Manhattan Beach Mormon Church gym to train. During the course of our training there was physical repetition as well as mental repetition. One of the things we had to learn, with mouth and body, was that “repetition is the mother of skills.” Our trainer would yell out in his deep, Samoan voice, “Repetition is the mother of…” We, not stopping our line drills, wall sits, or defensive slides were to respond in kind despite the agony: “Skills!” And so it went, day by day, week in and week out.
What was true on the court is true in the church: good liturgy is the best instructor.
Most of us understand that to become skillful in any aspect of life we must repeat something over and over again. As men, we are not born good husbands and good fathers; instead, it takes practice and learning—sometimes the hard way—over time. For example, a good husband repeatedly hugs and kisses his wife before they part in the morning, reunite in the early evening, and before they go to bed in the evening. Yet, this is not seen by marriage experts as boring, but rather a healthy practice. The monotony is healthy.
When it comes to our religion, though, we as Americanized Christians don’t want repetition. Most likely the main reason is that we’ve been told (ironically, over and over again!) that repetition is dead, spontaneity is good; forms of worship quench the Spirit, but laid back, contemporary services are Spirit–led. If we had ever stopped to think about those claims, we might never have fallen under their sway. But here we are, children of evangelical revivalism and pietism.
I am a Generation–X Christian who grew up in modern–day evangelicalism, but who has come to the historic Reformed, Protestant understanding of the Christian Faith. As such, I have come to the settled conviction that a formal, well–thought out liturgy is the best instructor we have in the Christian Faith.[1] Good liturgy transcends our particular feelings and thoughts. It leads us to experience the historic Faith as understood by all people, in all places.
Liturgy is our most capable teacher because week by week we are led into God’s presence to hear His Word and receive His grace through the sacraments as we hear the same words of Scripture over and over again from the mouth of the minister and recite and sing God’s Word with our own lips.
In explaining why good liturgy is the best instructor, let me first define my terms.
What is Liturgy?
When I say “liturgy,” I mean the order, acts, words, and ceremonies in public worship. Now before you react in saying, “Did you say ‘liturgy’, let me assure you that this is no four–letter word. Instead, our English word “liturgy” comes from an ancient Greek word, leitourgia, which can mean generally any kind of service, but specifically speaks of religious service. A liturgy, then, is simply what is done in a worship service.
As I wrote in What to Expect in Reformed Worship, every church, uses a liturgy. It is not something only Roman Catholicism or dead, “traditional,” churches use, but something used in every worship service in the world. Whether or not a particular church has a more structured or loose service, or whether a “liturgy” is printed in the bulletin and followed or not, every church has a liturgy. All churches use a liturgy every time they worship. Even in the churches I grew up in, where we were told, “But we just wanna worship in the Spirit.” This, too, followed a predictable pattern, which the praise band had thought out ahead of time.
What is Catechism?
If liturgy is the best catechism instructor we have, what is “catechism”? When I say catechism I mean the method of instruction in which the teacher asks a question and the student responds with the answer. Catechetical instruction is basically what is called “The Socratic Method.”[2] The word “catechism” also comes from a biblical word, the verb katēcheō, which occurs eight times in the New Testament.[3] It is a compound Greek word from kata, “down,” and ēcheō, “sound;” thus meaning, “I sound down.” As Donald Van Dyken says in his brilliant little book, Rediscovering Catechism:
To catechize is to sound down, to speak to someone with the objective of getting something back as an echo. Catechism sends a sound to probe a student’s understanding. We use the catechetical method of questioning to send out the Word in order to hear responses, to gauge the depths of someone’s knowledge, to probe the heart.[4]
Two Principles of a Good Liturgy
Instruction via Life
Life skills are learned by repetition. Repetitiveness is a virtue, not a vice. For instance, one educational book, the field of cognitive psychology has been harvested and applied to mathematics instruction. Research studies show that it takes about 24 separate sessions of repeated practice to have an 80% competence in a mathematical skill.[5] The authors of this book conclude their survey of this research in saying that “learning new content, then, does not happen quickly. It requires practice spread out over time.”[6]
Instruction via Worship
Worship requires practice over time, as well. The liturgy should be heard from cradle to grave, from birthing bed to death bed. In times of great joy what better words to sing than the “Reformed doxology”: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow”? In times of great sorrow is there anything so comforting as praying, “Our Father, who art in heaven”? In ordinary times when the elders conduct family visitation, the words “I believe in God, the Father Almighty” are fitting. In times of repentance we have already been taught to cry out, “Lord have mercy on us; Christ have mercy on us; Lord have mercy on us.”
Hearing, reading, saying, and praying the liturgy over the course of a lifetime, as congregations and families, teaches us much more than we can ever realize. The fact that we learn from our liturgy is undisputable, as the repetition will undoubtedly stick with us. The question to ask is, what am I learning each week from my church’s liturgy? Although all churches have a liturgy, not all churches have a good liturgy. It is biblically sound liturgy that is the chief instructor of the people of God in the theology of God’s Word. Unsound liturgy, of course, teaches us bad theology. The majority of churches I grew up in as well as that exist in Southern California, follow a similar liturgy:
Welcome
Praise & Worship (30 minutes; led by someone other than the pastor)
Announcements (led by yet another person)
Sermon
Offering
Blessing
This basic liturgy teaches us that man is welcoming us into worship (welcome), that we have come to offer praise to God (praise and worship), that we have come to hear about our lives and activities (announcements), that we have come to learn about God, or more likely how to apply Christianity to make our lives better (sermon), that we have come to give financially to God (offering); then, we are finally blessed by God (blessing).
We are taught by this liturgy that Christianity is about us, our needs, our self–worth, and our fulfillment. When we are catechized by this liturgy we learn over the course of our lives that God really needs us to worship Him. We also come to see church as a place where our needs are met. If you don’t believe that this is what this type of liturgy teaches, just think back to the last time you left church and the thought going through your head was, “What did I get out of church today?”
Seven Elements of a Good Liturgy
That’s what a bad liturgy teaches. What, then, should be in a good liturgy so that we learn about who God truly is and we worship Him in the way He has outlined for us in Scripture? Before we look at the specifics of a solid liturgy, there are two overarching principles that must be examined.
Corporate Participation of All
In The Nursery of the Holy Spirit, I wrote that liturgical worship activates participation.
First, our liturgy must include the corporate participation of the entire church, children and adults. Liturgy teaches us that we all, young and old, belong to the Church, the people of God. Liturgical worship is active, participatory worship. Children can hear it and learn it even before they read and then later as they begin to be able to read, see it with their own eyes upon the pages of the hymnal or bulletin. For example, a four–year old child can recite the Apostles’ Creed with the local church and the Church universal even before being able to read it in the hymnal or bulletin. Christianity is not a religion of adults for adults. Christianity is a covenantal religion. This means that God makes His covenant “between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations” (Gen. 17:7). Children are just as much members of the covenant/church as adults, as Jesus testified, saying, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14). As well, Paul described the children of believers as “holy” (1 Cor. 7:14), an Old Testament way of saying that they were set apart from the nations as a part of God’s people.
Unity with the Church of All Ages
Second, our liturgy must not catechize us to be chronologically arrogant. The Church of Jesus Christ has been around for thousands of years and we did not invent worship. The basic pattern of Liturgy of the Word and Liturgy of the Eucharist is evidenced in the books of Acts and 1 Corinthians and is seen in the Church Father Justin Martyr’s writings around A.D. 150 (First Apology, 67). When we sing the Psalms we join the people of God for the past 3,000 years. When we recite the creeds we join the orthodox Christians for the past 1,500 years. When we sing the Gloria Patri we sing an ancient song from the 3rd century of the Christian Church. When we pray “Lord have mercy on us; Christ have mercy on us; Lord have mercy on us,” we pray with the Church from the 4th century. And the list of responses, prayers, and songs that have been used from the earliest of days by the one Church across both Old and New Covenant days continues and teaches us the promises and glories of God from all times.
Specific Elements of a Good Liturgy
So what specifically should a good liturgy include and what do those elements teach us about God, ourselves, and our worship of Him?
God Calls Us Into His Presence
First, good liturgy begins with God. Public worship is primarily God’s service to us. Through the voice of His minister reading an opening Scripture text, He calls us to approach His throne of grace and worship Him (Heb. 4:16). By having an opening call to worship we are taught that it is and always has been God who initiates a relationship with us, His people. We are reminded, or rather, confronted, each week that we enter the holy presence of God not because we are worthy or that God needs us; but instead, because God in His grace has condescended to call us who are sinful to worship Him.
Confession and Absolution
Second, although God welcomes us into His presence graciously, we still must remember that we are entering the presence of the God who is a “consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). Because God is holy and we are sinful we need to hear weekly His righteous demands and we need to confess our sins (Law) as well as hearing how He has met those demands in Jesus Christ (Gospel). Because we participate in the liturgy so many times throughout our lives, we are taught the fundamental Protestant, Christian distinction between the Law and the Gospel.
By rehearsing again and again the reading of the Law, confession of our sins, and receiving of absolution, we learn that we did not save ourselves in the first place and that we still cannot save ourselves. Man by nature wants to help himself. That is one of the reasons liturgy is so important in the life of the saints. The liturgy will not allow man to help himself. The liturgy is Scripture laying bare what man by nature wants, then giving him instead what he needs—forgiveness. Every word of the liturgy reflects the true needs of the faithful and how God has met those needs. In our liturgy, before we sing the opening doxology, the words of David are recited responsively: (Minister): “O LORD, open my lips;” (Congregation): “And my mouth shall show forth Your praise” (Ps. 51:15; NKJV). We are taught that we cannot speak until God has put the words into our mouth. Man may want to be the actor, but in the Divine Service God is the actor. The liturgy, our gentle teacher, helps to keep that message straight.
Recitation of God’s Mighty Acts
Third, as God’s redeemed people who have received the assurance of their forgiveness from the minister, we respond in gratitude by declaring what God has done. This is done in our singing of songs of praise and in confessing our “undoubted Christian faith” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 22). Notice the link between singing and reciting. In the Psalms we read again and again that to praise God is actually to tell back to God what He has done while declaring His acts to the nations (e.g., Pss. 66, 78, 6, 98, 136). Thus, we repeat again and again what Jesus said, we are to acknowledge him before men (Matt. 10:32). This is why the historic Christian Church has always primarily sung the Psalms as well as recited the basics of our Faith in the Apostles’ and/or Nicene Creeds in the weekly worship of God’s people. As the Psalms teach us so many times, to recite God’s marvelous acts not only hides the Faith in our hearts and passes it on to the next generation, but also expresses to the unbeliever what we believe as a people.
Hearing God’s Word
Fourth, the center of our liturgy is the active hearing of God speaking to us through His Word, both in its reading and preaching, and the receiving of Holy Communion. Here let us examine the hearing of the Word. Weekly we hear the wonders that God has done for us His people in the sending of His Son to redeem us. Each week, God “works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the Holy Gospel” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 65; cf. Rom. 10:17). Hearing the word of God teaches us that Christ, and not ourselves, is the One to whom we look for redemption, as well as every other need in life.
The Word of God is also found in a good liturgy all throughout the worship service as we not only hear it read to us but as we recite them as responses at specific points in worship. This is another way to hide God’s Word in our hearts from the earliest of age. This not only teaches us what to believe but also how to respond in the particular circumstances of our lives, whether joyful or tragic. The very words and prayers that we need upon our lips are available to us because the liturgy has taught them to us. When we sin we can sing “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” When we need the assurance of God’s grace we can remember and believe that “for all of you who trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation…your sins are forgiven and you are no longer under the condemnation of God.” When we are persecuted as Christians we can recite, “And He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead.” When we suffer in body and soul we can say, “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” Most Christians are adamant about having their children memorize Scripture, so it only follows that we, as adults, should also spend time reciting scriptures in our service week by week.
Seeing God’s Word
Fifth, having heard the Word we then see the Word visible, as Augustine described the Lord’s Supper. Christian worship follows the general pattern of Israel’s sacrifices: drawing near to God, confession of sins, followed by a communal meal with God. This is the purpose of the Supper: to commune with the people of God, with Christ, upon Christ. A good liturgical form for the Lord’s Supper such as the historic Protestant forms will protect us from the virus of what has been variously called Zwinglianism, Memorialism, or Sacramentarianism. The Lord’s Supper is not merely a remembrance, but it is a sacrament – a participation in a divine mystery. This is why the use of the ancient sursum corda (“lift up your hearts…we lift them up to the Lord”) was and continues to be the heart of what we do in Holy Communion. After hearing the Word we see, touch, smell, and taste exactly what that spoken Word promised us.
Prayers for the People of God
Sixth, a good liturgy will have an emphasis on prayer, based on the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Everything from adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication needs to be in the various prayers of the liturgy. Since prayer is “the chief part of thankfulness” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 116) it teaches us as a corporate people to pray together to the Lord as well as teaches us that worship, and life in general, are not about us, but about loving God and our neighbor.
God’s Benediction
Finally, just as God has the first word in our service as we begin each week with God’s calling us to worship, so He gets the last word as we end each week with His Word sending us out with His blessing. We are taught through this that our worship culminates in public worship, but that we go out from worship as a worshipping people. God desires us to be the salt and light of the world and the benediction teaches us this.
Application for Ministers and Congregations
So what does this all mean for your congregation, especially if you do not follow an historic Lutheran or Reformed liturgy? Let us apply the principle that liturgical worship is the best instructor the church has in the Christian Faith with a few suggestions.
First, we need not be ashamed of using set forms of worship and set liturgical responses.[7] Here I write to those of you who are already Reformed or who are learning what that means. Unlike Lutheranism and Anglicanism, we have been overly influenced by Puritanism, revivalism, and pietism. Against Puritanism we must understand that set forms are not bad nor binding on our conscience if the forms are biblical. For example, track down all the biblical citations and allusions in the opening general confession of classic Book of Common Prayer. Against revivalism we must understand that set forms actually communicate to the unbeliever what we believe and what they need to believe as well. And against pietism we must understand that set forms do not quench the Spirit nor cause “dead orthodoxy,” but in fact have been used by the Spirit in the Church for ages and communicate to us what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Using a set form of worship with set words from the minister and responses from the congregation can benefit a congregation. Boredom and a lack of enthusiasm (if that is even a good thing) is not the fault of a good liturgy which is saturated with the Word of God, but it is our fault – our lack of preparation for worship, our lack of appreciation, our lack of reverence. In fact, changing your church’s order of worship just for the sake of change can actually do more harm than good. For example, in my first year or so of planting the Oceanside United Reformed Church, I would change the order of worship and the words in the liturgy almost every week. Finally, a father of two young daughters came to me and said that his children were confused and lost in worship as well as not able to participate as much because they didn’t know what would be said that particular Sunday. Utilizing set forms of worship actually equips the people of God, especially children, to participate in worship with understanding and passion. Once they have memorized what to say, they anticipate those words and are ready to say them when the moment comes.
Second, we need to help those under our care understand why we are using the liturgy we use by teaching them the meaning of it. As pastors and teachers we need to highlight various aspects of the liturgy in our sermons and Christian education programs. Tying our theology into our liturgy is natural and necessary. When we preach and teach on a text like Psalm 51 what greater time to speak of why we read the Law, confess our sins, and receive absolution every week in our worship? When we are teaching a Sunday School class on Peter’s confession of Christ in Matthew 16 what better time to speak to them about why we recite the Apostles’ and/or Nicene Creeds in worship? Doing this in our instruction also helps children and adults put the things together that they read in the Bible and their church’s catechism like pieces of a puzzle.
Conclusion
We need to learn that repetition is the mother of skills in all areas of life – including the worship of God. Learning this lesson may be painful and may take some time to get used to, but it will be rewarded with a worshipping congregation. Just think about what your congregation will know and be able to say back to God in any circumstance of life after learning your church’s theology methodically and surely over the years by repetition. Think also about the children in your congregation now, who will one day be the leaders of your church and the parents of another generation of children. They are not too young to begin learning the weekly pattern of worship that correctly reflects our theology, but must begin now to join with us.
Good liturgy is the best instructor.
Notes
[1] To learn about the liturgy of the Oceanside United Reformed Church go to https://www.oceansideurc.org/liturgy.
[2] For an excellent exposition of catechesis see Dorothy Sayers, “The Lost Tools of Learning.” See also a little article by my colleague, the Rev. Dr. R. Scott Clark, “Why We Memorize the Catechism,” The Presbyterian Banner (August 2003), which is also online at https://heidelblog.net/2016/01/why-we-memorize-the-catechism/.
[3] In the New Testament this word is used four times by Luke and four times by Paul. Luke uses it in Acts 21:21 and 21:24 of generally being informed. But he also uses it of specific teaching in the Christian Faith. In Acts 18:25 we learn about Apollos who “had been instructed (katēchēmenos) in the way of the Lord.” Luke also uses this word in the prologue to his Gospel, written to Theophilus, “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught” (katēchēthēs; Luke 1:4). Paul uses this verb exclusively for religious instruction. It is used of the instruction the Jews received in Romans 2:18: “you are instructed (katēchoumenos) from the law.” And he uses it for the instruction Christians receive, what we call “catechizing.” In 1 Corinthians 14:19, Paul says that “in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct (katēchēsō) others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.” Finally, he speaks in Galatians 6:6, saying, “Let the one who is taught (katēchoumenos, i.e., ‘the one catechized’ or ‘the catechumen’) the word share all good things with the one who teaches” (katēchounti, i.e., “catechizes”).
[4] Donald Van Dyken, Rediscovering Catechism: The Art of Equipping Covenant Children (P&R, 2000), 12.
[5] Robert J. Marzano et al., Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001), 66. The research behind this statistic can be found in A. Newell and P.S. Rosenbloom, “Mechanisms of Skill Acquisition and the Law of Practice,” in Cognitive Skills and Their Acquisition, ed. J.R. Anderson (Erlbaum, 1981) and J.R. Anderson, Learning and Memory: An Integrated Approach (Wiley, 1995).
[6] Marzano et al., Classroom Instruction That Works, 68.
[7] This is in contrast to Terry L. Johnson, ed., Leading in Worship (The Covenant Foundation, 1996), 17, who says that fixed forms of prayer and responses in worship crowd out free prayer, are artificial, difficult, and not Reformed. On the contrary, I was chairman of the URCNA Liturgical Forms Committee from 2010 to 2017 that produced an updated version of the historic Dutch Reformed forms and prayers.
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To attribute: Daniel R. Hyde, "Good Liturgy Is the Best Instructor: How Your Church’s Order of Worship Teaches What Your Church Believes," https://www.danielrhyde.com/articles/good-liturgy-is-the-best-instructor. Used by permission.