I’ll go on record predicting that liturgy is going to make a big comeback among evangelicals. Preaching is content and content is now everywhere. You don’t have to be at James MacDonald’s church in order to hear him preach. He’s on your computer, in your iPod, etc. Anyone can listen to their favorite pastor almost any time.
What you cannot get anywhere on an on-demand basis is a community experience of worship. You cannot take communion online, for example. The churches that move away from the pure content model and toward a community worship model will attract more young people.
For those inclined to comment, I am NOT suggesting this means a de-emphasis on orthodoxy or a lack of attention to the ministry of the word. I am simply proposing that the way we “do” church (especially among the low church evangelical crowd) is going to move in the direction I’ve suggested.
August 19th, 2010 | 12:06 am | #1
Actually…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/7908263/Church-minister-to-tweet-Holy-Communion-to-the-faithful.html
August 19th, 2010 | 1:39 am | #2
That said, an emphasis on liturgy does provide an opportunity for de-emphasizing doctrinal content–teachings which occasions so much discord and unpleasantness and headache. Whether or not such de-emphasis is part of the design, any church-goer can certainly experience it as such. And that may be the real force behind any comeback in liturgy. Many people (young and old) enjoy church fellowship despite the doctrinal content, not because of it. Having long endured the doctrinal content, many of these will welcome a return to liturgy.
All this probably wounds the pride of some of our preachers, who naturally wish to remain at center stage. So, I’ll go on record as predicting some resistance to the liturgy resurgence.
August 19th, 2010 | 11:11 am | #3
If the liturgy aligns with and promotes doctrinal content, not only need it not diminish it, it can reinforce it. A liturgy-less service allows all kinds of sloppiness to creep in — if you’re not reciting the creeds every week, and the sermons aren’t highly doctrinal in nature to begin with, well, does all this “Trinity” stuff really matter after all? Likewise, a doctrinally conscious liturgy emphasizes the doctrines constantly.
August 19th, 2010 | 3:53 pm | #4
There’s liturgy itself, and then there’s the “liturgical mindset” that goes with it. That mindset often affects things like prayer; in a liturgical church prayer tends to be more scripted than extemporaneous. In a world where time is increasingly scarce, I find myself moving toward a position where I’d rather find someone reading a prayer that has substance than “talking to God” in sentences that lack consideration.
Also, liturgy is content. The same online revolution that makes excellent teaching available to all of us can, by comparison, leave us hungry for a higher caliber of local church worship experience; but this discussion tends to get sidetracked to a comparison of preachers, when it should look at all the elements of the time spent together on Sunday.
August 21st, 2010 | 5:03 am | #5
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August 23rd, 2010 | 2:30 pm | #7
[...] or may not be trending toward more traditional liturgical forms, I don’t know. Hunter Baker thinks so, and Hunter Baker sees the [...]
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