Your experience with liturgical worship probably depends on the denomination you are part of. Liturgy is probably associated with high church in Presbyterian, Lutheran and Methodist denominations, less so with Baptists. When I say probably I mean chances are, in most cases, all other things being equal, the odds are in favor of what I’m saying… but it all depends. Style of worship and what constitutes worship are highly subjective to individuals and individual congregations. When we start generalizing about denominations there are so many flavors within each and there is bound to be some bleed through around the edges, to mix metaphors.
Continue readingTag Archives: liturgy
iMonk Radio Podcast #157
iMonk Radio Podcast #134
Father Romero Cantalamessa, preacher to the papal household.
Watch blogging. (Does anybody not know what a Weed Eater is?)
More interviews re: The Coming Evangelical Collapse
Evangelicals and liturgical worship
Book Review: Worship as Community Drama
I understand the significance of high production value. Our desire is to bring the very best before God in his house. A congregation expects, as well they should, for the preacher to be prepared. Sermon prep begins on Monday or Tuesday (and sometimes weeks or even months in advance) not on Saturday evening or before church on Sunday morning. Bible teachers and worship leaders, soloists, music directors, choirs and praise band members are all expected to put in time working together and practicing. And in this day and age you need the crew in sound, projection and lighting to go over the program, discussing transitions and the order of service. There is nothing wrong and in fact there is a lot right about devoting time and energy to prepare for worship. But what has slowly happened over the past 20 or 30 years, from my point of view, is that worship has morphed into a spectator sport. Authentic worship is not something we are to sit and watch. I don’t know who said it first but the term I like to use for that activity is worshiptainment. I do not believe that is what God desires. Continue reading
The Church Year
Chaplain Mike is doing a series on the liturgical church year at Internet Monk. I’m not going to link each post, but this is the introduction. The first follow-up has already been posted. We are about to enter the season of Advent, and this would be a great time to start. I grew up in the Baptist tradition which tends to do little with liturgy, but even the SBC churches I’ve been in light the candles of the Advent wreath each week. If the concept of the Christian calendar is new to you, I highly recommend following Chaplain Mike’s series.
Creeds of the Christian Faith
I wrote a post a couple of months back about answering questions that kids/youth might ask about the Apostles Creed. I mentioned both the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed in the article, but did not include the text nor link to the full text of either one. Someone hit my blog searching for the Nicene Creed, so I thought “Hey, you should link those things.”
The Apostles Creed, and the longer Nicene Creed, are statements of belief. They come from the early centuries of the Christian church, and represent the common ground that all believers in Christ share. You can link here for the Apostles Creed,and read a couple of different incarnations of the creed, as well as view it in Latin and Greek. Click here for the Nicene Creed.
I hope these links provide a valuable resource. If anyone finds the information inaccurate, please let me know. The post I wrote on May 1st entitled Tough Questions is about what it means in the Apostles Creed that Jesus “descended into hell.” Go to Tough Questions to weigh in on that issue.


