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- Herausgeber: IVP Formatio
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Serie: Transforming Resources
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
Spiritual formation is the key to the survival of our faith. There is an urgent need today for church services that are substantive and purposeful. Stigmatized by scandal, the church in North America and throughout Europe has been branded as useless and irrelevant. To stem the tide of nominal Christianity, we need to get serious about making disciples who can make other disciples. Rory Noland is a worship leader who has led in contexts ranging from megachurches to small retreat settings such as the Transforming Center with Ruth Haley Barton. Combining discipleship and worship—what Noland calls transforming worship—he offers a vision for worship as spiritual formation. We need to reclaim our worship services as a formative space, and through that we will become the light of Christ in a dark world.
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Contents
FOREWORD
Ruth Haley Barton
RORY AND I GO WAY BACK. We met when we were both on staff at Willow Creek in the late 90s, early 2000s, but it was on a trip to Israel with fellow staff members that we first connected meaningfully around our shared interest in spiritual formation. I was serving as associate director of spiritual formation at the time, and he was serving as music director, and our first conversations had to do with sharing our own “longing for more” in the spiritual life as well as a shared desire to care for the souls of team members engaged in the relentless week in, week out schedule of producing excellent, culturally relevant church services and ministries. After we returned home, our conversations continued and even as my journey led me out of that context to found the Transforming Center and Rory’s journey led him to found Heart of the Artist Ministries, we stayed connected in our search for the more in our spiritual lives. Eventually Rory joined our two-year Transforming Community experience that proved to be the beginning of a fifteen-year journey of collaboration around transforming worship—one of the great privileges of my vocational life.
From the Transforming Center’s earliest days one of the basic, non-negotiable elements of our shared practice has been fixed-hour prayer and worship. The first time a few of us gathered on retreat over twenty years ago, we began with an evening prayer service. We prepared a simple sacred space with a cross, a candle, and an open Bible placed on a simple altar. We entered that space quietly and lit the candle to signify Christ’s presence with us through the Holy Spirit. Then, guided by a simple liturgy, we prayed the prayers provided for us beginning with these words:
From the rising of the sun to its setting,
Let the name of the Lord be praised.
YOU, O LORD, ARE MY LAMP.
MY GOD, YOU MAKE MY DARKNESS BRIGHT.
Light and peace in Jesus Christ our Lord.
THANKS BE TO GOD.
We read a Psalm responsively followed by a Psalm prayer that gave us a way to affirm and respond to its message. There was a Gospel reading followed by silence to create space for God to speak to us personally through the chosen Scripture. We prayed some of the oldest prayers of the church—including the Lord’s Prayer, written prayers of intercession that helped us offer our shared concerns to God, and spontaneous prayers as well. Some of the prayers were prayed responsively, others in unison, and I remember losing myself in the beauty and simplicity of it all. No bells and whistles needed.
Instead of having to think really, really hard about what to pray, those of us who gathered simply gave ourselves to the beauty and substance of words that expressed deep longings and powerful praises we might never have been able to find words to say. Instead of getting caught in the ego’s attempts to say something profound to God (and to the people around us!), we rested from all of that and actually prayed. Instead of listening to someone else’s interpretation or application of Scripture, the Gospel was read without comment so that we could actually listen for what God was saying personally to us. Rather than being “led” by the up-front gyrations of an overly enthusiastic worship band, there was a sense that we all participated and did it together, having been relieved of the need for a lot of fanfare. After the Scripture reading, this small group of us settled into a silence that was so rich and satisfying that I remember losing all track of time until someone finally nudged me to remind me that it was time to go on!
That simple service lasted all of twenty minutes, and yet we emerged awake and alert to God in the depths of our beings, having given him our whole selves in worship as much as we were able. Even though I had been in church all my life (I am a pastor’s kid, after all) it felt like my soul had finally come home to a way of praying and worshiping where there was space for a transforming encounter with God in the depths of my being.
That was over twenty years ago now, and we have been praying and worshiping that way ever since—with one notable difference. Until Rory joined us in our second Transforming Community, we had not had anyone to lead us in the musical elements of our worship, so our prayer services were made up of words and silence. Even though several of us knew Rory to be an amazing musician, composer, and worship leader we refrained from asking him to serve with these gifts until he had completed his Transforming Community experience. But as soon as he had completed his two-year experience we asked whether he had any vision at all to add some additional worship elements to our fixed-hour prayers.
To our delight, he had already been thinking about this possibility and said yes. And what emerged was a wonderful partnership in which he and I had the opportunity to work together in continuing to develop what we now call Transforming Worship—a way of worshiping that has emerged organically from our life together in community. Partnering with Rory in developing and leading worship services has been one of the most unexpected joys and privileges of my life in ministry.
Over the years as we have planned worship and then reflected on our worship, Rory and I have had countless conversations in which we have attempted to identify characteristics of transforming worship we believe transcend style and can be applied in any worship setting. For us, transforming worship has always been highly participatory, leaning into our understanding of the term liturgy, which literally means “the work of the people.” What a liturgical approach means for us is that our worship is not focused so much on the up-front presence and performance of a few but rather invites everyone to participate in reading and responding to Scripture, to pray and be formed by the prayers of the church, to listen to God in the silent spaces, and to join their voices with others in songs that are simple and yet substantive. In this way we experience transforming worship to be “work” that satisfies and delights us.
We have consistently experienced the truth that transforming worship is highly experiential, designed to lead folks into encounters with God that produce some sort of inner shift or change as they respond to that Presence. Transforming prayer and worship is characterized by simplicity and includes times of silence created specifically for allowing God to speak to us personally and for us to respond. Because we believe transforming worship engages the whole person, we are very intentional about incorporating icons, Christian symbols, art, beauty, and guided experiences in our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. This is one aspect of bringing all aspects of ourselves into relationship with God in our worship, opening us to a life-transforming encounter. At the same time, we are careful to avoid being emotionally manipulative, overly sentimental or melodramatic—which can be a very fine line to find.
It goes without saying (and yet it needs to be said) that transforming worship is Christ-centered in that it creates all sorts of opportunities to open to the transforming presence of Christ together—in community. Transforming worship guides us in surrendering—that is, finding ways to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship.
In this deeply collaborative journey, God has bestowed significant gifts to us through Rory’s leadership. Through his gifts as a composer, God gave us many original compositions written specifically for key moments in our worship services—compositions that to this day help us surrender ourselves to God in very concrete ways so God can do his transforming work. Rory has given us the invaluable experience of being guided by a humble lead worshiper—not a performer drawing attention to himself. Rory has led us, but he has never distracted us. Over and over again young worship leaders have commented about how instructive it has been for them to be led in worship by someone who knew how to call out worship from others rather than drawing attention to himself. And we have benefitted greatly from Rory’s teaching and spiritual leadership that is grounded in biblical, theological, and historical reflections on worship—the very grounding you are getting ready to benefit from as you read this work.
And that leads me to my excitement about the book you now have in your hand. I am excited that what we have experienced with Rory as our teacher and worship leader in the Transforming Center is being made available more broadly. I am excited about the intended audience—those who are responsible for making Sunday services happen. What a sacred privilege and responsibility this is and one that should be approached with serious preparation and intentionality. I am excited that Rory casts a clear vision for transforming worship as a vital spiritual discipline that can move us beyond nominal Christianity. I am stirred by his unpacking of the biblical, theological, and historical underpinnings of transforming worship that locate this conversation in the context of historic Christianity and not just the last three hundred years. I am thrilled with how practical this book is in offering real, workable ideas for incorporating historic Christian practices into our worship services—practices that have been tested by time and have proven themselves to open us to God’s transforming work as we come together. And I just love the Checklist for Transforming Worship Services Rory includes as an appendix.
Most of all, I am thrilled with the questions this book will raise for you and your team:
What is transforming worship?
What would it look like to plan worship services as if spiritual transformation matters and we are seeking it as a real outcome?
How can transforming worship play a pivotal role in stemming the tide of nominal Christianity in our church?
What are the biblical origins of transforming worship and what does that mean to us in our setting?
Who should be the priority on Sunday morning—believers or unbelievers?
How should Protestants view sacred symbols and sacramental rituals?
What are the significant elements of a transforming worship service? How is such a service put together?
If these questions excite you as much as they excite me, you are in for a treat! And not just a treat but a substantive meal that will nourish you as you set the table for others.
There is a famous quote from Rainer Marie Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet in which he says “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.” The questions above are questions to love and to nurture as we refuse to give in to the seduction of easy answers and forced solutions brought too quickly and before their time. Instead, I pray there is a group of you that can be patient and take time to live with these questions, seeing how God might use them to lead you. I believe that if pastors and elders, worship leaders and teams engage this book together and begin incorporating even a fraction of the wealth contained here, your worship experience will be changed and your people will be changed. Transformed, even! May it be so.
INTRODUCTION
What Is Transforming Worship?
IHAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE: I am directionally challenged. My wife can go somewhere and years later drive to the exact location. I, on the other hand, couldn’t find the place if I had been there the day before. When we’re driving through the suburbs of Chicago and my lovely wife instructs me to “turn south,” I gently remind her that if I knew which way Canada was, I’d head in the opposite direction. But since I haven’t a clue, a simple imperative—turn left or right—prevents us from ending up in Lake Michigan. I am indebted to whoever invented the GPS for getting me to more appointments on time than I deserve.
Think of this book as a GPS for those who plan and lead worship services. Our destination is church—specifically, a vision for church services that I’m calling transforming worship. My two biggest passions are worship and spiritual formation. I’ve often wondered, What would it look like to conceive of gathered worship as if spiritual formation mattered? How would that affect the way we plan and lead worship services? In Romans 12:1-2, Paul explains that as we worship our minds are constantly being renewed. By juxtaposing worship and transformation Paul establishes a fundamental link between the two. This book explores the dynamic interplay between worship and spiritual formation and imagines what it would be like to approach Sunday services with greater intentionality toward transformation.
For the last fifteen years I’ve had the privilege of leading worship for the Transforming Center, a retreat ministry that specializes in spiritual formation for leaders. Participants gather quarterly to experience substantive teaching on themes and practices related to spiritual formation. The Transforming Center represents a growing movement of pastors and leaders who are realigning their church’s priorities around discipleship.
Scripture emphasizes that spiritual formation is the foundational task of the church. Jesus charged his followers to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to live in obedience to his commands (Matthew 28:19-20). The Great Commission is fundamentally a call to produce disciples—obedient followers—of Jesus Christ who in turn make other disciples. In John 17, on the eve of his crucifixion, Jesus prays what many believe to be the deepest desires of his heart, including an urgent prayer that his followers be sanctified (John 17:17).
New Testament church leaders had no confusion about their overarching mission. Paul was adamant that God wants every believer to be sanctified (1 Thessalonians 4:3), so he aspired to bring his people to full maturity in Christ (Colossians 1:28). His goal was not merely to win a lot of people to Christ but to help them mature spiritually and to equip them for ministry in the community at large (Ephesians 4:12). Paul took his calling to make disciples so seriously that he agonized over the spiritual well-being of his people; he longed for them to experience genuine transformation and for Christ to be truly formed in them (Galatians 4:19). The apostle and his colleagues in Colossae prayed fervently that their flock would be filled with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding to live worthy of and pleasing to the Lord (Colossians 1:9-10). Paul was constantly on his knees praying that his people would reap all the spiritual benefits of knowing Christ (Ephesians 1:17-19), that they would be sanctified “through and through” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The writer of Hebrews beseeched the Lord to work in the lives of his people to equip them to do God’s will (Hebrews 13:21).
Scripture indicates that the church’s main agenda is to train believers to walk, empowered by grace, in the freedom of Christ. Making disciples is not a sidebar activity relegated to a specialized subministry of the church; it is not the pet project of the church’s education department or the latest trend the church rallies around for a few months but abandons when the next popular craze comes along. Spiritual formation is not an optional pursuit but the very reason the church exists in the first place. For that reason church leaders are responsible for providing their flocks with resources and opportunities to help them grow spiritually. Transforming worship views Sunday morning as a golden opportunity to nurture the spiritual lives of God’s people.
DEFINING TRANSFORMING WORSHIP
I define transforming worship as “a communal experience that combines classic spiritual practices with a formative encounter with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit.” Notice, first, that it’s communal; it is something we do in the company of others, in partnership with God’s people. It is also experiential; the bulk of the activities are not designed for people to sit back and watch but to join in and participate. Transforming worship draws from traditional Christian disciplines such as prayer, Scripture reading, confession, the Lord’s Supper, and baptism, all of which the church has been practicing since its inception. The assumption here is that every major part of the service, not just the sermon, can be spiritually formative. At the heart of this entire experience is an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. Transforming worship does not seek to evoke a feeling or deliver teaching but to encounter a person. The ultimate goal is for worshipers to encounter the life-altering, character-shaping presence of God.
Allen Ross offers a compelling vision for worship that takes seriously its inherent potential to transform lives:
For worship to be as glorious as it should be, for it to lift people out of their mundane cares and fill them with adoration and praise, for it to be the life-changing and life-defining experience it was designed to be, it must be inspired by a vision so great and so glorious that what we call worship will be transformed from a routine gathering into a transcendent meeting with the living God.
Ross’s glorious vision of worship hinges not on the quality of our praise music but our attentiveness to the formative nature of Sunday services.
THOU SHALL NOT MESS WITH WORSHIP!
I am well aware that any talk about making adjustments to Sunday services makes church leaders nervous. One pastor told me that he was willing to hire a different worship leader and raise thousands of dollars for a new sound system but that he wouldn’t dream of introducing changes to the actual service. “Mess with Sunday morning at your own risk!” he sternly warned, as if brandishing an eleventh commandment. His foreboding admonishment was gleaned from painful experience. I completely understand such apprehension. I’ve seen enough worship wars during my lifetime to heighten my trepidation about tampering with the service. My fears are allayed, however, by the fact that transforming worship has nothing to do with a certain style of music or method of worship. Nor am I promoting a particular genre of musical praise. I’m not saying that music and methodology are not important, but those are peripheral, ephemeral issues, not substantive ones. Worship styles change, music evolves, but biblical precepts regarding worship do not change with the times. The principles in this book, therefore, apply to all churches—mainline, nondenominational, independent, charismatic, liturgical, spontaneous, traditional, or contemporary. Instead of advancing a new, trend-setting philosophy of worship, I’m appealing to the modern church to return to a biblical vision of gathered worship as a formative spiritual practice.
After learning what the Bible says about worship, some churches might decide to make sweeping changes to their services. In those cases I trust that leaders will explain the rationale for those changes based on biblical precedence rather than some innovative initiative about church growth or cultural relevancy. However, after reading this book I believe most churches will make significant but more subtle, incremental changes. That’s because the main elements of a transforming worship service are already in place at every church but need to be emphasized or treated not as slots to fill in a worship order but as potentially formative elements. As we shall see, activities that Christians have been doing together since the beginning—things like prayer and Bible reading—were originally designed for the purpose of edification. Approaching these activities as well as the entire service more mindful of spiritual formation will inevitably produce changes. However, those changes will benefit all involved. Achieving a transforming worship service, therefore, need not be a painful experience for leaders or laypeople. In the long run, congregation members will discover that a more formative approach to worship enhances their Sunday morning experience.
TODAY’S URGENCY
There is an urgent need today for church services that are more spiritually substantive. In recent decades the church has failed to make spiritual formation a priority, and the results have been devastating. The church is to be commended for making outreach and evangelism high priorities, but we have done a poor job of discipling and assimilating new believers into the life of the church. Gregory Jones laments that today’s church leaders and their congregations have been so inadequately formed in their faith that they cannot live the Christian life in all its fullness. Jones further observes that those who join mainline Protestant churches these days are not required to make any changes to the way they live; neither are they given the resources to implement such changes. The church’s inattentiveness to spiritual formation has too often resulted in nominal Christians who experienced a spiritual awakening when they came to the Lord (and perhaps a certain degree of life change), but they are no longer on the journey toward radical transformation in Christ.
I believe that transforming worship can play a pivotal role in stemming the tide of nominal Christianity. The urgency of the situation demands that our church services take on a more spiritually formative role. In other words it’s time to mess with the service to bring it in line with its original design as a spiritually formative practice.
Transforming Worship is geared to all those responsible for making Sunday services happen: pastors, worship leaders, volunteers, and lay leaders. The book is divided into two parts; the first half examines transforming worship conceptually from a biblical, historical, and theological perspective. The second section presents five communal spiritual practices intrinsic to a transforming worship experience: prayer, Scripture reading, confession, the Lord’s Supper, and baptism. Each chapter of the book ends with practical suggestions on how to implement the material that’s presented in your particular setting. I hope this book encourages you, rejuvenates you, and proves helpful as you seek a more formative approach to Sunday services. May the Lord bless you as you continue to faithfully serve those you lead every week in worship.
BIBLICAL, HISTORICAL, AND THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF TRANSFORMING WORSHIP
TRANSFORMING WORSHIPis not a new idea; it has biblical and historical precedence and is grounded in a sound theology of worship. In these opening chapters we’ll first investigate the biblical origins of transforming worship and glean principles that both the Old and New Testaments endorse. We will then identify a working template, again drawn from Scripture, that is not intended to be a rigid order of service but a general outline or shape for corporate worship. Chapter three showcases a New Testament model for transforming worship that clarifies who should be more of a priority on Sunday morning: believers or unbelievers. In my research for this book I kept looking for the best example of a church that conducted worship as if spiritual formation mattered. I eventually landed on the early church. So for a historical perspective, chapter four examines how those early Christians incorporated the biblical principles of worship into their Sunday services. Chapter five focuses on a theology of the sacred and seeks to answer important questions about sacramentality. How should Protestants view sacred symbols and religious rituals? Is there a philosophy of the sacred—of sacramentality—that is appropriate for the twenty-first century? What do symbology, ritual, and sacramentality have to do with modern worship? The biblical, historical, and theological perspectives not only provide a firm foundation for transforming worship, but they also enhance our vision of what it looks like and entails.
1
IT ALL STARTED AT SINAI
FOR THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS I have served as a consultant for churches seeking to improve the overall worship experience at their Sunday services. Though situations vary, churches typically bring me in to help them get from point A to point B. I put it that way because I’ve found that church leaders always have an idea of what point B looks like. In other words, they have a vision, an idea of what they want to see happen every Sunday at their church. If I’ve learned one thing from my experience doing church work, it’s that everyone has a picture in their mind of what constitutes real or true worship. Some of our preconceived notions of worship are based on the church we grew up in or one we previously attended. We’re comfortable with a certain style of worship simply because we’re used to it; it’s familiar to us. Some are attracted to a particular type of music; they can’t engage unless the music is “right.” Others have a notion of worship derived from a megachurch they visited or a conference they attended that featured a professional quality worship band.
I can’t help but notice that most everyone’s concept of worship, including my own, mirrors our personal experience and preferences. But what about God? What does God think about worship? We assume that if the worship feels right to us, it must feel right to God, which is presumptuous. How do we know for sure how God feels about our particular brand of worship? Does God have a favorite style of music? Is the style of music even important to God?
Fortunately, God has revealed in his Word how he desires to be worshiped, and, surprisingly, it has little if anything to do with music. Exodus 1–15 presents the story of God rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. This epic drama culminated in a meeting between God and his chosen people at Mount Sinai, during which God prescribed how he desires to be worshiped. In this chapter we will explore the foundational principles of corporate worship gleaned from Israel’s encounter with God atop Mount Sinai and assess how to apply those principles to modern worship.
SINAI SCHOOL OF WORSHIP
We assume that if the worship feels right to us, it must feel right to God, which is presumptuous.
As recorded in Exodus 3, Moses was tending sheep at Mount Sinai when God spoke to him through a burning bush and revealed his plan to rescue Israel from slavery. God promised Moses that after delivering his people he would bring them to the very spot where Moses was standing, specifically so they could worship God (Exodus 3:12; 7:16).
Fast forward several years to the same location. God has led Israel out of Egypt and directed them to Mount Sinai, just as he promised (Exodus 19–32). Freed from the shackles of slavery, the people were now free to worship. But before they could do so, God established his covenant with them and offered instructions concerning how he wants to be worshiped. After all, Israel had been entrenched in a pagan society for over four hundred years; judging from their actions in the desert, they no longer consistently reflected the piety of their faith tradition. For example, their constant complaining throughout their sojourn demonstrated a blatant lack of trust in God, especially in light of all the miracles he performed to rescue them. The moaning and griping were pervasive; Scripture notes the frequency with which the entire community grumbled against Moses and Aaron (Exodus 16:2, 8; 17:2-4, 7). The most disgruntled among them longed for the comforts of Egypt even if it meant returning to slavery (Exodus 14:11-12; 16:3), which discloses an ignorance of their true identity. They were a nation destined for greatness, who, according to the Abrahamic covenant, would eventually bless all the peoples of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:1-5; 17:1-8).
The Exodus account contains no indication that the people worshiped together during their six-week sojourn to Sinai. Except for a brief praise song they sang on the shores of the Red Sea (Exodus 15), the narrative mentions no regular worship observances. Apparently, gathered worship did not play a vital role in the ongoing life of the community. The Israelites had been subjected to the prevailing Egyptian culture for so long they had formed an incomplete concept of God, lost their identity as God’s chosen, covenant people, and had no established routine for gathered worship.
At Mount Sinai, God was now calling these former slaves to be his treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5-6). In other words God was inviting them to be his specially chosen people and to partner with him in his global mission to redeem his fallen creation. God brought Israel to Sinai for what Samuel Balentine portrays as a sabbath experience—a furlough that began during the seventh week of the exodus, which lasted for eleven months (Numbers 10:11), and afforded the Israelites an extended time of deliberation to reflect on the implications of their covenant relationship with God. Because the concept of covenant plays a vital role in worship theology, a brief analysis of a typical Old Testament covenant is in order.
Covenants in antiquity. In the ancient world a covenant was a treaty or agreement between two parties; typically one party was superior to the other. For example, a powerful king, nation, or tribe would enter into an official agreement with a weaker one. The stronger ruler was often referred to as “lord,” the weaker one as “servant.” The terms of the covenant bound the lord to protect the servant who in turn pledged unwavering allegiance to the lord, which meant going to war against the lord’s enemies as well as paying tribute to his authority. Alliances formed by a covenant, therefore, were politically and socially motivated.
A covenant transaction adhered to a standard protocol that began with a brief narrative chronicling the participants’ shared history. Terms of the agreement were then spelled out, the benefits, obligations, and responsibilities for both parties were clearly indicated. Punitive measures for treaty violations were also detailed. A physical sign, such as a scar, was often used to seal the agreement, and the lesser king or nation would be given a new name indicating that they were now owned, in a sense, by their new leader. Finally, the covenant was captured and preserved in a document that served to remind both parties of their pact.
Covenants in antiquity were typically ratified in a special ceremony that incorporated some type of blood sacrifice. Participants were either sprinkled with the blood of a sacrificial animal or they would walk between pieces of the animal that had been cut up for the occasion, a ritual that communicated “May the gods cut me to pieces, should I violate the terms of this treaty.” Covenant partners sometimes shared a meal to ratify the pact. Although God also entered into covenants with Noah (Genesis 9:1-17), Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3; 15; 17:1-22), and David (2 Samuel 7:11-16), it was the agreement God initiated with Moses that profoundly influenced Israel’s approach to worship.
Sinai worship service. The ratification of the Mosaic covenant, recorded in Exodus 24, occurred in the context of a worship service. God, always the initiator in the human-divine relationship, summoned Moses so the Lord and he could meet before Moses met with the people (Exodus 24:1). Then Moses called the Israelites together and, following God’s previous orders (Exodus 21–23), began to share with them all the words that God spoke to him atop Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:3). What the text summarizes in one verse comprises four chapters of the book of Exodus (20–23). In what must have been a lengthy sermon, Moses taught the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and presented the terms of Israel’s covenant agreement with God, known subsequently as the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:22–23:33). Interestingly, the Book of the Covenant begins and ends with explicit instructions about worship: Exodus 20:22-26 calls for God’s faithful to offer sacrifices on an altar; Exodus 23:10-12 commands them to observe weekly Sabbath. This passage also includes three festivals that God instructed them to observe annually—Passover, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering (Exodus 23:14-19). Upon hearing God’s instructions the congregation responded by vowing to obey God’s laws (Exodus 24:3). The Sinai sermon, therefore, was substantive, was received as the word of God for his people, and elicited a response from them as well.
When Moses finished delivering God’s word, he built an altar and offered sacrifices, both of which were activities God previously instructed him to do (Exodus 24:4-5). As part of the sacrificial ritual, Moses sprinkled the people with blood from the sacrificial oxen (Exodus 24:8), which, following ancient custom, bound covenant partners together in mutual loyalty. Therefore, Israel’s ritual of animal sacrifice, the centerpiece of Old Testament worship, was inaugurated at Mount Sinai as an expression of their loyalty and commitment to God. The ceremony climaxed with Moses leading Israel’s seventy elders up Mount Sinai to commune with God as God had earlier prescribed (Exodus 24:1, 9-11). Atop Sinai, Israel’s leaders “saw God, and they ate and drank” (Exodus 24:11). They encountered God and shared a meal in his presence. Though Israel emerged from slavery as a ragtag tribe without a cogent religious identity and with no compelling vision for worship, they left Sinai for the Promised Land as what Balentine characterizes as both a covenant community as well as a worshiping community. Indeed, God had personally schooled them regarding who he is, who they were, and how God desires to be worshiped.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE WORSHIP AT SINAI FOR SUNDAY SERVICES TODAY
Robbie Castleman maintains that the Israelite’s unique approach to worship distinguished them from all neighboring tribes and nations. Let’s examine these distinctive features of worship derived from the exodus story and consider their implications for transforming worship gatherings. The foundational principles listed in this and the following chapter draw extensively from Constance Cherry’s book The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services.
God-initiated meeting between God and his people. Sinai reveals that God is the one who initiates worship. God is the one who summoned Moses for a mountaintop meeting and then charged him with the responsibility of facilitating the larger gathering between God and his people. God also dictated the vital terms of the gathering. Instead of leaving the details entirely up to Moses, God determined the time, the place, and what everyone was to do when they gathered. Biblical worship is never on our terms—never about us and our personal preferences—but wholly on God’s terms.
The fact that God initiates worship completely changes the dynamics of a church service. On Sundays we’re not simply attending a church service; we’re going, by divine invitation, to meet with God and his people. Gathered worship is more than a teaching time, more than a Christian sing-along; it is a divine invitation to encounter and experience God. Like the Israelites, we too have to carve time out of our schedules to enter into a Sabbath experience. As our Jewish ancestors made the arduous trek to Sinai, we too must exert the energy to travel to a specific place—our local church—to experience God’s presence among his people. All that we do during worship is in response to the divine presence, to God’s self-revelation. Jesus taught that our heavenly Father is constantly looking for people ready and willing to meet with him (John 4:23-24). Sunday worship is fundamentally a meeting between God and his people, initiated by God himself. Every time we gather, we take God up on his holy invitation to come together with our brothers and sisters in Christ to fellowship with God.
Dialogical nature of worship. Moses shared with the people all that God revealed to him, and they responded. Gathered worship is essentially a dialogue between God and his people. God speaks, we listen and respond; we speak and God hears us, and he too responds. God reveals himself mainly through his Word; we respond verbally by singing or with actions. Constance Cherry emphasizes that while some methods for planning worship result in God being the topic of conversation, approaching worship as a dialogue enables God to be a partner in the conversation. Gathered worship is an encounter with a God who is an active conversationalist.
Healthy and constructive dialogue is never one-sided; it is not a monologue. Both parties actively participate in the conversation. To achieve this sense of dialogue in a group setting requires participation on the part of all involved. Biblical worship does not entail watching someone else converse with God or passively listening to a sermon; it requires all worshipers to take part in this dynamic dialogue with God. The fact that true worship is dialogical means that on any given Sunday God could say something significant and meaningful to us during the service.
Proclaiming who God is and what God has done. After God parted the Red Sea and the children of Israel crossed safely to the other side, Moses led the people in a spontaneous praise song. The Song of Moses, found in Exodus 15, is one of the first—if not the first—worship songs recorded in the Bible. This ancient praise song is about God and is sung to God. The lyrics are celebrative and triumphant, focusing on who God is and what God accomplished in delivering Israel.
In the first three verses God is exalted as “Lord,” “my strength,” “my defense,” “my salvation,” “my God,” and “a warrior.” Moses’ song celebrates who God is by highlighting some of his attributes. Verses 4-5 go on to describe how God hurled Pharaoh’s army into the water and subdued them. Linking God’s actions to his attributes underscores that God’s deeds flow out of who he is. The rest of Moses’ song goes back and forth between describing who God is and citing what God did to rescue Israel.
