“Make it punchier, more catchy,” “say less,” and “keep it simple.” These and other similar comments are regularly part of feedback and direction given to those leading Sunday worship – especially about the opening. The band is waiting and so too are the congregation, apparently, to pour their hearts out in praise. No one wants anything theological or technical, so turn down the opening comments and turn up the music. Alright, no one quite put it like that last sentence. But the sentiment undoubtedly stands behind most of the criticisms I’ve heard.
No one wants anything theological or technical, so turn down the opening comments and turn up the music.
One might imagine—no doubt, you’ve likely heard—various reasons for keeping the beginning of your worship service short. And I’m not that interested in going into them. In a nutshell, it’s indicative of many Evangelicals’ contemporary, bare bones Sunday liturgies. We might sum this up as ‘banging music and a meaty Bible talk’. This explains, among other things, the ready abandonment of weekly communion, creedal statements, and corporate confession. It’s why many services this coming Sunday will begin with a “welcome,” before the worship team takes over and everyone gets lost in the music. Kevin DeYoung has adequately critiqued this trend. My aim for this post is simply to salvage the call to worship.
Though the call to worship hasn’t always enjoyed full support in the Protestant tradition, I believe that a strong case can be made for it. Furthermore, in an age where Sunday services are less Reformed and more rock concert meets TED Talk, there is much to be said for the reclamation of theologically rich and faith building liturgies. I hope to do that below. First, I’ll consider Paul’s principle of ordered worship in 1 Corinthians 14. Then I’ll make two points on the call to worship.
Structure Services to Build Up the Church
Firstly, Paul insists that our public worship be ordered. For God is not a God of chaos (1 Corinthians 14:33, 40). He writes: “Everything must be done so that the church may be built up” (1 Corinthians 14:26). True, he was addressing the unedifying prevalence of tongues at Corinth – actually making this a very relevant passage for many churches today—but there is an important principle for corporate worship here too. That is, Sunday worship is strengthened by liturgy and structure; or, dare I say it, predictability. There is a logic to praise, reason within worship. This strengthens faith.
There is a logic to praise, reason within worship. This strengthens faith.
Paul insists that ordered worship better serves the edification of believers and makes the service more sensible to outsiders (1 Corinthians 14:23-24). As I noted in my introduction, many Evangelical churches practice the exact opposite – a kind of spontaneous, unstructured emotivism. But what’s going on when we gather to worship is not patently obvious, not even to members of the local church. At least, that’s what Paul implies in this passage. And it’s why the Reformed tradition has promulgated an abundance of thoughtful liturgies. These aren’t antiquated or stifling. They’re the product of Paul’s exhortation for theologically structured, sensible corporate worship.
With this point in place, we can focus on the call to worship.
The Gospel Is the Grounds of Our Worship
Most upfront Sunday “welcomes” will recognise that we’ve gathered to worship and praise God. Perhaps they will incorporate a verse to highlight why we praise God; you know, for example, “he is good and his love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1), so let’s sing. But the call to worship goes deeper. Beyond merely reminding people why they should worship God, it emphasises why we can worship him. Read that last sentence again. The call to worship doesn’t only exhort us to praise God, it points us to the one who enables worship.
The call to worship doesn’t only exhort us to praise God, it points us to the one who enables worship.
As James K. A. Smith puts it, in his remarkable book You Are What You Love, the call to worship reminds us that God is both the first and primary actor in worship – not us. It teaches the congregation, from the very start of the worship service, “that God is the gracious initiator here.” Smith goes on to say that this didactically displaces the priority of self and our own desires, locating our praise in the gracious work of God, who called us and the church into existence.
So, he concludes, “the call to worship is a weekly reenactment of the primacy of sovereignty of the Creator in our lives: just as we are called into being by the God who creates, so we are called into new life by that same God, who redeems us in Christ by the power of his Spirit.” When we gather to worship we do so as both a response to and result of God’s gracious and sovereign initiative in our lives.
The Call to Worship Trumps How I’m Feeling
In redirecting our gaze to God and his grace, the call to worship is an exhortation against being overly attentive to ourselves. It lowers the priority of my feelings. Now, I’m not suggesting that emotions are unimportant – in fact, I’ve written at length to argue the opposite. However, God’s call for us to worship him is unqualified. Whether I feel like worshipping God today or not is unimportant.
Our glorious God has made a way for us to worship him.
While this might not sit well with my more charismatic brothers and sisters, it’s an important corrective as well as a comfort for the vast majority of believers. Because, if we’re honest, we don’t always walk into church on Sunday morning raring to go, desperate to worship God. And that’s alright. The call to worship restates God’s gracious invitation to come before him, confident in the finished work of his Son (Hebrews 4:16). That is the unshifting and secure basis of any and all worship. When we stand at Union Chapel for the call to worship – Sunday by Sunday – we’re reminded that how we feel today is always secondary to what we can know for certain: our glorious God has made a way for us to worship him.
Before concluding, I’d like to say one more thing on this point, something Eugene Peterson wrote in his Long Obedience in the Same Direction. “If Christians only worshipped when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship.” However, as Peterson continues, we aren’t consigned to apathetically go through the motions. For, he writes, “We can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting…Worship is an act which develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God which is expressed in an act of worship.”
Liturgies Breath Life into Faith
Too often appeals for the riches of Reformed liturgies are dismissed as a harkening after theological and cultural antiques. They’re deemed irrelevant, off-putting for newcomers, and strange. Of course, there’s no such thing as having no liturgy in your worship service. That being said, there’s no shortage of theologically anaemic liturgies—even spiritually deforming ones.
The Son’s finished work is the unshifting and secure basis of any and all worship.
So let’s give careful thought to the order and structure of our worship gatherings. Paul exhorts as much in 1 Corinthians 14. In my opinion, head the liturgy with a call to worship. Located at the start of the service, it achieves at least two things in the worshippers, as I argued above. Firstly, it reminds the gathered church that its very existence is owed to the gracious call of God in his gospel. The invitation is grounded in his merciful initiative. Secondly, the call to worship is a comfort that my praise isn’t measured by my feelings on the day but the foundation of Christ’s work.
These reasons alone are surely enough to motivate us to be done with lame welcomes and leading akin to emceeing. God calls his people to worship.
