The Worship Architect

A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781441213280
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Rituels et pratiques chrétiens

There are many books available on the topic of worship today, but few provide a comprehensive, practical method for worship design. Constance M. Cherry, a worship professor and practitioner, provides worship leaders with credible blueprint plans for successfully designing worship services that foster meaningful conversation with God and the gathered community. Readers will learn how to create services that are faithful to Scripture, historically conscious, relevant to God, Christ-centered, and engaging for worshipers of all ages in the twenty-first century. The book sets forth basic principles concerning worship design and demonstrates how these principles are conducive to virtually any style of worship practiced today in a myriad of Christian communities. It will also work well as a guide for worship-planning teams in local churches and provide insight for worship students, pastors, and church leaders involved in congregational worship.

Phase Three

Creating Doors and Windows for Encountering God
Doors and Windows from an Architect’s Point of View

Architects view windows as the “eyes” of the building. They let in natural light for the benefit of its occupants. Windows control how light enters a building.

Some allow for clear, direct light to flood into the space. Other types, such as stained glass windows, filter sunlight with magnificent colors—crafted artistically to convey a message. Windows allow for the invasion of light.

Windows also allow for vision. Those inside are able to see out. Because there are windows, inhabitants may behold scenery that is outside the building. In this sense, windows help those inside to be in touch with what seems beyond their reach. Windows also allow for others to see inside the building. They provide a two-way means for knowledge and relationship.

Doors allow for people to enter and leave the building; they, too, provide access for relationships. Doors also help secure the building by keeping danger out. They protect what is precious.

Essentially, doors and windows are means for providing light, vision, and access. They enlarge the function of the structure in that they provide a means for perceiving what is beyond the structure.

9

Encountering God in Prayer
Capturing the Heart of Worship

Explore

Before reading chapter 9, gather some colleagues and head to the nearest coffee shop. Have a conversation about prayer in worship.

1. What is your earliest childhood memory of prayer in corporate worship?

2. Who stands out in your mind as an effective public prayer? Why?

3. What distracts you in public prayer? Why?

4. Complete this sentence: If I could change one thing about public prayer in my church, I would _______________________ .

Now that you have your thought processes going, expand your thinking by reading chapter 9.

Every Sunday Don Sherman attended the church I once served as pastor. He sat near the front row each week. I had not been at the church for long when I began to notice that he sat through most of the service with his eyes closed. One day when leaving the church, Don explained his behavior. He said, “Pastor, I just want you to know that I am not sleeping through the service or your sermon.” “That’s a relief,” I responded with a smile. “No,” he continued, “I come to church to pray. I have a list of people that are counting on me to lift them up in prayer and I made a commitment to do so. So when you see me with my eyes closed for long periods of time, that’s what I’m doing—I’m praying. In fact, that’s why I come to church.”

Prayer is not only something we do in worship; it is what constitutes worship. Let’s begin at the beginning. It is right and even necessary to devote time for prayers in public worship and also to use a variety of types of prayer as a means for conversing with God. Yet the larger picture is this: the entire liturgy needs to be viewed as prayer. To misunderstand this basic point is to misunderstand worship. Prayer in worship is good; worship as prayer is better yet. Christian worship must be fundamentally viewed as consisting of all the worship acts that, when gathered up, constitute one comprehensive prayer for the world, for Christ’s church, and for ourselves as citizens of the kingdom of God. Essentially,

“public prayer” refers to the total worship experience, from its beginning to its end. The kind of worship I refer to is a prayer in the world for the world. . . . The whole act of worship says, “God, we are here to remember your story and to pray that the whole world, the entire cosmos, will be gathered in your Son and brought to the fulfillment of your purposes in Him!” This kind of prayer is a public way to remember God’s saving deeds in the past and to anticipate God’s rule over all creation in the future.1

Though this chapter is devoted to praying in worship, we have started where we must, by asserting that the entire liturgy is a prayer to God.

The Present Situation

In many churches today, praying in worship is in decline. In some churches it has all but disappeared. Unfortunately, this is more likely true for services in the contemporary style,2 which tend to be devoted almost entirely to an extended time of singing followed by a lengthy time of preaching/teaching. As the minutes given to singing and preaching swell (in any style), other features are squeezed out, most notably prayer and Scripture readings.3 Sometimes this happens unknowingly; we fail to regularly evaluate our services and certain things slip away unnoticed. Other times this happens because worship planners assume church members prefer it that way. There are also churches that reduce or eliminate necessary worship acts based on perceived preferences of the unchurched; they justify doing so from the standpoint of evangelism. (How long, after all, can nonbelievers stay engaged with prayer?) Theologian Stanley Grenz sounds the alarm when he writes, “If we look closely at the contemporary situation, we would likely find ourselves readily admitting that ours is the epitome of a prayerless church.”4

Today it is easy and even acceptable for worship leaders to give low priority to corporate prayer. Yet worship leaders must zealously guard the occasion of Christian worship as the central forum for corporate prayer. To begin to think about this matter, consider the following questions:

• How important to you is prayer in corporate worship?

• In the worship services that you plan, is the amount of time given to prayer consistent with the view you hold concerning the importance of prayer?

• If you had to choose prayer over some other element of worship, which would you give up in order to allow for substantive times of prayer?

• What would trump prayer in emphasis?

• Is intercessory prayer a necessity for biblical worship?

As we begin, I set forth three starting assumptions regarding prayer in worship. These assumptions undergird the entire chapter.

1. Prayer is a priority of worship.

2. Many types of prayer belong in worship.

3. It is the responsibility of worship leaders (pastors and other leaders) to (1) lead the people in prayer and (2) model praying as a form of discipleship.

This chapter will offer nine considerations regarding corporate prayer, identify various types of prayer for use in worship, and make suggestions for effectively leading in public prayer. When Christians devote themselves to prayer in public worship, we have every reason to believe that we are pleasing God by doing so. Far from neglecting this centerpiece of worship, we will be fulfilling the biblical mandate that the church received from its inception.

Essential Considerations for Corporate Prayer

As we commit to leading our communities in prayer, there are several important general aspects of prayer to consider. The following nine features of Christian prayers offered in worship serve to guide us toward biblical, theological, and historical practice.

Remembrance

All liturgical prayer begins with memory.5 In fact, God’s covenant people remembering God’s saving actions is the foundation of biblical prayer.6 To engage in prayer within the Judeo-Christian tradition is to recall and reclaim the wondrous, saving ways that God has acted throughout history and, by doing so, to prevail upon God in the present to be the same delivering God for the future. God can certainly be counted on to act consistently throughout history, for God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrew prayers often petition God to remember how he has saved Israel in the past;7 in this way Israel lays its claim on God to be faithful in acting the same way in the future. “In remembering the covenant, God acts in conformity with it.”8

Examples abound in the Old Testament,9 but perhaps none surpasses the prayer of Ezra at the National Confession in Jerusalem (Neh. 9:6–37). In this prayer Ezra remembers and rehearses the story of how God created all things, called Abraham to be the father of the Hebrew people, delivered the Israelites from Pharaoh, led the Israelites in the wilderness with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, gave the commandments, forgave Israel when they worshiped the golden calf, provided manna and water in the desert, led them to conquer Canaan, and more. The entire prayer remembers God as a good and forgiving God, and it is on that basis that Ezra leads the returning Israelites in asking forgiveness for their own apostasy and that of their ancestors, while pledging fidelity in the future.

The New Testament takes up the same mantra of remembrance. One such example of prayer as remembrance is demonstrated in Acts 4:23–31. Peter and John were imprisoned by the Jewish authorities for miraculously healing a man at the temple gates who had been lame from birth. After being locked up overnight, they were interrogated and then released. Upon gaining their freedom, Peter and John went to report the incident to their friends who, in turn, “raised their voices together to God and prayed”:

Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant: “Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers have gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.” For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. (Acts 4:24–30)

First, note that God’s mighty reputation was rehearsed—from creation, to King David, to the events of Christ’s passion. God was appropriately reminded of specific times when he intervened and showed power. That same power was needed by the disciples in their present circumstance. Second, note the result of such a prayer: “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). The result of the believers’ prayer was consistent with how God had been remembered in the prayer. They prayed for boldness and received boldness on the basis of how God had strengthened their ancestors in the past.

The feature of remembrance in prayer is most evidently seen in the prayer known as the Great Thanksgiving.10 This primary Eucharistic prayer developed early in the life of the church.11 Leading up to the reception of the bread and the wine, its main feature was that of a narrative—a prayer that tells the story of God’s saving acts throughout history, beginning with creation; includes several historical examples of deliverance; centers on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and concludes with anticipation of Christ’s final return. Many versions of this prayer form have existed throughout the centuries, but the salient quality of them all is the litany of the many ways God has intervened to save his people. To pray the Great Thanksgiving is to remember what God has done and to be filled with praise for so great a salvation. Liturgical prayer has its roots in the remembrance of God’s record—the record of God’s saving works.

Corporate

The many prayers of worship are, first and foremost, the prayers of the community. In...