So worship is not just a once-a-week affair. A little boy told his pastor he didn't pray every night because some nights he didn't want anything! When we think of worship as a one-day-only affair we may be treating God as we would a lawyer or doctor, resorting to him when in trouble.

The earliest Christians had very little that was tang- ible beyond their worship assemblies, and traveling disciples who had been with Jesus of Nazareth and the risen Christ. They had no buildings, no sacred Christian book, no defined creed. What they had were burning convictions, and the loyalty and commitment that a possible knock on the door and impending death always engenders.

Some prophets arrived in Antioch, and an opportunity was given to one of them to bring their 'word from the Lord' to the church (Acts 11:27-28). At this point we ask: Is worship an event of the congregation or for the congregation? who 'conducts' worship in your church? Pastors ('paid holy people') from the front? Or the whole congregation? Someone has said medieval worship centred on the altar; the Prot- estant Reformation moved it to the pulpit; today a renewed church sees the locus of worship within the congregation. 'Liturgy' literally means 'the work of the people'. The whole church is a priesthood (Hebrews 6). This does not, however, deny the validity of a set-apart leadership of the ministries of word, sacrament and pastoral care. As Thomas Oden put it, 'This requires committed and informed persons who have studied the tradition in more than a slapdash way as a serious lifelong pursuit and intentional vocational commit- ment and who have been set aside both by their inner sense of calling and by the outward action of the church'. (1)

These 'set-apart' persons are ordained to conduct (and in my view train others to conduct) worship, as a conductor of an orchestra facilitates beautiful symphonic sound. The orchestra plays the music, the conductor leads. If the leader is trying very hard to make me worship, I find worship difficult. But when they have given their best in prepar- ation, and are themselves worshipping, I can only do like- wise. The worship-leader is not the 'master of ceremonies' announcing each item on the list. He or she is also a worsh- ipper. So we need more genius in putting a 'worship service' together that flows without too many 'promptings' from the worship-leader.

So if ever our corporate worship becomes a 'performance from the front' for the congregation-as-audience, it has degenerated into something less than our Lord intended. This set-up encourages a distance between the professional and laypeople. The latter are passive, expecting to display feelings of awe, fear and trust towards the professional, who 'knows what's best'. Worship-leaders are not called to be entertainers. Worship is essentially reciprocal.The congreg- ation should be encouraged to participate in worship in many ways, not the least of which are said (or in some liturgical churches, sung) prayer- and praise-responses, confession of sin, passing the peace, reading scripture together, (in charismatic churches) singing in the spirit, and (in some cultures) free-form prayer said aloud by everyone at the same time.

Paul told the Corinthians when they came together for worship various ones would contribute in different ways (1 Corinthians 14:26). With gentle warm encouragement (it's probably better to err on the side of 'makin haste slowly'), it's amazing how even conservative congregations will loosen up and lose their self-consciousness.

Every congregation should be exposed regularly to a two-track program of education about worship. The first track involves study. Run a course on worship throughout the established groups of the church, or combine them for a special 10-hour course over, say, five nights. Use this chapter as a resource, or consult a recent book about worship. The pastor should be a 'key player' in formulating the content of the course, with the help of outside facilit- ators. Then, form up to three or four worship teams to be responsible for, say, three services each over the next 12 months. Each team-member should have done the study course. The pastor (or preacher for the day) lists themes and script- ures, and each member of the team plans for one element of each service, the elements including: call to worship and invocation; confession and reconciliation; creed or covenant; prayer of thanksgiving; prayer of intercession; offeratory prayer; benediction; hymns; a meaningful way of reading the Scripture. Each team has a coordinator who puts the whole service together with the pastor, and together they determine who will lead the various segments of the service. (Leaders should be given at least a week's notice). (2)

(Karrie - this is a note endnote; please adjust endnote numbers).

Another important training-opportunity is for pastors to prepare a sermon with a group from the church. They will then have a better understanding of homiletical principles, how to interpret the biblical text, and how to apply it in to people's needs in preaching.

Movement. Up until the 14th century when pews were introduced worshippers were free to move around. Then pews introduced a stiff symmetry and oppressive order into church buildings, discouraging the kind of physical involvement that could give somatic shape to inner feelings. Such movements have includ- ed forms of 'holy dancing' offered to the Lord or the 'holy kiss' offered to others. 'Today we are slowly beginning to re-learn how to love our bodies and live in our bodies... Although we bring shame with our bodies, [not everybody is sufficiently in touch with their own sexuality to be ready for a dancer in leotards! RCC] we are learning no longer to be ashamed of our bodies. We are more ready than we have been in many generations to underline our praises with our bodies.' (3)

Art. Banners, audio-visual aids, symbols, images, and poetry, (for example T S Eliot's 'Ash Wednesday' or 'Choruses from the Rock') all enhance worship for some. Encourage some of your people to write poems.

Another way to involve the congregation more is through dialogical and interactive preaching. How that's done depends on the preacher's gifts and the hearers' culture. Remember the old educational adage: I learn by doing. I remember 90% of what I do, 75% of what I say, 50% of what I see, but only 10% of what I hear.

After the benediction. As I travel to different churches, I occasionally see something very beautiful going on in the congregation after the formal worship service has concluded. There are two's and three's everywhere in deep and meaningful conversation, perhaps praying together. It's one of the marks of a church that is really alive. In 'dead' churches they're out the door and off home pretty quickly!

Involving the congregation in worship is one of the hallmarks of a church that's alive. As we thus surrender to God, 'saying prayers' gives way to praying, 'going to church' to 'being the church'.

Discuss: (1) What for each of us is the most significant part of a worship service? Why is the order of service in your church set out the way it is? What changes would you suggest and why? (2) 'Christians are separated by their creeds and rituals but are united by their prayers and hymns'. How true is this? (3) 'We come to worship to give rather than to get.' Do we? Can we? How? (4) 'If the Queen should enter our worship-place, we would all stand. If Jesus Christ entered, we would all fall to our knees.' Would we? (5) The weekends, with our 'four-day weeks' and increasingly flexible work- hours, are becoming times of exodus from the cities to 'week- enders' on the coast or elsewhere. How does this affect our worship-habits? Could 'prayer-breakfasts' or mid-week small groups take the place of traditional church worship?

Further Reading: Robert E. Webber, Worship Old and New, Zondervan, 1982.