Here's how I would explain a worship service:

1. ENCOUNTER AND ADORATION. Christian worship services begin with a Call to Worship and Invocation. Here nothing excels the 'Sursum Corda' for feeling and dignity. The leader says: 'Lift up your hearts'. Our response: 'We lift them up unto the Lord'. In corporate worship we come to 'adore him'. Worship is the expression of a love affair between us and our wonderful God.

2. CONFESSION AND CELEBRATION: SORROW AND JOY. 'Tremble with fear and stop sinning' (Psalm 4:4). Gathered worship is a positive way of dealing with guilt. Self-examination, confession, and the biblical word of 'assurance' are a fundamental part of worship. Every worship service should provide opportunity for a realistic experience of confession and renewing an awareness of God's acceptance and forgiveness. 'Your sins are forgiven you' -- it's the best news sinners can ever hear. How amazing that a holy God can have this sort of grace. The rest of the service moves into acts of celebration for that forgiveness. God and his people are reconciled. Alleluia!

3. EXHILARATION AND SILENCE: PRAISE AND AWE When you were a kid, and started making a noise, your parents said 'Shh! You're in church. This is God's house. You must be quiet!' But the characteristic note of the biblical worship is exhilaration.

'Sing and shout for joy, people of Israel! Rejoice with all your heart' (Zephaniah 3:14).

We yell ourselves hoarse when our team wins the grand final. Our worship is not a solemn memorial service for a dead hero, but the joyful celebration of the victory of a living Lord. In the primitive church 'Jesus is Lord!' was at first a shout of triumphant praise to Christ the King. Only later did it become the church's first creed to be affirmed by those about to be baptized.

Just this morning I read the litany towards the end of the Church of England's Morning Prayer in their 1980 'Alternative Service Book':

Minister: Let your priests be clothed with righteousness People: and let your servants shout for joy!

and wondered what would happen in an Anglican church if the people actually did that!

However, authentic worship has an element of mystery too. Jacob at Bethel in the story of Jacob's Ladder exclaimed: 'What an awesome place this is! It must be the house of God; it must be the gate that opens into heaven!' (Genesis 28:17). The appropriate response to awe is silence, and wonder. And there is healing power in quietness and rest. There should be silence after the reading of Scripture, and maybe at other times.

4. SOLITUDE AND COMMUNITY: FASTING AND FEASTING. God meets us, personally, alone, in solitary places: Jacob at Bethel, Moses before a burning bush, Isaiah in the temple, Jesus in the wilderness, Paul in a 'third heaven', John on an island. Corporate worship is the coming together of those who have met God in private during the week.

Fellowship is caring for one another, as we are cared for by Christ. It is the sharing of joys and sorrows. It is in true Christian community that we experience and demonstrate the fellowship of Christ. So in the early church absenteeism was considered to be spiritually disastrous (Hebrews 10:25). A church -- however large -- must not resemble an assembly of strangers. Put 10-15 minutes -- sometimes more or less -- into your worship-time for people to share their lives with one another. This time begins with 'passing the peace', or greeting one another, in an appropriate way. Then we share our joys and sorrows, learnings and aspirations. Psalm 66:16 invites us to 'Come and listen, all who honour God, and I will tell you what he has done for me...' If there's a celebration or a bereavement or a tragedy, let people verbalize their feelings. Encourage them to tell brief faith-stories about the theme of the service. If God is saying something to someone for the benefit of the whole church now is the time for them to share it. (Usually, such a 'word from the Lord' ought to be 'checked out' by the pastor/s first especially if it's highly charged, and will affect the community of faith in a significant way). Then there's a 'hey kids' time. Then someone who can do it sensitively in the spirit of this worship-segment will mention the 'notices', but they'll be disguised as 'opportunities for ministry and prayer'! 'Announcements' are often given as a sort of 'commercial break'; surely we can do better than that! One or two may (briefly) seek recruits for visiting a gaol, or developing a Spanish ministry, or to join an social justice group, or visit homes for a community-survey or whatever.

Covenant is an important ingredient in building community. A covenant is more than a contract. Covenants bind us together by voluntary intent, and the 'penalties' for breaking the covenant are relational. A covenant is also more than a creed. Creeds tend to be exclusive, emphasising the 'truth' thus excluding 'heretics' who might see reality differently. Covenants on the other hand are relational rather than propositional.

Here's a modern covenant statement, adapted from one produced by the United Church of Canada several years ago: We humans are not alone, we live in God's world. We believe in God: who created and is creating, who has come in the true man, Jesus, to reconcile and renew, who works within us and among us by his Spirit. We trust him. He calls us to be his church: to celebrate his presence, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil. We proclaim his reign over us and the whole world. In life, in death, in life beyond death he is with us. We are not alone: thanks be to God! (3)

Pastoral prayer. If preachers prepare what they say to us for God, pray-ers should also prepare what they say to God for us. Our public praying should include contemporary concerns. And let's all say 'Amen': it means 'that's right!' (or 'right on!'), 'I agree with that!', 'may it be so!', 'that's my prayer too!'.

Worship and the Sacraments. A sacrament is 'an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.' The two key sacraments are baptism and the eucharist, the Lord's Supper. We will look at these in chapter 24.

5. RECITAL AND PROCLAMATION: SCRIPTURE AND SERMON When we hear the Scripture read we are listening to the voice of the living God. We don't listen to the Bible reading simply to learn something interesting. Our silent prayer is always 'Beyond the sacred page I seek you, Lord. My Spirit yearns for you, O Living Word.' The Bible readings should be somewhere near the preaching, to make clear the connection. I like the discipline of the lectionary; it ensures our readings and preaching range over the whole Bible. But don't follow it slavishly: in biblically literate congregations there is merit in preaching consecutively through various books of the Bible, with rotating themes from Old Testament, Gospel, and Epistle.

Worship and preaching. 'Going to worship' is more than 'going to preaching'. Preaching is not done well in many churches. Homilies in some liturgical churches are polite sermonic essays which won't offend -- or change -- anybody. Well- educated preachers in some mainline churches fill their sermons with theological abstractions. Pentecostal preaching is often a loud reiteration of exhortations lacking theological substance. And other churches which may have better preaching often don't know how to be 'lost in wonder, love and praise' in their worship.

The preacher stands between heaven and earth, speaking for God to us, and strengthening our faith, hope and love. Good preaching is inspired and inspiring, bringing the Bible to life, and life to the Bible: it is rooted in the biblical text but relevant to our needs. Good preaching is pastoral (comforting the afflicted) and prophetic (afflicting the comfortable). It is interesting, warm, 'confessional' (the preacher is a sinner needing grace too), dialogical and interactive. Good preaching has both heat and light: heat without light leaves us scorched and brittle; light may help us 'see' -- there can be no preaching worth the name if there is no thinking -- but knowledge without faith won't save anybody. Good preaching touches mind and heart and will: we learn, we love, and we change.

6. CALL AND RESPONSE: THE WORD AND THE WORLD In true worship God speaks, we answer, God speaks again, we respond. 'The Lord said to [Jeremiah]'... 'I answered...' 'But the Lord said to me...' (Jeremiah 1:4-7). 'I heard the Lord say, "Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?" I answered, "I will go! Send me!" So he told me to go...' (Isaiah 6:8-9). Conversation is two-way dialogue. So is worship.

When God speaks, we respond. Over and over in the Bible God tells us he is not pleased with worship that's just words or formulas, and does not lead to a changed life. Indeed if worship does not change us it is not true worship. As Jesus, God's Word, was totally obedient to the will of his Father, so we must respond with our total selves (Romans 12:1,2).

As we 'praise the Lord's glorious name' we will 'bring an offering' (Psalm 96:8, 1 Chronicles 16:29). The offering -- whether of money, or baskets of firstfruits, or commitment to serve ('those who want to pursue ministry to the deaf go to the far corner'), or signing a petition -- happens best towards the end of the worship-service, as a response to all that has gone before. And yet a case can be made for the offering to happen near the community-time: it is also a 'collection' for the needs of others. Perhaps once a month have a special offering for the poor.

Worship and mission. A seminary teacher shocked our class with this statement: 'You learn nothing in church. You learn by doing!' When Benedict founded his order of monks their motto was 'laborare est orare', 'to work is to pray.' These two aspects of daily existence must go together. If the Word remains words, it does not come to its full potency. The word must become flesh again. Indeed, if mission involves justice, mercy and faithfulness (Micah 6:8, Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42), then worship without these mission-components is not worship.

Worship is like what happens to jumbo jets when those planes are taken out of duty for a while to be overhauled. The check-up is not an end in itself: it is to make sure the jet is capable of serving people better. So worship and mission go together.

Worship and Evangelism. If our worship does not issue in evangelism it is, again, not true worship. The average western church-attender has listened to 8,000 sermons and 15,000 prayers and after all that most have not led another to faith in Christ!

The climax of worship. What is the high point of the drama of worship? The preaching of the Word, as Luther thought, or the offering of prayer (Calvin), or the 'altar call' (Finney)? In the sacraments, it is receiving bread and wine, or when water is applied to our bodies in baptism. If the Lord's Supper is the high point, perhaps it should follow the preaching.

The 'altar call' happens occasionally in mainline churches, and regularly in fundamentalist and pentecostal churches. This practice is fairly recent, arising out of American revivalism: the church got on quite well without it for many centuries! However, that said, I like the idea of people being invited to be prayed with for any need they may have, at any service.

The charge and benediction link worship in the house of God with worship in the world. The 'charge' challenges the congregation with a series of commands or imperatives to carry out in the world whatever the Word has brought to us that day. The benediction follows in the same breath, with the promise of God's presence, grace and power to enable us to fulfil such a charge. The charge and benediction are two sides to one coin; they are not a prayer, but an offering from God to the people through God's spokesperson. This can be a great empowering moment -- a powerful, verbal, blessing on the people of God as they go to do battle with the world the flesh and the devil.

7. TRADITION AND SPONTANEITY: ORDER AND FREEDOM Our Christian worship comes to us out of the past. The story of worship has three ancient strands: Jewish, Pentecostal and Sacramental. Most of the debates about worship from the second century onwards have centred on one or more of these legacies. 'The Jewish legacy, particularly through the synagogue centred on the word of God in the scriptures. The sacramental legacy, of the Upper Room and the Lord's Supper, focusses our attention on the Cross of Christ and the heart of the gospel. The legacy of Pentecost [puts its] stress upon freedom and power through the presence of the Holy Spirit. When any one of these elements is exalted at the expense of the others, worship becomes distorted and impoverished. If any one of them is left out, the result is disastrous. Each of them has to be present in the overall experience of worship.' (4)

Two major trends are emerging: so-called 'free' churches are incorporating more liturgical components into their worship, and the more liturgical churches are moving towards greater freedom of worship form and content. In worship our flexible and changeable experiences encounter the currents of the church's institutional traditions. These traditions remind us of an unchangeable God. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. So it is not necessary to polarize between structured and unstructured forms of worship. Add some spontaneity to your traditional services, and some traditional liturgies to your free celebrations. In addition, if your church moves to two morning worship services, make one more (but not exclusively) traditional, the other more (but not exclusively) free.

'Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom' (2 Corinthians 3:17). Whatever one's temperament, as a condition of genuine worship we must be in awe before the amazing mystery and splendour of the Lord, Jesus Christ, before we can worship. Such worship is the response of grateful hearts before the transcendent majesty of God whose glory we see 'in the face of Jesus Christ'.

ENDNOTES

1. Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, trans. John W. Harvey (Oxford: O.U.P., 1950).

2. Bernard Schalm, 'Biblical Directives for Worship', Christianity Today, September 14, 1973, p. 17.

3. See an amplified form in Robert D. Dale, To Dream Again, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, pp. 131-132.

4. Stuart Frayne, 'Worthy of the Name', The Australian Baptist, August 3, 1988, p. 16.