If the primary purpose of corporate worship is the edification of believers—God forming us into mature disciple-worshipers, then even the structure of our services should follow what God has given to us in Scripture. It’s not just any old liturgies, it’s Scripture-formed liturgies will have the kind of transforming power we’re after. God made clear this purpose when he instituted corporate worship assemblies in the OT, establishing a structural pattern that continues also into the NT.
Our task as churches is to make disciples, and this happens when we use the Word of God to shape the minds and hearts of believers in our congregations. This recognition highlights the significance of corporate worship as one of the primary means through which God forms us into mature disciple-worshipers.
Yet because modern Christianity has come to understand discipleship as merely a didactive endeavor and corporate worship as merely an expressive enterprise, modern Christianity has lost the biblical means of virtue formation through Scripture-informed liturgies and Scripture informed music. But as we have seen, the shape of Scripture, not only its truth claims, shapes Christian living, and thus the shape of Scripture must inform the shape of our liturgical acts, including music. In this post I’ll discuss Scripture-formed liturgy, and then next week I’ll address Scripture-formed music.
If the primary purpose of corporate worship is the edification of believers—God forming us into mature disciple-worshipers, then even the structure of our services should follow what God has given to us in Scripture. It’s not just any old liturgies, it’s Scripture-formed liturgies will have the kind of transforming power we’re after. God made clear this purpose when he instituted corporate worship assemblies in the OT, establishing a structural pattern that continues also into the NT. God often calls these assemblies of worship “memorials,” meaning more than just a passive remembrance of something, but actually a reenactment of God’s works in history for his people such that the worshipers are shaped over and over again by what God has done. Beginning at Mt. Sinai (Exod 19–24), God instituted a particular order of what the OT frequently calls the “solemn assemblies” of Israel. This order reflects what I like to call a “theo-logic” in which in the assembly, God’s people reenact through the order of what they do God’s atoning work on their behalf.
