mcintyre re: worship

For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.

N.T. Wright’s chapter on Worship in “Simply Christian” (Harper Collins) lays before me a recurring challenge in my leading… the place of Scripture in worship.  I supposedly value highly the reading of the Word in worship gatherings, but my practice rarely demonstrates that.  Wright says that we are missing the point by using short passages of Scripture to remind the people of forgotten themes, or by using a few verses as the springboard for the day’s sermon.  (Wright, “Simply Christian”, p. 150). 

As I read that, I thought, “Ooh, this kind of sounds like me.”  Then, in the column “Songwriter’s Corner: The Word In Worship” (Inside Worship Magazine), Wright is even more pointed…”Often, all you get is a short passage of scripture, chosen at random…. just to read ‘a little bit’.”   Ouch.  Wright has my number on that one, and I thought about how frequently I’ve used a couple of Scripture verses to fit into my song theme for the day, or to (insincerely) exhort people to worship.  “Surely, with a short passage from the Psalms, people will want to sing better, maybe even raise their hands”.   Rarely is that successful.  And rarely am I using Scripture to tell a larger story.  Wright admits that it is difficult to read multiple chapters in our settings, but my experience confirms his assertion that our little passages do not seem like they are part of a larger whole that God has given us. (Songwriter’s Corner: The Word in Worship).

In my congregations for the past 20 years, our traditional worship liturgy has always included Lesson and Gospel.   In contemporary service planning, we enjoyed moving on to the freedom of choosing texts that propelled topical preaching.   But recently in our situation, a comment was made about Biblical truths or narratives that we have possibly passed over for years.   In the 3 year Lectionary, an unspoken yet powerful principle is that “As history shows, the children of God can easily forget to read the Story when they gather, and thus, forget the Story altogether.  The Lectionary insures that will never happen”. 

Though a full scale employment of the Lectionary in contemporary and emerging worship is not likely, the value of Scripture in worship that Wright speaks of is worth serious reflection, and for me personally, worth serious correction.