Why We Do What We Do?
At the beginning of February, the Board of Deacons called together the worship committee in order to assess our current worship service, to learn about a good theology of worship for Pughtown Baptist Church (PBC), to make recommendations as to how to improve the worship experience at PBC, and to teach the congregation about worship. The worship committee is currently working to achieve these goals and report back to the congregation.
As we think about the Sunday worship service at PBC, it is important for us to understand why we do what we do. Everything that we do on Sunday mornings has a purpose to it (refer to last month’s newsletter article to learn more about the different parts of the worship service and why the service is structured the way that it is). In the last couple of months, as people have been sharing suggestions about the worship service with me, I have heard numerous questions about a couple of the elements that are part of the worship service every week: the Doxology and the Lord’s Prayer. Why do we sing the doxology every week? Doesn’t it get repetitive if we do them every week? If we do them every week, don’t they start to lose meaning after awhile? Here are some thoughts about each one:
The Doxology
We first have to think about where the Doxology is located in the service. It is positioned in the section of the service called "Responding to the Word of the Lord." This part of the service gives us the opportunity to respond to the preaching of the Word of the Lord and the way that the Holy Spirit is speaking to us. There are different elements in this part of the service - singing, stories about missions and how we can get involved, the offering, offerings of special music - each one a way that we can give back a part of ourselves (through singing, giving, offering our time and talents, etc) in response to the work of the Holy Spirit. One of the ways that we respond to the Word of the Lord is by lifting our voices in praise and acknowledging why we praise - "Praise God from whom all blessings flow..."
There is another thing that we have to consider about the Doxology. It is sung by millions of churches across the country and around the world. When we sing the doxology, we join into a chorus of people around the globe who are singing praises to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. In our unity with people of different traditions, cultures, ethnicities and settings, we are showing the world about Jesus Christ (John 17:20-24) and participating in a foretaste of heaven (Revelation 7:9-17).
The Lord’s Prayer
The first and easiest explanation why we say the Lord’s prayer each week is that it is the way that Jesus taught us to pray in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6: 9-13). If Jesus says that we should do it, it is a pretty good idea to do it.
Secondly, the Lord’s prayer is positioned in the worship service as part of the pastoral prayer. During that time of the service, we spend time sharing with one another joys, concerns and other thoughts that we would like to bring before the Lord and the congregation. Following the time of sharing, I lead the congregation in a time of prayer about these concerns and other thoughts that have emerged from the service. Usually I pray audibly and the congregation prays silently. We end this prayer time with the Lord’s prayer for a couple of reasons.
First, praying together as a congregation is a sign of unity - we are all on the same page as we ask the Lord to bring His Kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. Secondly, as we all pray aloud, we are reminded that we are all ministers of the Gospel. As Baptists, we believe in the "Priesthood of all Believers." This means that all of us have equal ability to come before the Lord as a priest or a pastor would. Sharing in the Lord’s prayer is a gentle reminder of this.
A couple of final thoughts on why we do what we do: Both the Lord’s Prayer and the Doxology have been ritualistic elements of the worship service for generations. There are people in our congregation who have been singing the doxology and reciting the Lord’s Prayer for more than 60 or 70 years. For them, these two rituals have significant meaning in their faith journey. (I was recently preparing a funeral service for a family who had lost a loved one. When I asked them what they wanted the funeral service to look like, they responded by saying, "We are not sure … we want to be sure of is that we say the Lord’s prayer together"). For them, when we sing the doxology or recite the Lord’s Prayer, it is an invitation to remember back to the highlighted times of their younger days in the church or the times when they were growing in their faith. These rituals are important, especially when other elements of the worship service have changed over the years.
Finally, it is extremely easy for us to allow these parts of the worship service to lose meaning and/or become rote. It is easy for that to happen if we are just saying or singing a couple of words. I would invite you to each week reconsider what we are singing when we sing the Doxology - ask yourself questions like "what are we really asking when we calling on all creatures here below to praise God?" Look around you to see how others are allowing the words of the song to remember the days when they were growing in the faith. When we recite the Lord’s prayer, allow the power of the words to seep into your soul. How is God providing daily bread for you today? What are the temptations that you are praying to keep away from?
It is my hope that as we continue to study worship at PBC, and learn how to be better worshippers, we will continue to ask the question, "why do we do what we do?"
Update April 3, 2008.
