institutional church vs. original Christianity
10-09-2006, 05:21 PM
Having complete freedom, and responsibility to go nowhere in a service without a direct leading is pretty exhiliarating, but also exhausting. And it's very hard to sustain that level of spontaneity....in fact, most groups that start that way form their own "liturgy" of format and pacing before too long, just because it is so hard to keep on doing things "new".
I've come to think of the liturgy, forms and prayers as kind of a worship outline of sorts, that God can jump into at any time and either expand upon or bring in a new piece of information or activity. Having the outline there is very comforting and sustaining, because just like a literal outline, all the important information is already laid out there. If God chooses not to move or speaksomething outside of the outline, we can continue on in the outline until He does, and have a full experience even if He doesn't break in with something new or different. And when a particular move has come to it's fullness, we know just where to go next. Because we have the outline of the liturgy.
And that doesn't mean that the Lord can't move WITHIN the outline as well. We might be moving through the communion time, and a special healing anointing is being ministered to people at the rail. We might be saying the confession, and a heart is quietly being changed and received into the kingdom. It's just as valid a sovereign move of God as the more obvious prophetic utterances or stopping of the service to minister in some other way.
I've come to think of the liturgy, forms and prayers as kind of a worship outline of sorts, that God can jump into at any time and either expand upon or bring in a new piece of information or activity. Having the outline there is very comforting and sustaining, because just like a literal outline, all the important information is already laid out there. If God chooses not to move or speaksomething outside of the outline, we can continue on in the outline until He does, and have a full experience even if He doesn't break in with something new or different. And when a particular move has come to it's fullness, we know just where to go next. Because we have the outline of the liturgy.
And that doesn't mean that the Lord can't move WITHIN the outline as well. We might be moving through the communion time, and a special healing anointing is being ministered to people at the rail. We might be saying the confession, and a heart is quietly being changed and received into the kingdom. It's just as valid a sovereign move of God as the more obvious prophetic utterances or stopping of the service to minister in some other way.
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