The church service starts around 10:30, somebody will step up to the microphone and welcome the congregation and new guests. They will pray, and during the prayer the worship band will come onto the stage. When we open our eyes from prayer, the band is ready to begin. They will play an up beat familiar song to get people excited. Then there may be one or more familiar and depending on how things go, they might even play a new song. After that, there will be a break and the band will play an instrumental of the first or second song. While they're playing the congregation fellowship and greet one another. Then as everyone finds their seats again, the worship team may pray and then play a few slower songs. When the music portion of the worship is concluded, the pastor or speaker will come up and deliver the message. His time will usually last from about 11:00 until 11:45. After the message, the worship team will come back up and play one or two more last songs. (Usually songs people have sung many times)
This is what is called our liturgy, which is a description of how our church service runs. Perhaps this looks like your regular church service. Most of the time, not always, this is the structure of the Sunday service at my church. It can become a little mundane and rather predictable. But we need to ask these questions: Are we doing what we don on Sundays because it is biblical, or is it just our preference or simply what we've always done?
These are important things to consider as we organize a church service. We tend to hold to a few concepts in our thought processes. First is a principle practiced by John Calvin and others, it was called the regulative principle. This is the conviction that anything we do in a public meeting of the church must be clearly commanded or implied in Scripture. So if it couldn't be found in the Scripture, it was not a part of the service. Another principle is called the normative principle, which was practiced by Martin Luther. The normative principle said that whatever Scripture doesn't forbid is allowed. So this idea kept room for lots of things to still be done during the service. For centuries, churches have split and new denominations have formed over what our meetings should look like. And the fights continue to this day. But why is it so hard to figure out how God wants us to come together when we worship? There are a few reasons for this.
First, though every generation and every church is responsible to weigh how it does things against the unchanging authority of God's word, but God hasn't been quite as specific in this area as one would hope. The Bible doesn't give us a structure that best serves all cultures and environments. Although both the Old and New testaments say some things, they aren't as culturally relevant or clear as we'd like.
Secondly, we have a tendency to read the Bible through the grid of our own practices and preferences. Different denomination may read what is in the scriptures differently. The Charismatics will open up the Psalms and find commands to clap, dance, shout, and sing. Presbyterians believe that scripture should only be read by ordained ministers. Others might emphasize holistic worship, cultural relevance, and ministry to the poor. These may be very old traditions, but we tend to start with Scripture but eventually invest ultimate authority in our own ideas and views.
Third, we have what is called the “Whatever principle.” It says that God hasn't said anything about how we should worship, so we can worship God however we choose. It relies greatly on personal ideas and expression. This idea overlooks the examples of what God actually does command us to do in times of worship. We are to pray together, pastors are to preach God's Word, and we’re to sing praises to Him. So maybe God hasn't told us everything, but he hasn't been completely silent on the subject.
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