The Greeting
Prayer or Scripture Reading
The Song Service
The Announcements
The Offering
The Sermon
After Sermon Pastoral Prayer
Altar Call
More Singing (led by choir or worship team)
The Lords Supper
Prayer for the sick
The Benediction
“With some minor rearrangements, this is the unbroken liturgy that 345 million Protestants across the globe observe religiously week after week. And for the last five hundred years, few people have questioned it.”
We do everything by the book!?
“The first century church meeting was not patterned after the Jewish synagogue services as some recent authors have suggested. Instead, it was totally unique to the culture.
We have little evidence to suggest that the first Christians attempted to perpetuate the style of the synagogue
Moreover, the Jewish synagogue was a human invention. Some scholars believe that it was created during the Babylonian captivity (sixth century BC), when worship at the Jerusalem Temple was impossible; others believe they emerged in the third or second century BC with the rise of the Pharisees. Even though the synagogue became the center of Jewish life after the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in AD 70, there is no Old Testament (or divine) precedent for such an institution. “
{See Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community, 106-108, 122-117; Bradshaw, Origins of Christian Worship, 13-15, 27-29, 159-160, 186; Joel B. Green, ed., Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1992), 781-782; Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Time of Jesus the Messiah (Mclean, VA: McDonald Publishing Company, 1883), 431.}
Where did it our present order of worship come from?
It has it’s basic roots in the medieval Catholic Mass.
“According to Will Durant, the Catholic Mass was “based partly on the Judaic Temple service, partly on Greek mystery rituals of purification, vicarious sacrifice, and participation.”{Durant, Caesar and Christ, 599}
How are the protestant models different from the Catholic?
There’s really not that much difference. Really.
Okay. Here’s the deal.
I’m not a ‘book reviewer’ (like this guy, or this guy) but I am an avid reader. This is truly a very insightful and informative book. As is everything else that I have read by Mr. Viola.
I have met him on a couple of different occasions and sat down to dinner with him and a handful of other saints in Jacksonville, Florida.
I was in a meeting where he and a couple of other brothers laid hands on a sister who was battling cancer, and all of the saints gathered around her and were praying for her healing and weeping in the presence of the Spirit of God, and the last time I heard she was healed and was doing well.
That was the most incredible church meeting that I have ever been to. It was simple, yet it was genuine and the Spirit of God was moving powerfully.
I guess that I say all of this because I want you all to know that I believe that Frank is a very sincere and very gifted brother in the Lord, and that he truly is called to the Lords work. I believe that the Lord is using Frank, and others in this day to re-establish the church of Jesus Christ.
Sure, the Lord can use a donkey to speak His Word, and likewise He can utilize a religious system which is rooted in Pagan tradition to speak to His people,…but do you think that is the Lords perfect will? I do not, and furthermore, I do not feel comfortable resting in that place.
I encourage you to read this book.
Granted, it is very ‘matter of fact’ and this can be taken the wrong way if you are looking for something ‘warm and fuzzy’ , so if you do buy it, just read it for the information that it provides as that is exactly how, I believe, it is meant to be read.
“Just the facts…”
Well, before I go, I want to list the chapter titles here to give you an idea of what the book covers:
1. HAVE WE REALLY BEEN DOING IT BY THE BOOK?
2. THE CHURCH BUILDING
3. THE ORDER OF WORSHIP
4. THE SERMON
5. THE PASTOR
6. SUNDAY MORNING COSTUMES
7. MINISTERS OF MUSIC
8. TITHING AND CLERGY SALARIES
9. BAPTISM AND THE LORDS SUPPER
10. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
11. REAPPROACHING THE NEW TESTAMENT
12. A SECOND GLANCE AT THE SAVIOR
One last thing concerning Mr. Viola and Pagan Christianity: There is a pretty extensive ‘Q&A’ section with Frank Viola and George Barna. This section explains way more than my little book review here, so I encourage you to give it a look.Here it is.
I certainly recommend you read through it as it paints a much better picture of the message that Frank is trying to get out to the Lords people.
**************************************************************************
So what else?
Well, I’m on my way out of the blogiverse for a while. I may post links or videos from time to time, but at least for now, it is time to get back to real Life.
I wish to thank each and every one of you for coming by, listening to what I have to say, and conversing with me.
Thank you also for your continuous words of love and encouragement in the Lord.
And to some of you: Thanks just for reading!
There is so much that I want to say, but I know that, at least for now, the Lord is calling me to just be quiet.
I love you all, and hope to meet you all face to face, if not in the here and now, then perhaps in the sweet by and by.
Your Brother and Friend,
Johnny
Feedback