The Order of Worship: Sunday Mornings Set in Concrete January 17, 2008
Posted by brotherjohnny in Uncategorized.trackback
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
There is also 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.
One last thing concerning Mr. Viola and Pagan Christianity. Here is a link to a page dedicate to answering some of the most common objections to the book. 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
Greetings. People like traditions. For some reason, we like to do the same things week in and week out; year in and year out. We spent Christmas in Orlando and while my wife really missed the traditional “sameness” of that day, I loved the change. (Even if it was in dizzyworld)
Once we get establish our agenda and set about to fulfil that agenda, the focus goes from the Lord Jesus to “our agenda.” We all need to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches; even if it means putting aside our itinerary. (As it most likely will)
Have a great day in Jesus and a great blogger break.
timbob
Hey Johnny!
Jerald has ordered this book and is excited about reading it. We have a good friend, John Brown, who is pretty much in tune with the way you feel about the subject, although he does attend New River and has had a huge impact on how we do church.
Since Jerald and I have come from the “traditional” background and it was ground into our heads as being the “only way to do things”, it has been a little harder for Jerald, especially, to break away from that mold. I was so glad to be set free from where we were a couple of years ago that I have been open to just about anything, although you surely stretched my brain on that “soccer” post over at Green Pastures where we first virtually met (for which I’m very grateful).
Anyway, all this to say thank you for posting and reviewing this book. I can’t wait to see what God tells Jerald through it!
Many blessings Johnny and a most glorious weekend to you! I hope you will e-mail, if not post, as the LORD does His awesome work through you.
My brother, Mother, and I are heading down to South Georgia (Odum)tomorrow to see my nephew Alan, who is in prison there. It is always a great joy to see him. Hopefully, the snow that is expected will not keep us there!
See ya Brother!
Just because you alluded to the things you did, (recent authors suggesting) and obviously because I disagree with some of what you have written here, I will post my thoughts. Just to put a different perspective in play here.
You wrote: “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.”
Being one of those who have suggested this in writing, I will respond a little to your statement. First of all, I guess when it all comes down to it, it all depends upon who you read and what or who you choose to believe concerning what you read, for there are always those with opposing points of view. This is of course all good, this is why we have to sort through it and not just be content to find those who agree with us.
As for your statement above, obviously I disagree with it, as do many others I have read. This would also be true with the statement that the early church (structure or form) was totally unique to the culture.
Interestingly enough, it certainly seems that much of what we have in the forms of the NT church and yes, even much of its liturgy, was and is also clearly evident in the synagogues. How is this then explained away? It most certainly cannot simply be stated that it is irrelevant or was nonexistent. Just for example check this out concerning the local synagogue:
There was the public reading of the scriptures, the teaching of the scriptures, prayer, worship, local presbyteries (a council of elders in each assembly), a lead elder, men and woman gathered together for common worship in one place, discipline of offending members, teaching of the children, etc.
The overlap of these two gatherings, the church and the synagogue, is simply too much to be over looked or to be seen as insignificant or simply happenstance. Besides, this heritage was the common heritage of all the primary founders of the early church, including the Lord Jesus Christ himself and he never, not once spoke against the synagogues, their existence, form, etc. He did confront the issues of their hearts, however. In fact, Jesus himself, as was his custom, went to worship in the local synagogue and he also taught in them. This practice was shared by others and was Paul’s first choice in arriving in any new community to preach the gospel. The sheer weight of the evidence itself says there had to be an all too real connection. This is a far cry from the early church being in anyway, unique, generally, in the culture of the day. “Unique” is certainly a poor choice of words here.
You also wrote: “We have little evidence to suggest that the first Christians attempted to perpetuate the style of the synagogue”
IMHO, there is seemingly more evidence to support that the pattern they used for the early church was much closer to the synagogue model than not.
While there is more that you have written above that I disagree with, let it suffice for to simply say this, that in the end none of this is what truly matters. What does matter is the spirit and heart with which we live out our lives, in and before the Lord Jesus Christ! Again, as always, it has to with our hearts lived out in and before the Lord Jesus Christ and nor primarily the forms in which we have our gatherings, to worship, praise, pray, teach, train, equip and or receive the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I honor and respect your passion and zeal; I always have, even when I disagree with what you write.
As we hashed some of this out before, so I understand a little of where you are coming from, I think, and I realize that we are not in the same place. Yet still, there is respect for you brother, as always.
Every Blessing in the Lord Jesus Christ, brother!
[...] Too big for a comment…. January 23, 2008 Posted by brotherjohnny in Christ, church, conversation. trackback Thank you all for your comments on my last post. [...]
Hey, Johnny. Just thought you and your readers might enjoy reading a new interview with George Barna and Frank Viola. I just posted it today: The Thin Edge hosts joint interview with Barna & Viola. Thanks for your review!
UPDATE
As many of you, “my readers”, already know, I have retired from the realm of ‘Bloggerdom’, however….
I wanted to relay to you all, that to the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, the young lady whom I mentioned in the above article has been cancer free since January of 2005!!!
Praise the Lord!!!!!!!
And “Thank You” to the dear brother (you know who you are) who called me with this report!!!
Healing belongs to the church through our Lord Jesus Christ!!!!
[...] http://brotherjohnny.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/the-order-of-worship-sunday-mornings-set-in-concrete/ [...]