A Sunday Designed for Spiritual Formation (Part 1)

I spent most of my middle school years and a portion of my high school years in a spirit-filled Episcopalian church. It was a wonderful combination of modern worship songs, good Bible teaching, and liturgy. I didn’t always appreciate liturgy in those days, as it seemed repetitive, predictable, and, well…boring. 

The irony of it all is that, as I get older, I find myself recalling the “boring” parts of the liturgy. For example, we always recited a benediction together that went like this: “And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.” This shaped me. Church was not ending. We were now being sent out to serve and love. I didn’t realize it at the time, but to be fair, I didn’t connect a lot of dots back then. 

As I went away to college and stepped away from “high church,”’ I found joy and excitement in the new songs, the spontaneity of worship, the welcoming of the prophetic, powerful ministry times, and the teaching of the word. But the truth is, all churches have a liturgy of some sort. Our type of liturgy typically looks like this: welcome, worship, announcements, preaching, and response. What I want to suggest is that we should be more intentional about our liturgy and leverage all we do for spiritual formation. 

I am not actually suggesting we need to add something to what we’re already doing. Although, it doesn’t hurt to teach the Creeds, to memorize Scripture together, and to recite prayers. What I am suggesting is that we communicate the purpose behind our practices, inviting people to be shaped by Jesus. Intentional spiritual formation is what we’re all after. We’re all being spiritually formed, even when we’re not aware of it, but as church leaders, we should invite people into intentional spiritual formation. 

Churches, and movements of churches, have been critical of liturgy in the name of being relevant, and I totally understand that. However, if we’re not careful, we will become so relevant that we are no longer leading people into counter-cultural spiritual formation. In my next post, I’ll get into the details of what we’re doing on a regular basis at New Community Church in Tacoma, where I serve as the Lead Elder.