True transformation is a gift of the Holy Spirit which we can pray for, but can’t engineer. We can also lead in step with the Spirit by ensuring that our services include a balanced diet of Spirit-inspired biblical texts, that their ethos tastes like the fruit of the Spirit, and that they not only equip worshipers to hear, but also to respond to the Bible’s life-giving commands.
For 3,000 years, the most transformational approaches to public worship have not been presentational, but participatory. They challenge us to ask: Are our services giving us practice at “fixing our eyes on Jesus” rather than on a leader? Do they help us perceive how the triune God not only receives worship, but also inspires and perfects it—making participation in worship a gift, not an accomplishment? Are they like the Psalms, an adequate “language school” for discipleship, helping us say things that we would never come up with on our own? Do they help us eliminate distinctions between the haves and have-nots at the Lord’s Table and pray for our enemies?
Engaging questions like these collaboratively can itself be an instrument the Spirit uses to shape transformational worship.
—John D. Witvliet, Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary Grand Rapids, Michigan
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