I continue my walk through Jordan Cooper's The Great Divide.
All tagged Liturgy
To Heaven & Back: A Liturgy That Hurts
With heaven a reality that Christian experience now, all of Lewis' analogy is being played out in the life of the church.
Whether We Like it Or Not
As a
Finding Our Place in God's Story Through Liturgy
Rather, than zooming
When I Hated Prayer
Each Sunday gets me closer. Through the liturgy,
Jason Helopoulos is So Right & So Wrong
For those of you who do worship in churches that ARE "
Worship With Your Eyes Open
service. Christian worship should not be a place and a time where our eyes are mostly closed. NO! Rather, our eyes should be open to behold the grace of God. When the lights are on and the speakers are off one realizes that there are others along side you who are loving God and loving you. Christ's Body is truly acting as a body as they worship in unison togetherness rather than as an amalgam of dissonant members.
Why I Love Integrated Worship
A child who is immersed in Christian worship will necessarily be shaped by that immersion. Conversely, when the children are whisked away to the church annexes they are denied such formation. Further, the act removing the children from Christ’s Body (the church) seems to run straight against the words of our Lord when he
Liturgy Series: Part 11 – The Benediction
As God's blessing flows to His people in the benediction it is not to stop in their hearts. God's blessings are to flow through his people out into the world; as far as the curse is found!
Liturgy Series: Part 10 — The Lord's Supper
In the Lord's
Liturgy Series: Part 8 – The Creed
Like most parts of the liturgy, a weekly recitation of a Creed or confession of faith doesn’t really make sense to our modern selves.
Liturgy Series: Part 7 – Baptism
Baptism serves as a constant reminder that God chooses that which is weak in the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). Whereas the priesthood of the old covenant was available only to a select few based on blood. The waters of baptism open the priesthood to all serving as testament forever that water truly is thicker than blood.
Happy New Year!
In recognizing the ways in which secular liturgical calendars pull on and shape our desires we can more clearly see the wisdom of embracing the liturgical calendar of the church. Following such a liturgical calendar functions as a counter-formation to the liturgical calendars that wish to shape our desires contrary to the Kingdom of God.
The Bloody Marriage of Military & Sport
Sports, the movies, the mall, the news cycle, etc. all serve in a liturgical manner; they all shape us and form us in certain ways simply by our exposure to them. When Smith speaks of “liturgies” he’s talking about cultural rituals that tend to shape us in ways that we aren’t necessarily aware of. In other words, liturgies don’t ask for permission to shape the way we think and feel about certain things, they just do it.
Liturgy Series: Part 6 – Confession & Pardon
The disordered desires of a people result not only in individual sins but ultimately take shape in the world we inhabit. Too often we limit the scope of our sin to our personal relationship with God or (a little better) to the ways our sins affect our closest relationships. Now, while sin certain does have a (powerful) affect on those things, Smith points out the cultural and cosmic effects of sin as well.
Liturgy Series: Part 4 – Music
Like all parts of the liturgy, music is both unavoidable and massively impactful. Whether we like it or not the words and rhythms we sing as a congregation are shaping us into a teleological people (a people facing a certain kingdom). Considering the weight of this proposition we should be increasingly concerned with which kingdom our songs are pointing us.
Liturgy Series: Part 1 – Apologetics
In the coming weeks I will be taking a look at different liturgical aspects of the historic Christian church. I hope this series will shed light on the different liturgical aspects in the church so that you (the reader) will find your participation in the liturgy of the church more fruitful and engaging.
A responsive & corporate liturgy takes the focus away from the individual and paradoxically strengthens the individual. Conversely, a liturgy that caters to the individual ironically isolates the individual in the experience they are having.