WORSHIP TEMPERAMENTS AND CONSECRATION LITURGIES
What do you look for in a church? While this question is helpful to discern the health of a local church, I feel that it all too often contributes to and is indicative of a consumeristic church culture. Many people at our church do not care for contemporary worship music and service structures, and often for good reason. However, if the nuance to that preference is as simple as, “I prefer traditional music,” then we also ought to question whether we have fallen into the church consumerism trap.
In C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, the demon, Screwtape, writes to his nephew, Wormwood, advising him on how to tempt a new Christian convert. One piece of advice reads, “Surely you know that if a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that 'suits' him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches” (italics added). When we become consumers and connoisseurs of churches, we become spectators of a church performance, rather than participants in a sanctified gathering. We become consumers, not worshipers, and the church becomes a commodity. Therefore, let us be quick to discern the heart posture behind some right and wrong questions or mindsets about worship.
Unhelpful Questions/Mindsets About Worship
Consider the following unhelpful questions or mindsets to consider for worship. First, how long is the service? This question may be motivated by a preference for a shorter service. There can be a certain “me-centeredness” to the question that places churches in the business of competitive capitalism. Rather than the local gospel-preaching church receiving nearby people who simply want to worship, churches end up competing with each other over the shortest, most consumer-sensitive service. Or, the question may arise from someone seeking to pencil church into a busy schedule. Similarly, asking what time the service starts, unless motivated by an earnest desire to join worship when the saints gather, may take a similar posture of seeing if church is worth penciling into a busy Sunday schedule.
Second, did I like the music? Whether the music is contemporary or traditional, this question can be two sides of the same coin—a coin that assumes church worship is about satisfying our personal preferences that put us in the spectator’s seat. I will posit the caveat that contemporary worship services often lend themselves to a directionally misfocused experience that assumes worship is about people coming full and ready to make much of God’s holy name. This is a bottom-up worship experience, but biblical worship recognizes that worship is a top-down experience in which sinners come empty and needy to be sanctified through biblical worship. The beauty of music is only a tool to help the congregation sing beautifully—it should never become the essential element of worship itself. In Colossians 3:16, Paul introduces the regulative elements of worship (Week 3) with, “Let the word of Christ rule in your hearts.” In Eph 5:18, he writes similarly: “Be filled with the Spirit.” The principle is the same: “The Holy Spirit of God fills us with the Word he inspired. That comes first” (Aniol 99).
Third, did I like the preacher and his preaching? This question, disguised as wise discernment, can easily lead to a critical spirit of scrutiny. Just as giving into fits of rage trains your mind and body to react angrily to things, we can all too easily train ourselves to be unhelpfully and bitterly critical of pastors, worship service volunteers, and other fellow believers. Furthermore, this question can once again put us in the spectator’s seat. We become professional evaluators and outside spectators rather than active participants.
Fourth, I don’t think I should go today—I don’t feel spiritually present. We live in an age of authenticity in which people believe, by default, that we should always be our authentic selves in any given situation. Authenticity has become a virtue while inauthenticity is a vice. However, this age fails to understand the formative and reformative power of liturgy. Withdrawing from the church when you feel spiritually dry will only perpetuate your spiritual status. To heal and continuously combat spiritual dryness, we need the church’s rhythmic rituals of worship that repattern, reshape, and sanctify sinners’ hearts. There is great wisdom in a line from the hymn “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy” that reads, “If you tarry till you’re better, you will never come at all.”
Fifth and finally, we need to fight cynicism. I have become increasingly convicted that our postmodern culture has infiltrated the church and the home. We are more cynical than we can imagine. Criticism and assumption of motive flow freely from us, making us prone to gossip and slander. We claim the need to vent frustrations, not realizing that doing so trains our minds and bodies to do so more and more often. We stew on frustrations, forgetting how to pity the lost/wayward believer. Our cynicism disguises itself as wise discernment, but in reality, it is folly. Paul Miller wrote, “[Cynicism questions] the active goodness of God on our behalf…Cynicism begins with the wry assurance that everyone has an angle. Behind every silver lining is a cloud. The cynic is always observing, critiquing, but never engaged, loving, and hoping” (65, 67). Cynicism replaces the childlike wonder and trust in God with a spirit of defeated bitterness, masquerading as realistic. Skepticism becomes easier than passion. However, this is a lowly view that fails to account for the God of creation and new creation.
Cynicism draws from limited experience, making the hasty generalization that people, circumstances, and situations are static, unchanging, and hopeless. To the cynic, to believe otherwise is naïve optimism. However, biblically, the Christian cynic must engage in double-think, simultaneously affirming their view that things are static but also that God providentially cares for creation, builds His church, and directs all things toward the new creation. To be charitable, the cynic may realize the contradiction within his worldview, but his cynicism becomes the baseline assumption that colors everyday reality, despite what he may affirm to be biblically true. He sees no point in his vocation or ministry roles because people remain unaffected. He doubts that God can or will use his evangelistic efforts, so he remains silent, bitter, and skeptical.
On the other hand, a prayerful, worshipful Christian takes the opposite position. When you read/pray through the Psalms, you will notice impassioned lamentations that things aren’t the way they are supposed to be. The psalmist appeals to God, noting that what he knows to be true about God’s goodness and lovingkindness does not make sense in his present reality of grief. But the psalmist also knows that God is sovereign over all history, and all trials have their season. Even Psalm 88, one of the darkest Psalms, begins with the acknowledgement that Yahweh, the God of the Exodus, is the God of his salvation (Psalm 88:1). On the flipside of Psalms of lament, Psalms of thanksgiving demonstrate the overflowing joy coming from an author of admirable spiritual discernment. Cynicism is often thankless, refusing to see how and where God is at work, but the spiritually discerning are watchful for God’s work with hearts prepared to rejoice with others in corporate thanksgiving. Finally, the Psalms also reflect rhythms of praise for God and His word that cultivate and express reverence for God and His attributes. They reveal the author’s allegiance to his good and faithful king while prescribing the same allegiance to others. There is an exhortation to join him in worship and adoration. Cynics can’t understand the heart of the Psalms, nor can they discern the character and will of God for His people. I speak from experience concerning how disastrous for our spiritual growth cynicism can be. The weekly worship event becomes a chore in which we feel that God is ineffective, hearts are dull, and everyone else has unholy motives and attitudes. If you struggle with the preaching and other worship elements one week while others are edified, equipped, and commissioned, your cynical heart may be the issue. Guard your heart from cynicism, and consider a different set of questions to ask of yourself and your church.
First, instead of asking whether you enjoyed the singing, ask whether singing with this congregation sanctified, equipped, and commissioned the saints for a week of ministry at home, work, and beyond. There is an expectation that truth is the central focus of this worship. I have been to too many youth camps that conjure up an emotional experience among undiscerning teenagers. After singing emotionally charged songs,[1] many teenagers then attach their faith to this emotional experience. When they return home to their churches, they may question why that same emotional energy is not present in their regular corporate worship setting. However, I often question if truth has any impact on the emotional experience at these camps. If the words of the songs can be substituted with heresy while the melodies and emotions remain the same, then we have a worship problem. The music itself should never drive our religious experience—they are there only to help guide us into the true beauty of the truth that worship affirms. Therefore, when asking this first question, truth should primarily be edifying, equipping, and commissioning the saints to take the gospel to the world around them. We should be asking if the truth of the gospel was effectively presented through the music, not whether we liked the style.
Second, instead of asking whether you liked the preacher and his preaching, ask whether the preaching regularly expounds the proper meaning of the passage and points us toward the gospel. Rather than a question catering to individual preferences, this question caters toward the actual point of preaching: to exalt God through Christ crucified. The primary meaning of the passage in its original context should be the main point of the sermon. This expositional preaching guards the church from a pastor who preaches hobby horse theology, a limited range of topics that interest the preacher. Instead, the pastor continues to grow while being challenged/convicted by the word, while the congregation bears witness and does likewise.
Third, and similar to the second question, did the preacher seem convicted and edified through his studies and preaching? In other words, through the preacher’s studies and preparation, has he been personally convicted by the Holy Spirit? Have the principles of Hebrews 4:12 been visibly demonstrated through his preaching of the word? The first part of this question concerns the week prior to delivering a sermon, but another relevant question is whether the Spirit anointed him to preach. It may be tempting to look toward the emotion conjured up in the pastor and congregation to evaluate the Spirit’s anointing presence; however, this question points toward submissiveness and dependence on the Spirit to work in and through the preacher. Is the preacher reliant on his own gimmicks, clever illustrations, jokes, and fanciful wordsmithing, or is he reliant on the Spirit to do His work through the simple beauty of the gospel? Does the sermon feel like a TED talk? Does it feel like a matter-of-fact lecture?[2] Has the preacher elevated himself above the congregation in his preaching with accusation and lofty commands, forgetting that he, too, is a sheep who belongs to The Good Shepherd? Does the preacher present himself as one who has mastered the text of Scripture, or has the Holy Spirit mastered him through his humble studies in the text and illumined him for the preaching of God’s powerful and effective word? Do we hear the Spirit’s voice through the preacher that convicts the church of its sin and affirms their faith in Christ as the only sufficient savior and mediator? Has he given a word from God, not reliant on the distractions[3] of gimmicks and one-liners but reliant on the Spirit working through the preached word?
Fourth and finally, did I respond to worship centered on the word and sacrament with joy, wonder, and praise? All too often, evaluators and critics of worship services end up displacing themselves from the Spirit’s work in the worship event. As we pull out pen and paper to check a rubric, we check out of the worship experience, missing what God is doing in His call to worship. How can we genuinely join if we have an ulterior motive of cynical criticism? How can we discern the Spirit’s work when we focus primarily on worldly categories of evaluation? Beware of removing yourself from the experience by bringing with you a critical spirit. Instead, we must consecrate ourselves to behold the wonders of God (Josh 3:5).
Consecration refers to setting something aside for holy use. When we consecrate ourselves, we set ourselves aside, often through ritual, for God’s holy use, chiefly in worship. Consecration sometimes seems like the last thing on our minds. For many of us, especially with multiple younger children, just getting to church is difficult enough, so how can we even think about the extra labor of consecrating ourselves? However, consecration can help in the spiritual battles of getting to church by reminding us of worship’s weight and beauty, even before entering the church building.[4]
The following thoughts on consecration should not be considered as a mere checklist. Instead, take some of this discussion as a starting point to consider how you might begin to behold the wonders of God through consecration. When adopting some of these practices, if anything less than the pursuit of God is in mind, then consecration has become a self-centered pursuit of lifestyle optimization, and this warrants repentance. Thus, consider the following thoughts on consecration.
First, saturate both Saturday evening and Sunday morning with needy prayers of confession and petition. Measure yourself against God’s holy standards. Ask whether you have represented Christ well in your interactions with others throughout the week. Ask whether you have passed up evangelistic opportunities due to fear, negligence, or thanklessness. Confess these things before God. Pray for your pastors, particularly the primary preaching pastor. Ask God to anoint him to “rightly handle the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15) as one with a clean conscience, approved by God. Pray that he might not be a hypocrite but live out the word as the Holy Spirit convicts him with truth. There is a high likelihood of spiritual warfare every week for your pastor. Distractions, whether trivial or serious, can displace his focus from meditating on the Word of God. Pray that, should distractions arise, he may continue reflecting on the Word so that it could be his filter for evaluating all distractions. Pray likewise for yourself, recognizing that you are also prone to distractions or passive observation in worship, rather than active, embodied participation.
Second, avoid passive behaviors by using fasting principles. This does not mean that you should fast every Sunday,[5] though this is a good idea from time to time. Hunger pains can be reminders to hunger for God (see John Piper’s A Hunger for God). Consider also a digital/social media fast if you are regularly involved in those things. Social media and algorithms put your mind into passive recipient mode, where you simply receive a bombardment of content catered specifically for you. It is by nature self-centered. It is also a disembodied experience in which our body plays no role—it simply stimulates the mind with short bursts of endless dopamine. Avoiding these passive, self-centered, disembodied algorithms on at least Sunday morning can prepare you to actively participate in embodied worship with the saints.[6]
Third, physically prepare yourself on Saturday evening. Sunday mornings, especially for parents, can be a hassle of trying to get everyone dressed and ready to go. Tensions and stress can be high, while joyful anticipation and expectation of communion with God and His saints take the backseat. So, what are ways that you can physically prepare ahead of time so that Sunday morning is less stressful and more anticipatory? Maybe bags can be packed ahead of time, clothes laid out, and etcetera.
Fourth, read the preaching passage ahead of time. Study and meditate on it so that you can hunger for its exposition and the Spirit’s application as an entire gathering meditates on it together. Consider reading through the order of worship ahead of time. Sing the hymns/songs that will be sung that Sunday. Learn what each part of the service means. If a corporate prayer or congregational reading, read those too. Practice praying according to the part of service where the prayers take place that Sunday, i.e., invocation, praise, confession, affirmation of faith, thanksgiving, or intercession. If you would like to receive the order of worship ahead of time, ask so that your pastors and staff can happily accommodate.
Fifth, are your Sunday morning routines different from the rest of the week? Even the small things can matter, such as using a different alarm, how you wake your kids up, and leaving the TV off with the smart device put away.[7] Instead of filling the silence with news and podcasts, consider using silence and prayer for yourself to begin your Sunday morning routine. Or, if you can, remain in silence until you get to the church building. Or, if you have a family to get ready and breakfast to cook for everyone, listen to hymns or worship music while everyone gets ready. Singing hymns while the family gets ready, though not worship per se, can be much more consecrating than everyone doing their own individual routines brought to you by social media and news feeds. All these changes to a routine can eventually become the Sunday morning routine that stands out from other routines throughout the week. When the new Sunday morning routine begins, and the body participates, the mind says, “It’s the Lord’s day again.”
Sixth, consider three related questions about how you engage with the gathered congregation. First, where do you sit? Are you participating alongside other believers, passing peace to them, singing next to them, experiencing the same sanctifying presence of God with other people within an arm’s reach? Or do you sit away from others, removing yourself from the presence of others? Do you sit near the front, ready to participate, or do you sit in the back, ready to spectate?[8] Second, what do you wear? Yes, there is no dress code. Receiving God’s grace does not depend on such trivial matters, and if lack of “church clothes” would be a hindrance to you coming otherwise, then, by all means, come as you are. However, having “church clothes” can be a personal liturgical reminder that we do not come to gather as we come to any other event—this gathering is special. Last, are you using your body in worship? I know people tend to complain about standing for too long, to which I might callously respond that it’s okay to sit down while others are standing if you have physical limitations. The compromise for our worship services has been to have standing portions for the first part until confession. During confession, just as we become keenly aware of our lowly status before God, we take a lowly sitting posture, only to be raised once again after our faith in Jesus’ power to save is affirmed. Our return to standing for thanksgiving and intercession indicates that we stand on the grace of Christ to offer thanksgiving and prayers on behalf of others. However, if I were to get my way, I would advocate for kneeling during confession to have our bodies more actively involved since sitting typically involves more passivity. All of these questions should cause us to question how we can better use our bodies in worship.
Seventh, how do you listen? What steps are you taking to actively listen and engage with the sermon or other listening portions of the service? Some take notes. Others play bingo with keywords that the preacher is likely to say. I’ve even heard of one who writes songs/poems from what she hears during the sermon.[9] Additionally, do you understand basic sermon structure so that you can better anticipate its patterns of interpretation and application/exhortation? If you understand the patterns of observe, interpret, and apply as it unfolds across the sermon (and typically across the main sermon points), you can train yourself to listen for these things. However, that does place the onus on the preaching pastor to prepare an orderly, coherent, and predictably patterned sermon.
Eighth, and finally, how would you characterize the temperament/mood of your house? How do people in your household usually interact with or respond to one another? As household leaders, the anxiety that husbands may bring home from work can color the entire household with anxiety and fearfulness. Does your bitterness create bitter wives and children? Do insults and sarcasm flow more freely than moments of genuine adoration and thankfulness for one another? Do words of encouragement feel foreign to your household’s culture? How easy is it to pray with and for one another, or does it feel awkward and forced? How easy is it to get below the surface to access one another’s deepest longings and challenges, or do things tend to stay at the surface level? Family rituals of consecration or worship at home may not be an easy fit for households governed by bitterness, anxiety, and stress, so this last question is a foundational issue. Let the gospel’s grace, peace, and rest be the heartbeat of your home. If you feel discouraged when evaluating the temperament of your home, this is a good opportunity to model humility and confession to those around you. That step may begin to change the culture of your home. Perhaps the greeting of “Peace be with you” will not only be uttered begrudgingly on Sunday mornings during the passing of the peace but by all of God’s people throughout the week as we use life-giving words to remind each other of the peace of Christ.
Aniol, Scott. Biblical Foundations of Corporate Worship. Free Grace Press, 2022.
Aniol, Scott. Let the Little Children Come: Family Worship on Sunday (and the Other Six Days Too). Free Grace Press, 2021.
Burrel, Adam B. Home Reformation: A Biblical and Practical Guide for the Christian Home. Free Grace Press, 2024.
Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. New York: HarperOne, 1996.
Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Authority. Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2016.
Miller, Paul. A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World. NavPress, 2017.
Mohler, R. Albert, Jr. The Apostle’s Creed: Discovering Authentic Christianity in an Age of Counterfeits. Together for the Gospel Edition. Nashville: Nelson Books, 2019.
Piper, John. A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer. Wheaton: Crossway, 2013.
Vines, Jerry and Jim Shaddix. Power in the Pulpit: How to Prepare and Deliver Expository Sermons. Revised Edition. Chicago: Moddy Publishers, 2017.
[1] I intentionally use the word “songs” rather than “hymns” here because a hymn refers to a music arrangement that is much richer theologically and addressed from creature to creator. They address God directly and proclaim His attributes with biblically and theologically rich language. Worship songs are typically less directed toward God and more on us. Compare the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” with the song “Gratitude” by Brandon Lake, and ask yourself which song is directed toward God, ascribing him the glory due His name. “Holy, Holy, Holy” is much more biblically focused, while “Gratitude” concerns itself primarily with our own experience and what we might bring to the table to worship. I would further caution that this song assumes that worship is about the church, of its own volition, coming together to make much of God’s name in a “bottom-up” worship experience. The song assumes people come into the presence of a holy God with pure hearts of praise just waiting to be released. However, what about our union with Christ as the only basis for being in the presence of the king? What about the sanctifying nature of worship that transforms bitter hearts (top-down worship)? Where is the doctrine of sin and depravity and Christ alone through faith alone in this contemporary song? Meanwhile, millions of young teens are raising their hands in worship without theological discernment.
[2] Martyn Lloyd Jones said, “The desire for a cultured, educated ministry is of course right, but not simply as an end in itself, and never at the expense of the spiritual element” (Authority, 64).
[3] Jim Shaddix used to say that preachers do not aim to be more polished orators of the word—they aim to not be distractions to the powerful word of God. He said, “The supernatural Word of God doesn’t need our polished style to make it more potent. We have a responsibility, however, not to dull the Word’s sharpness with our poor style” (Power in the Pulpit, 253).
[4] For the Jews, their Saturday Sabbath typically begins on Friday evening so that they can begin to consecrate themselves. Perhaps we ought to consider Saturday evening as consecration time, at least ensuring we are well rested and prepared for Sunday morning.
[5] Hunger can be a distraction as well, so don’t let regular hunger be a cause to complain by saying, “Hurry up so I can go eat something (and take a nap).”
[6] Note that worship is embodied. The standing/seating instructions, the way you dress, physically occupying a dedicated worship space, and worshiping next to other believers are all ways in which we use our minds and bodies in worship. Remember that you are not just a mind that needs to be stimulated. God gave us a local/temporal body to use as well. We know something is missing when we cannot be worshiping in the same space as other believers.
[7] My mom would often bring one of our cats or the dog into my bedroom to wake me up instead of just flipping the lights on and telling me to wake up.
[8] I am by no means saying you can’t participate from the back of the sanctuary, but you should evaluate whether sitting closer to the front would help you feel more participatory with God’s people.
[9] Sometimes listening for certain words can be helpful in general. For me, whenever someone would mention the word “justice,” it would trigger me to look over at my friend named Justice, and I would resume listening afterward.
