Ancient-Future Worship Principles with Application to the Present

Often called “Blended Worship” or “Convergence Worship,” ancient-future worship incorporates historical, traditional, and contemporary worship styles. Ancient-future worship affirms that the historical, traditional, and contemporary churches have valid and meaningful practices and traditions from which we, as the church of Christ, are free to glean and borrow appropriately for our local contexts. “Appropriately” is a key word. Relevancy to a specific local church is essential. The meaningfulness of the content, the style in which it is presented, and the level of preparedness of the worshiper will largely determine the degree to which Christ is made known, made relevant, to the contemporary worshiper. Put simply, relevancy is experiencing Jesus Christ.

There will always be a need for liturgical, traditional, contemporary, and charismatic (style) churches. However, theologian Robert Webber tells us that worldwide, in worship, there seems to be a convergence of the traditions – “a convergence that is resulting in the birth of a style of worship that is rooted in Scripture, aware of the developments in history, and has a passion for contemporary relevance.”¹

In his article on convergence worship in The Complete Library of Christian Worship (vol. 3, pp. 122-124), Webber lists several characteristics of blended/ ancient-future worship.

General characteristics of blended worship include

• A willingness to reopen all the questions about worship
• A willingness to learn from the entire worshiping community
• A healthy respect for the past
• A commitment to contemporary relevance

Specific characteristics of blended worship include

• A commitment to the ecumenical consensus of the fourfold approach to worship: acts of entrance, the service of the Word, the service of the Table, and the acts of dismissal
• A commitment to the celebrative character of worship
• A broad range of musical content and styles
• A recovery of the arts²

Most of us would say we want to bring renewal into our worship services. The current move toward renewal by dividing congregations into “contemporary” services, seeker-friendly services, traditional, blended, and now millennial or emergent services, is not only confusing but also impossible for a smaller church to sustain.

The services mentioned above differ mainly in the style of music. It is crucial we see that music is only one part of the worship experience, and style is only one aspect to be considered in planning.

Worship Planning and Design
Considering Content, Structure, and Style as we plan worship services helps us worship with intention.

The content of worship is the story of God’s saving action, especially the Gospel story of the life, death resurrection and return of Jesus Christ. Webber says that the major “theme” of our worship services should always be GOD and CHRIST – our worship should be Christocentric. “For worship to be Biblical and Christian, the story of God’s redemption and salvation must be its content. Otherwise it ceases to be Christian worship.”³

In a liturgical church, the Scripture(s) for the day will determine the minor theme. In a non-liturgical church, the pastor’s message topic and related Scripture would determine the minor theme.

In regards to the structure of worship, I have found a simple, effective, biblically based pattern that we can use to plan effective, meaningful worship. This approach has simplified planning worship but it has also made it possible for me to plan more meaningful worship services. I offer this as one model.

The Four Movements of Worship

1. Entrance or Gathering the people
2. Service of the Word (including Scripture reading and the sermon)
3. Response (which could be any of the following: the Lord’s supper; offering; sacred response – invitation to receive Christ, baptism, healing; sung response – extended time of praise and thanksgiving; prayer response – intercession and thanksgiving, prayers of the people; interactive response – “talk-back”, testimonies, turn to neighbor & share…; action response – focus on missionaries, or outreach.
4. Dismissal

These four movements are the historic church’s “Fourfold Order” (based on Isaiah 6:1-9 and the traditions of the early church). In liturgical churches, these movements are clearly marked in the bulletins. In other Protestant churches, the movements are usually present, but not known or understood by most of the people including the worship planners. (We will look at sample church bulletins during the workshop.) This fourfold pattern can serve as a basic guide for planning and leading worship. Within each of the movements of this pattern, there is great freedom to incorporate various expressions of worship.

Martin Thielen helps us “translate” this ancient pattern of worship into a modern worship outline:

We Gather to Worship God
We Listen to the Word of God
We Respond to the Call of God (We Celebrate at the Table of God = Communion)
We Depart to Serve God⁴

Thielen also points out six strengths of this worship pattern:

1. It is true to the biblical and historical foundations of worship.
2. It provides a holistic and balanced worship experience.
3. It moves and flows; it provides meaningful progression.
4. It is focused on God.
5. It is highly participatory; the congregation is actively engaged.
6. It is flexible; diversity and creativity can be implemented within each movement.⁵

Revelation and Response

We need to remember that corporate worship is a dialogue between God and the congregation. Not a program of isolated acts of worship. I have found it important to remember the idea of “Revelation & Response” as I plan the flow of each of the four movements of worship. (Revelation refers to the presentation of the truth about God in Christ; response is the reply of the people to the truth proclaimed through revelation.)

Revelation – proclaiming and re-enacting the revelation of God and His mighty deeds of salvation. This would include:

• songs (often hymn-style songs) that are full of theology or doctrine, talking about who God is and what He has done (or will do)
• prayers that are focused on God and reciting His attributes and deeds
• Scripture that is particularly words of proclamation or revelation
• words spoken that proclaim God’s might and character; creeds
• drama that re-enacts the mighty acts of God in history

Response – responding to God’s past and present saving actions with praise and thanksgiving. This would include:

• songs (often choruses) that are responsive in nature; saying “YES!” to what has just been revealed
• prayers of thanksgiving or praise to God for what He has done
• Scripture that is responsive
• words of praise and thanksgiving spoken by the congregation or leader
• drama or art that is celebrative
• The Lord’s Supper; offering; call to commitment…response to a challenge based on a revelation of God’s work in our midst

It is important to remember that people cannot respond before they have been given something to respond to. Thus, starting out a worship service with upbeat songs that try to engage people in response to God before they have been given the revelation of God and His mighty deeds, is not only unfair, it is creating an atmosphere of frustration in worship. Along with that, if we do not give people the opportunity to respond after a word, song or act of revelation, they will feel that something is lacking in their times of corporate worship.

Finally, “style is the atmosphere in which the four acts are played out.”⁶ A church’s style of worship will range from formal and classical to informal and contemporary. Style has to do with much more than music. It also has to do with the language used, the way people dress, how a church creates intimacy, uses the arts, and promotes participation or encourages passive listening. Style has to do with cultural relevancy and is unique to each body of believers. Webber says that, “Each congregation must create its own style of worship, a style that is not only comfortable for the worshipers, but also expresses the character and personality of the worshiping community.”⁷

In regards to style, Dr. Constance Cherry says that, “Style in worship is the way a certain faith community expresses the content of its worship (liturgy) as a result of its given context.”⁸ Style is the point of freedom and flexibility, within reason, as we plan and design worship services.