Lecture-based worship

[ClementofRome]

Question:

What is the biblical basis for "lecture-based" worship? Maybe, as opposed to "liturgically-based" worship... or any other "paradigm."

Why the old model (switch these around in any order....add or take away as desired):

welcome>
prayer>
hymn>
announcements>
reading of the text (OT/NT)>
anthem>
offering>
sermon (lecture)>
hymn>
benediction

 

[arunma]

As far as I can tell, the Bible does not tell us how we ought to conduct a church service. There are a few vague references to meeting on the first day of the week, and singing hymns. And of course there is the form of worship used in the Old Testament. But I don't think that the Bible gives us a specific instruction on carrying out worship services.

As far as I know, early Christian church services were based on the first century synagogue liturgy. This can be seen from the striking similiarity between modern synagogue services and Catholic/Orthodox services, as both came from the same traditions of Israel.

 

[rmwilliamsll]

i run into the issue occasionally, for instance, in Frame's _Worship in spirit and truth_ pg 78

reformed worship has, unfortunately, often followed too much the model of an academic lecture. Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich eliminated music entirely form the service, focusing almost exclusively on teaching. Later Reformed leaders were less extreme, but the model of worship as a teaching meeting has had great influence, espiecally in Puritanism.

there is a footnote to:
_worship: adoration and action_ ed. donald carson.

i've seen one book that discussed the issue in Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Chruch Practices
Frank Viola
i didn't follow up the issue in a chapter there that was against the sermon.
perhaps a little googling would yield some more information.

 

[heymikey80]

Short comments on random subjects follow :>).

I believe it carries a pattern described in Ezra, where the scribes spoke God's word and the elders explained the sense of it to those returned from the Exile.

It also seems to me to be closely related to synagogue worship, which built up to this. Holy convocations, singing, prayer, giving, reading, and expositing were common to synagogue worship.

The removal of more-liturgical stuff was a Reformation movement to put the Gospel on greater display. The Gospel was obscured by the liturgy. That was the complaint of Calvin, which I think had him conclude the regulative principle and push for simplicity in worship.

You should be able to find a thread in the theology of public worship pointing out, that if the Gospel (good-message) is not preached in the sermon, then the regulative pattern of worship is broken. So it's not simply a lecture; if the Gospel isn't preached, worship is actually missing something in a Reformed context.

Specific aspects and order of a liturgy aren't as big a deal, as long as they include each kind of worship that God desires.

 

[McWilliams]

God chose by the 'foolishness' of preaching to bring men to Christ! Is this not 'lecture' based worship?