Key Bible Passage(s):

Tier 1:

How do we ‘judge’ a service of worship? That will depend in large part on what we think is supposed to be going on. If my thinking about corporate worship is merely ‘expressive’, then a ‘good’ service is primarily one that I feel connected with, that is relevant to me, and that allows me to give voice to what I want to say in a way I want to say it. A more authentically Christian perspective might suggest there is - or at least should be - far more to a service than this. What is the Holy Spirit’s agenda as we gather to worship? What are His desires and priorities? How should that affect my sense of what a service of worship is, and how I engage with it?

Tier 2:

Christ is the only true worshipper. Authentic worship is therefore shaped by His approach to His Father, and our being incorporated into that approach through the Gospel. That is what must give shape to a service of worship. Before we go any further we need to understand that - in and of ourselves - we can’t worship the Living God. The key is not to make worship meaningful and relevant to us - it is to make us meaningful and relevant to worship. Understanding this will lead us to a very different idea of what a ‘good’ service looks and feels like.

Tier 3:

We learn a lot from the history of the Church. We’ve made a lot of mistakes over the generations, and the Lord has graciously corrected our course time and again. The tensions of what constitutes authentic worship are nothing new. They were argued over centuries ago, and re-visiting those debates will help us as we navigate the same questions today. Pelagius and Augustine might have been the first to engage in the discussion, and understanding their argument will help us to make sense of our own ideas, and much of what is happening in the contemporary Church.

take me to a sample script for this session

download powerpoint presentation

Worship is the arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our desires, rehabituates our loves. Worship isn’t just something we do, it is where God does something to us. Worship is the heart of discipleship because it is the gymnasium in which God retrains our hearts.

James K A Smith

Group Discussion:

Why do you go to Church?

What makes for a ‘good’ service?

Under what circumstances would you miss a Church service? Why do you feel justified in doing so?

after introduction to Pelagius:

Where do you agree / disagree with Pelagius?

and later in the session:

Does ‘meaning it’ make worship more acceptable to God?

How would you navigate a discussion with someone who felt that changes should be made to a service so that it was more accessible and understandable to those who aren’t Christians?

…and what about someone who said we shouldn’t be preaching about complicated ideas like God as Trinity, or the Incarnation, and that we should have straightforward sermons that tell people how to live?

Homework:

Over this half-term we have been working to memorise Matthew 7:21-28. You will have to keep refreshing Matt.5:1-26, Matt.6:5-15 and Matt.7:7-12 whilst you do this.

(we’ll memorise the whole of the Sermon on the Mount over the 3 years of DTP)

To Be A Christian: Q&A 244-251

Repeat Proactive discipleship cycle:

Map out a week:

what will you be doing… who will you be meeting…

Pick out one or two specific events… (repeated / weekly)

Go through your list of commands distilled from Matthew’s Gospel.

which commands of Jesus of particular relevance… useful…? Pray / memorise / meditate – what does it look like to obey His commands in that moment..?

Why might it be difficult? Temptations?

What do I need to remember? What support do I need to be able to work this out? To do it?

How will this look different to times when I’ve been in that situation before?

Do I need to reflect / feedback / be accountable?: