Christianity and Culture: Nothing Is New under the Sun

By Robin G. Jordan

The Pew report, “The Religious Typology a New Way to Categorize Americans by Religion,” is a reminder that Christianity has never occupied in an environment that was entirely free from other religious and spiritual influences. In some places and times Christianity has been the dominant religion; in others a minority religion. For example, Christians form about one percent of the Japan’s population. In Japan Buddhism, Shintoism, secularism, and a host of religious cults vie for the hearts and minds of the Japanese people. Both Buddhism and Shintoism have played a major role in shaping Japanese culture. They are an integral part of the cultural landscape.

The Facts & Trends article, “Americans Believe in God, but also Psychics and Crystals,” notes the influence of New Age spirituality on Christians as well as other Americans. A number of the beliefs and practices that are categorized as “New Age” have been around for centuries in the British Isles and North America. They may have enjoyed a resurgence in “the Age of Aquarius,” the 1960s and the 1970s, but they are not new.

In The Book of Common Prayer 1559 The Elizabethan Prayer Book, John E. Booty draws to our attention that Elizabeth I had her personal astrologer, Dr. John Dee, and that the signs of the Zodiac appear in the Almanac of the 1559 Prayer Book. Bishop John Jewel, while he condemned the practice of soothsaying, nonetheless believed the prognostications of soothsayers.

We may gather from William Shakespeare’s plays that the Elizabethans believed in the existences of fairies and preternatural phenomena. We may gather from other sources that they also believed in charms, potions, and white magic. A housewife might leave a bowl of cream or porridge or some other food offering on the hearth for the brownies that were believed to inhabit cottages and farmhouses. The milkmaid might say a charm over the cream to prevent it from curdling or souring. These practices would persist in the British Isles into the early twentieth century and may persist in some areas of the British Isles to this day.

In the United States spiritualism has a long history. The beliefs of the Shakers whose communities dotted the United States in the late 1700s and well into the 1800s were based upon spiritualism. While spiritualism has decreased in popularity since the early twentieth century, it continues to attract a following. Ouji boards and planchettes continue to be sold as parlor games.

On the other hand, the reading of daily horoscopes has increased in popularity. Many people not only read their daily horoscope but act on it.

When I was a boy, I lived in a small English village. I learned from the cautionary tales that I heard that it was advisable to avoid certain places, plants, and trees since those who had not heeded the warnings had brought misfortune upon themselves. I also learned that one should also refrain from doing certain things since doing them could produce a similar effect. On the other hand, there were certain things that one should do to avert misfortune or to ward off evil. I learned to avoid alder trees and ponds and not to walk windershins, or counterclockwise, around an object. I learned that I should not open an umbrella inside the house, put my shoes on the table, or break a mirror. If I spilled salt, I should throw a pinch of salt over my left shoulder. I heard these warnings from God-fearing, churchgoing folks.

Some of the warnings were based on past experience. Children playing on the edge of ponds were apt to suffer a misadventure—to fall in the pond, become tangled in pond weed, and drown. While the others might be dismissed as superstition, they were longstanding folk beliefs that had been passed from one generation to another and may have been remnants of the pre-Christian religions that were once a part of the cultural landscape of the British Isles. The adage, “better safe than sorry” was not an uncommon response if one questioned these beliefs. This adage may also explain why many people who read their daily horoscope act on it.

While the present cultural landscape may alarm some Christians, those who choose to follow Christ have always had to deal with “background noise” that competes with Christ for their attention and for the attention of those whom they are seeking to lead to Christ. The noise may have grown louder in recent years but it has always been there. What may be troubling them is that they are no longer able to tune it out—to pretend that it is not there. However, as the author of Ecclesiastes wrote, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

Americans Believe in God, but also Psychics and Crystals

When many Americans need a spiritual boost, they head to church.

Or look to the mountains.

Or pick up some crystals.

Four in 10 Americans (42 percent) believe spiritual powers rest in physical objects like mountains, trees, and crystals, according to a new study of American religion from Pew Research.

A similar number (41 percent) believe in psychics. A third (33 percent) believe in reincarnation, while 29 percent believe in astrology.

While the nation has become more secular, according to Pew’s report, it’s also filled with spiritual beliefs that fall outside of traditional faith. And the number of Americans who accept New Age beliefs include the highly religious and skeptics alike.

“New Age beliefs are common, even among Americans who are highly religious in traditional ways,” according to Pew’s report. Read More

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The Religious Typology - A new way to categorize Americans by religion
Religious typology quiz

The religious topology quiz, which is based upon the research questionnaire, does not explain what it means by "spiritual powers" but leaves to the respondents to decide what this phrase means. The quiz also has limited categories of church attendance. For example, it has no category for those who attend church more than once a week. The categories that it does list do not reflect contemporary patterns of church attendance. Within its limitations the Pew research confirms what astute observers of our changing culture have observed since the 1980s and earlier. For those who have not been paying attention to the changes in our cultural landscape, it may prove a wake-up call if they bother to read the report.

Friday's Catch: Welcoming Visitors and More

The Intentionally Welcoming Church

Small or large, every church has the important responsibility of receiving visitors. When someone visits your church for the first time, what is their experience? Welcoming visitors is rarely discussed, and very few churches have plans in place to make sure it happens, but it is a deficiency worthy of a remedy. Read More

8 Phases of Moving Guests from Anonymity to Community at Your Church

I’m a firm believer that churches need to think in steps, not programs. We need to think about how we’re moving people from where they are to where we want them to be, and if everything we do doesn’t help them make one step closer on that path, we need to reevaluate what’s working and what’s not. In this post, I’ve attempted to outline what I think are the eight phases that every guest who comes to our church needs to move through, in order to transition from complete anonymity to deep community. Read More

What Makes a Great Campus Pastor?

The campus pastor role is the most important factor in the success of a multisite campus. Here’s why. Read More

Why It’s a Good Thing We’re a Work in Progress

Though our ministry work is never done, God uses it to complete us. Read More

Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church [Podcast]

On the latest episode of the Equipping You in Grace Podcast, Dave Jenkins and John Onwuchekwa discuss the importance of corporate prayer in the life of the Christian and local church, along with his book, Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church (Crossway, 2018. Listen Now

God Wants You to Ask Again

God wants you to ask again — for healing, for reconciliation, for salvation — because God loves to reveal his strength and wisdom and worth again. And because he loves you. And because he loves you, he wants you to see and experience more of his glory. In prayer — in what we ask by faith — we ask to see more of him. Read More

Why You Cannot Follow Jesus as a Muslim

The outward forms (i.e., duties) of Islam—including communal fasting and sacrifice, the way in which one prays (five times a day, toward Mecca), and especially the confession that there’s no god but God (“Allah” in Arabic) and Muhammad is his messenger—are truly consequential. Quite simply, Islam sets out to correct (and effectively replace) the biblical Jesus, in the name of submission to an unknowable God, as advocated by Muhammad. Remaining faithful to all this and following Jesus at the same time is impossible. Read More

What Are Evangelicals Afraid of Losing?

President Trump’s appeal to fear ignores that Christians seek first the Kingdom, not political favors. Read More

Why Weekly Sunday Communion Is Not for Every Church

By Robin G. Jordan

I experienced mixed feelings about posting Greg Goebel’s article, “Why Every Church Should Have Weekly Sunday Communion Like the Anglicans Do,” for several reasons. While frequent communion may be desirable, it may not be practicable. A growing number of Continuing Anglican and Episcopal churches do not have a priest of their own and must share a priest with one or more other churches with which they may be yoked. Goebel is promoting a standard that these churches cannot meet as long as bishops are unwilling to license deacons and lay eucharistic ministers to administer Holy Communion from the reserved sacrament, to expedite the ordination of local priests, or take other steps to enable these churches to have weekly Sunday communion. This standard has also created a number of other problems for these churches.

In North America Associated Parishes and the Liturgical Movement, not the Parish Communion movement, popularized the practice of weekly Sunday communion in the Episcopal Church. The Parish Communion movement was responsible for the popularity of weekly Sunday communion in the Church of England. While the proponents of the nineteenth century Catholic Revival would restore the Holy Eucharist as the central act of worship on Sunday morning in a number of parishes, the more extreme proponents of that revival would also promote the restoration of the non-communicating Medieval Mass. It was not until the late twentieth century that weekly Sunday communion became widespread in the Episcopal Church with the adoption of the 1979 Prayer Book. While some Anglo-Catholic parishes may have had weekly Sunday communion before that time, many Episcopal parishes like my own celebrated Holy Communion only twice a month. On the remaining Sundays of the month we had choral Morning Prayer with a sermon. The adoption of the 1979 Prayer Book would relegate Morning Prayer to a secondary role in the worship life of the parish.

As congregations became accustomed to receiving Holy Communion every Sunday, there was a corresponding relaxation of eucharistic discipline. Infants and small children were admitted to the Table on the grounds that since they had received the sacrament of Baptism, they should be able to receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The longstanding Anglican insistence upon worthy reception which included the presence of a vital faith in the communicant fell by the wayside. The belief that everyone who received the sacrament received a blessing made inroads not only in the Episcopal Church but also in the Continuing Anglican churches that had broken with the Episcopal Church over Prayer Book revision and women’s ordination.

The weekly Sunday reception of Holy Communion has become a dominant element in the spirituality of a growing number of Continuing Anglicans and Episcopalians. The reception of the consecrated elements has become a substitute for a life of discipleship. Congregations have become so focused on what the Lord might be doing for them in the sacrament that they neglect what they should be doing for the Lord for what he had done for them on the cross.

Congregations that need strong preaching and teaching and strong missional leadership are trading away their futures for weekly Sunday communion. They are entering into contracts with clergy who, while they are ordained, are weak at preaching and teaching and incapable of leading a church on mission. The only thing that they are able to do is to administer the sacraments. Lacking strong preaching and teaching and strong missional leadership, these congregations face stagnation and decline.

With the practice of weekly Sunday communion a pernicious theology has often ridden piggyback into such congregations. It emphasizes the ministry of the priest over the ministry of the people. Congregations are at high risk of becoming consumers of a commodity dispensed by a priest, instead of servants of Christ who live their lives in accordance with his teaching and example, reach out to the unchurched and the unsaved, and minister in and to the community.

The self-esteem of congregations which are unable to have weekly Sunday communion suffer. Because they are not able to meet this standard, they begin to think of themselves as not fully a church. They begin to compare themselves negatively with congregations that do meet this standard, further eroding their self-esteem. Congregations that do not have a high opinion of themselves and who are not excited about their church services do not tell people about their church or invite them to church services and other functions. They are less likely to take steps to make their presence known in the community.

While recognizing frequent communion as desirable where it may be had, the Anglican Church does not view weekly Sunday communion as one of the marks of the visible church—only the due administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper “according to Christ’s ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.” The rubrics of the classical Anglican Prayer Book of 1662 require that “every parishioner shall communicate at least three times in the year, of which Easter shall be one.” Small churches that cannot meet the unrealistic standard of weekly Sunday communion are no less the visible church than large parishes that celebrates the Holy Communion on weekdays as well as Sundays.

Rather than making Faustian bargains with clergy who have very little to offer beside administering the sacraments and sacrificing their own ministry, the ministry of the whole Body of Christ, for the ministry of its eye or his hand, congregations need to take a more balanced view of the sacraments. The role of a church’s pastor is to equip its people for the work of ministry and the role of the sacraments is to invigorate and strengthen the faith of the people as they go about the work of ministry. If a pastor cannot fulfill his role, he should not be a pastor. He has chosen the wrong vocation. Equipping the saints is his primary task. The administration of the sacraments is ancillary to that task.

Thursday's Catch: Church Revitalization a Unique Calling? and More

Is Serving a Revitalization a Unique Calling - Revitalize & Replant #056

Every pastor should have a sense of calling to ministry. But is that necessarily to revitalization or not? Today, Thom Rainer, Mark Clifton, and Jonathan Howe discuss that calling. Listen Now

5 Things That Matter Most to Church Visitors

After cataloging feedback from mystery visits to more than 10,000 worship services across the nation, Faith Perceptions met with Facts & Trends to share what they’ve identified as the five most significant impressions that determine whether a church guest will return. Read More

This article may be a repost. If so, the title of the article has been changed. When I searched my blog for the article by this title, the search did not produce the article. If the article is a repost, it will not hurt to reread it.

The 10 Commandments of Progressive Christianity #6: Is Christianity Just about Being on a Spiritual “Journey”?

Is encouraging the personal search more important than group uniformity? Read More

12 Warning Signs You May Be Attending a Legalistic Church

This is a fun little post about a pretty serious subject. Rule-obsessed churches stifle the joy of Jesus in our souls by promoting legalism disguised as holiness. But instead of getting the full surrender to Christ they want, they get external compliance and inner misery instead. Read More

Pastoring through Pain

Michael Cooper takes a look at the various forms of hurt in which pastoral suffering can come. Read More

7 Reasons Your Ongoing Sins Hurt Your Church

Today I write to church members who have ongoing, perhaps hidden sin in their lives. My hunch is that may be more members than I imagine in many churches, and I want to challenge us to fight against being this kind of church member. Here’s why your ongoing sin can hurt your church.... Read More

Study the Culture to Better Share the Gospel

In our recent book, Apologetics at the Cross, Mark Allen and I cover some of the key cultural trends in the West that Christians today need to understand: modern pluralism, the age of authenticity, the therapeutic turn, and religious lethargy. In what follows I will briefly survey this last trend, and explain how we might talk to someone who has embraced it. Read More

Wednesday's Catch: Why the Small Catch?

Some days when I cast my net and then haul it in, it is full of fish. The fish are big and edible and enough for a feast. Other days the catch may be large but most of the fish are inedible. Today's catch was not very large. While the fish are not the biggest, they are quite edible. No one will go hungry.

5 Surprising Reasons People Leave Your Church

Why do people leave even when you’re making progress at your church? Simple. The people who are at your church today are there because they like it the way it is. Change that (even for the better), and some will leave. Read More

10 Ways to Pray More

Most of us struggle with having a consistent prayer life. If you struggle, too, here are some simple options to pray more.... Read More

4 Reasons Evangelism Is Easier to Preach than Practice

Our calling is to herald the glorious gospel, not hoard it for ourselves. A culture of evangelism starts with evangelistic pastors. I hate to admit it, but evangelism is easier for us preach about than to practice. Read More

Four Practical Steps for Recruiting a Church Plant Team

There are so many needs to fill and sometimes the enormity of it all can feel paralyzing.

Preparing to start a church plant can be a daunting task. There are so many needs to fill and sometimes the enormity of it all can feel paralyzing. One of the keys to successfully planting a church is to recruit a good launch team. (Remember, in our language today, a launch team and a core group are a little bit different. A core team is the team at the onset of the church who typically sticks around for the long term, contributing once the church has already been started. A launch team is developed before the church plant and in preparation for the core group.)

Below are four tips for recruiting launch team members for an upcoming church plant. Read More

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9 Reasons Some Churches Will Not Reach College Students

I love college students. In fact, I’d want to be pastoring in a university town if the Lord called me back to the senior pastorate. I’m convinced that their generation has a much greater opportunity to reach the nations than my generation does. On the other hand, some churches, I’m convinced, won’t reach college students. Here’s why.... Read More

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A somewhat dated photo of university students. At my university female students wear what past generations called Daisy Dukes, running shorts, yoga pants, leggings, skinny jeans, and dresses of various lengths. Wearing a dress usually means that they are a member of a sorority that has a dress code. Baseball caps are ubiquitous on both genders and those in transition. Hairs styles for males, females and transgenders range from shaved heads to mullets to scalp locks to samari knots to long hair. Hair tinting, tattoos, and nose piercing is not uncommon. A number of students are experimenting with new gender identities. Add a large segment of international students with their own fashion sense and gender ideas and you may have a snapshot of what the next few years of the twenty-first century may be like. But I would not count on it. The world is changing rapidly and the young people with it. I would not attempt to image what the student body of my university will look like 5 or 10 years from now.

Most of the churches in the community do not have a clue when comes to relating to the latest crop of university students. Some of the students at my university are adamantly atheistic or agnostic. For others spiritual matters are not on their radar. A number of students are open to spiritual conversations.

A tip for older adults. Let them do the talking and you do the listening. Be anamchara, a soul friend, and not a proselytizer.

My university has two annual events that do little to advance the cause of the gospel. They are not on the university calendar but they occur every year. The first event is the guy with the bullhorn shows up on Free Speech Circle and harangues passing students, telling them that they are going to hell. The second event is that a group of volunteers from a local church station themselves at various points on campus and pass out New Testaments. They have been known chase down students and to corner students and to shove a New Testament into their hands. Most of the New Testaments are thrown away. For days afterwards New Testaments can be found in all kinds of strange places where students have left them rather than throw them into a trash can. Some of the Christian students collect them and hand them out to students whom they have befriended and who show an interest in reading the New Testament.

The Strange Protestant Bible of Henry VIII

Henry VIII was perhaps the only man in the early English Reformation who was “Catholic without the pope.” For example, he gloated over the execution of William Tyndale for the heresy of translating the Bible into English.

But that same Tyndale Bible was published during his reign. And with the king’s approval.

This is the strange story of Henry VIII’s Bible, a little-known link between Tyndale’Read Mores Bible and our modern translations. Read More

Micro Churches - A Viable Option for Anglicans?

By Robin G. Jordan

For a group of Anglicans living in a community that does not have an Anglican church, forming a micro church is an option that they may wish to explore, rather than driving long distances to attend an Anglican church in another community or attending a non-Anglican church in their community.

While the micro church may lack the ambiance of the traditional Anglican cathedral, college chapel, and parish church, it has strengths of its own. It offers a non-threatening environment for the unchurched who are unaccustomed to these worship settings and to the complexity and formality of traditional Anglican worship in them. It also offers opportunities to build community and, to echo Carey Nieuwhof, “to serve, connect, and grow together.”

We know from the rubrics of the first Edwardian Book of Common Prayer of 1549 that Archbishop Cranmer had envisioned the celebration of the Holy Communion outside the traditional settings of cathedral, college chapel, and parish church. The rubrics of the 1549 Prayer Book permit the omission of the Gloria in excelsis, the Creed, the Homily, and the Exhortation, beginning, “Dearly beloved…” when the Holy Communion is celebrated “on workdays or in private houses.” One of the reforms that Cranmer had hoped to implement was more frequent celebrations of the Holy Communion at which the people communicated. This included celebrations of the Holy Communion in private houses. He envisioned small groups of the faithful gathering in private houses and celebrating the Holy Communion together. While Cranmer himself never saw the realization of his vision, it was not entirely forgotten.

If we examine the history of the Anglican Church from the early Reformation on, we will find a number of occurrences when Anglicans met for worship, Bible study, prayer, and fellowship in private houses rather than church buildings. The early Reformers who fled to the Swiss city states during the Marian persecutions met in their lodgings as well as in borrowed church buildings. Foxe’s Lives of the Martyrs records the deaths of ordinary English men and women who were burned at the stake for gathering in private houses and studying the Bible as well as holding Protestant beliefs.

When The Book of Common Prayer was outlawed in 1645, non-conforming Anglicans met clandestinely in private homes and read the Prayer Book services. When the episcopate was abolished in 1650 with the repeal of the Act of Conformity of 1558, the English bishops, while deprived of their office, continued to ordain men in secret, using the Prayer Book’s Ordinal. These ordinations were also conducted in private homes.

During the years the Scottish Episcopal Church was outlawed for its Jacobite sympathies, Scottish Episcopalians were prohibited from meeting together in groups larger than four people. Scottish Episcopalians circumvented the law restricting their meetings by remodeling private houses as meeting places in which a congregation, while gathered in separate rooms of the house in groups of four people, could hear the lessons and the sermon, could take part in the prayers, and receive communion.

On the North American frontier in the nineteenth century, in Canada and the United States, groups of Anglicans and Episcopalians also gathered in private houses on Sunday and read the Prayer Book services until they had constructed a church building.

Michael Green documents the successful use of cell churches in the Province of South East Asia in Asian Tigers for Christ: The Dynamic Growth of the Church in South East Asia (SPCK, 2001). He also edited Church Without Walls: A Global Examination of Cell Church (Paternoster Press, 2002). The cell groups that form cell churches are similar in a number of ways to micro churches. A major difference is that cell groups are closely networked with each other, regularly gather together for worship and other church functions, and are expected to replicate once they reach a particular size and produce more cell groups.

Micro churches may form loose networks but these networks are not viewed as forming a church.

In 2002 I was involved in a micro church in Louisiana. It was officially a preaching station of a charismatic Episcopal parish in a different part of the state. The bishop had agreed to this arrangement because none of the churches in the local deanery were interested in sponsoring a new work in the deanery. A deacon who lived in the area but was assigned to the sponsoring parish organized the weekly celebrations of the Eucharist.

On some occasions the rector of the sponsoring parish presided at these celebrations, on other occasions a Continuing Anglican priest who lived in the area presided at the celebrations.

During the time that I was involved in this micro church, it met at two different private houses. The micro church met initially on a weeknight and then on Sunday afternoon.

The celebration of the Eucharist was preceded by a meal, following the pattern of the early Church. We used “Rite III” from the 1979 Prayer Book or the Communion of the Sick from the 1928 Prayer Book, depending upon who was the president.

The services regularly included anointing with oil, laying on of hands, and prayer for healing. One of the things that united the members of this micro church was a common interest in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, healing, and prayer.

My experience with this micro church as well as with a number of home groups has convinced me that micro churches are a viable option for Anglicans.

Forming a micro church does require discarding the idea that the house of the church is the church and recognizing that the people who comprise the micro church are the church. It also requires ditching most of the paraphernalia which has become associated with Anglican worship since the nineteenth century Catholic Revival. But Anglicans who form a micro church will discover that the loss of these things is small loss in comparison to what they will gain. They will also discover that they do not need these things to meet their Lord present in his word and sacrament.

Monday's Catch: Microchurches, Church Multiplication, and More

The Astonishing Power of Microchurches—and You

To make the greatest impact, we must shift our focus from making disciples to making disciple makers. Read More

What Are Micro Churches and How Can You Start One Yourself

Micro churches are sprouting up and giving small,local communities a cozier place of worship. Read More

The Emerging Microchurch Era: 4 Questions Your Church Should Ask

“The emerging microchurch era offers real hope for multiplying his witnesses ‘to the ends of the earth.’” Read More

5 Reasons Not to Plant a Church

We need more churches. To be more specific: we need more gospel-centered churches in more areas of missional need. In general, church planting is the most effective form of evangelism and more churches reach more people. What we don't need, however, are more churches planted for wrong reasons. What might some of those reasons be? Here are just five.... Read More

New Music Is Not Worth Fighting For – So What Is?

Change may be necessary. But we need to get there by fighting the important battles, not the trivial ones. Read More

Do Inconsistencies in the Gospels Undermine Scripture’s Inerrancy?

The earliest generation of Christians recognized that the Gospels weren’t intended to be strictly chronological. Therefore, when modern readers assume the Gospels are strictly chronological, they perceive “mistakes” in the Gospel accounts. But these readers are asking something of the Gospels the inspired authors never intended to give. Read More

How Has Social Media Changed Bible Reading?

On certain social-media platforms, people have a propensity to cherry-pick Scriptures more egregiously than elsewhere. Read More

Discipleship Through Lunchboxes

Whether your child has a G.I. Joe lunchbox or a paper sack, you can make it a great discipleship tool by including a special note from you. Read More

What It Means to Be Salt and Light

Jesus said we are to be salt and light to the world, but where do we start? Read More

Drowning in the Shallow End: How Cultural Attachments of Yesterday Are Diminishing Our Effectiveness Today

Evangelism in a postmodern context is predicated on listening well. Read More

How to Leverage the Liturgy for Spiritual Formation

By Robin G. Jordan

How can we use the liturgy to maximum advantage in forming members of our congregations as disciples of Jesus Christ? Spirituality maturity is not tied to age. A congregation may be advanced in years but still be babes in Christ.

As we grow older, we may have more opportunities to grow spiritually but it does necessarily mean that we will avail ourselves of these opportunities. As we grow older, we also will have more opportunities to sin and to rationalize and explain away our sinfulness. We will have more time to become inured to our rebelliousness. The devil will have more opportunities to deceive us and lead us astray.

Young people may be at high risk but so are older people. The need for repentance is not something that we outgrow. Nor is the need for spiritual formation.

Having undergone confirmation, older Anglicans are tempted to assume that they need no further spiritual formation than what they received in their Sunday school class and their preparation for confirmation when they were younger. This is far from the case. They will need spiritual formation for the remainder of their days. They have taken only the first step.

What spiritual formation that older Anglicans received in their youth may have been woefully inadequate. If their preparation for confirmation was like the preparation that I received as a teenager, it touched on the articles of the faith in a cursory fashion. It did not address the nature and importance of discipleship or the spiritual disciplines that are an integral part of a healthy spiritual life.

The congregation that does not see the need for further spiritual formation is the congregation that in all likelihood needs it the most.

While the texts of the Prayer Book may through their repeated use help to shape the thinking and actions of the congregation, the congregation can also become desensitized to them. The congregation can also learn to misinterpret the texts and give a particular text a different meaning from original intended meaning of the text.

Just as we open the Scriptures to the congregation and explain their implications for the everyday lives of its members, we also need to open the texts of the Prayer Book and explain their implications for its members’ everyday lives. In selecting what texts upon which we should preach or about which we should teach, we should choose first those texts that are taken from Scripture and used in a manner faithful to Scripture and second those texts that are agreeable to Scripture.

Like the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion the authority of the Prayer Book is derived from Scripture. It is only authoritative where it is in agreement with Scripture.

In interpreting the sense of a text, we should use Scripture and not tradition. This interpretative principle is consistent with the principles underlying the compilation of the first and second Edwardian Prayer Books and articulated in Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s Preface to these two books. The degree to which a particular edition of The Book of Common Prayer is faithful to the Anglican Prayer Book tradition is reflected in the extent to which it conforms to these principles.

Let us take a look at two texts from the 1928 Prayer Book. The first text is the General Confession from the Order for Daily Morning Prayer and the second text the Invitation to Confession from the Order for the Administration of the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion.

Almighty and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

When we pray this general confession together at the beginning of Morning Prayer, we are admitting to ourselves as well as to God that our relationship with him is not what it ought to be. Rather than live our lives God’s way, we are choosing to live our lives our own way without regard to God. In doing so, we have made a grave mistake and have done a great wrong and have becoming separated from God. We have gone astray “like lost sheep.”

Sheep are not the brightest animals. They are apt to wander away from the flock and get themselves into all kinds of trouble. They may be tempted by the lush grass growing on the surface of a bog and become mired in quicksand. They may be attracted by the tall grass growing on the edge of a chalk pit and have the lip of the pit crumble under their feet and fall into the pit.

The reference to “the devices and desires of our own hearts” is reminder that the human heart is deceitful and cannot be trusted. Yet we are prone to follow its leadings due to our sinful nature.

The God’s “holy laws” extends not only to the moral law of the Old Testament but to Jesus’ teaching about how we should live our lives as his disciples—the guiding truths and principles that he taught to the apostles and which they passed on to us. While we may be calling Jesus Lord, we are not living as if he is the Lord of our lives.

We are not only guilty of not doing what we should do such as loving God with our whole being and our neighbors as ourselves but also of doing what we should not do such as bearing grudges, seeking revenge for even the smallest offense, and returning evil with evil.

“There is no health in us” is an understatement. We are in a dreadful spiritual state.

The rest of the prayer is a plea for mercy and forgiveness and a transformed life.

When we pray this general confession with these thoughts in mind along with the various ways that we have damaged our relationship with God during the week, it is an entirely different experience from praying it without any thought to what we are saying or to how we have chosen our way over God’s way. We are opening ourselves to the conviction of the Holy Spirit which is essential to true repentance. We are no longer just mouthing words. We are uttering the prayer of the heart. The liturgy provides us with suitable words for our heartfelt prayer.

A more accurate way of putting it may be to say that we are not resisting the Holy Spirit when he convicts us of the damage that we have done to our relationship with God. In fact, it is the Holy Spirit that reminds us of what the words of the general confession mean and their significance and how we have damaged our relationship with God and stirs our hearts to prayer.

The Invitation to Confession from the 1928 Communion Service sets out the spiritual conditions that must be present if we are to rightly receive the sacrament of the Holy Communion. It takes to heart what the apostle Paul wrote about approaching the Lord’s Table in an “unworthy manner” in 1 Corinthians 11:27-34. These conditions are further expounded upon in the First and Second Exhortations at the end of the Communion Service, in Articles 25 and 28 of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, and the Homily on the Worthy Receiving of the Sacrament.

Ye who do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways; Draw near with faith, and take this holy Sacrament to your comfort; and make your humble confession to Almighty God, devoutly kneeling.

These conditions are true and earnest repentance from sin, love and charity with one’s neighbors, intention to amend one’s life, and faith. If one or more of these conditions is not present, the communicant is in danger of unworthily receiving the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood. While the Third Exhortation warns against neglecting the sacrament, the thrust of all three Exhortations is that communicants should deal with unrepented sin, quarrels with their neighbors, ill-will toward their fellow Christians and the like so that they are not obstacles to their worthy reception of the sacrament. To benefit from receiving the sacrament, Article 29 reminds us, they must have “a lively faith.”

When we consider the lack of preparation with which so many communicants receive the sacrament, it is clear that they need further spiritual formation in this critical area. A perfunctory confession of sin and a priestly absolution is not sufficient to remove the aforementioned obstacles to worthy reception. Indeed they may compound the harm to the souls which such communicants inflict upon themselves when they do not rightly receive Christ’s Body and Blood. The priest’s declaration of God’s forgiveness is reserved for those who genuinely repent of their sins, have resolved any disputes with their neighbors, do not harbor ill-will toward their fellow Christians, intend to turn over a new leaf, and draw near the Table with a vital faith.

As in the case of watchmen on the wall who do not warn the city of an approaching danger, the blood of these communicants will be upon the heads of pastors who do not warn them of the harming they are inflicting upon their souls.

Practical Preaching Advice for Pastors and Lay Preachers #14

What’s the Difference Between Preaching and Teaching?

Simply put: The difference between preaching and teaching is that preaching is primarily geared toward life-change while teaching is primarily aimed at transferring knowledge. Read More

Preaching with the Expectation of a Miracle

One of the fundamental differences between teaching and preaching is that while both forms of communication deliver information, it’s in the preaching of the gospel that we are calling for a verdict. How often does the preacher enter the pulpit with a proper focus on the material that he has studied and prepared to deliver without looking into the eyes of the people and expecting a miracle? Read More

10 Questions to Ask in Your Sermon Preparation This Week

Pastors, I know from experience that sermon preparation is seldom easy—and I don’t want to add any stress to the process. Nevertheless, here are some questions I encourage you to ask as you prepare your sermons for this week.... Read More

3 Advantages of Outlining Your Sermon Before You Write It [Video]

Outlining your sermon. Do you do it? Watch the Content or Scroll Down and Read It

Consider Preschool before the Pulpit

Children’s ministry has a great deal to teach us about pulpit ministry, and make us more effective as a result. Read More

Rebirth of the Gods

When I moved to the United States from Great Britain in 1964, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. America seemed so Christian then. The only dark blot on the landscape was that people feared the rise of Marxism throughout the world. Communism was the great threat, the political expression of what we call "atheistic humanism."

Two years after I had arrived in America to study theology, I was asked to be part of a seminar on the "Death of God" movement. Some time ago, there was a group of so-called theologians describing the death of God, and it was taken seriously enough to be part of a seminar in a theological school. The whole point was (as expressed by one of its leading theologians, T.J.J. Altizer) that God had so completely incarnated himself in the world by the act of dying on the cross that he liberated man from any alien transcendent divine power. As we sat around, my professor and the students were convinced that this was clearly an indication that secular humanism was victorious--that it was going to overtake the West, and that this was the great opponent of the Christian faith. What we didn't realize was that there was another member of the "Death of God" group by the name of David Miller, who was Professor of Religion at Syracuse University and was actually on the publishing committee for the Society of Biblical Literature. This man had a powerful role in determining what was published on the Bible.

David Miller actually published a book in 1974 (which I discovered much later), entitled The New Polytheism.1 In that book, Miller gave this prediction: at the death of God, we will see the rebirth of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome. It was a confusing prediction: the rebirth of the gods? What does that mean? Miller seemed to know something about the so-called great achievement of secular humanism that nobody else did.2 What Miller had understood was that the death of God was not the death of the notion of the divine; it was the death of the God of the Bible (as Altizer had said, any alien transcendent divine power). You see, that's what people don't want; they don't want the God who is transcendent, sovereign, and independent of us, and so that God has to be killed. Since that time, in their minds, this God has been slowly put to death. Read More

Friday's Catch: Thinking Outside the Box and More

Think Outside the Box: What Would God Plant?

Doing church in the traditional way may not be good enough in the mission context in which we’re living. Read More

4 Ways Partnerships with Other Churches Proclaim the Gospel

Through linking arms with other local church leaders, I’ve discovered four ways this kind of collaboration extends the gospel into our community. Read More

Why The Public Salvation Call Is Harder In A Small Church (And A Couple Alternatives)

While small churches may not see salvations every week, we must be ready for them when they happen. Read More

5 Things to Consider When Confronting a Friend

Sin becomes public in three different ways: someone confesses it, we see it, or we are told about it. Each of these suggests different responses. Read More

10 Signs Your Heart Is Leaning in the Wrong Direction

My goal in this post is to help you evaluate the spiritual condition of your heart in preparation for worship this weekend. Based on my conversations with church members and leaders who’ve found themselves in backslidden conditions, below are some common denominators they’ve described for me. Use them to evaluate your own life before going to church this weekend.... Read More

Can Christians Trust Muslim Hospitality?

Arab theologians counsel Americans fearful of “taqiyya,” Islam’s alleged permission to lie, around Eid al-Adha and Ramadan holidays. Read More

Thursday's Catch: Baptism by Immersion and More

A joint baptism by an Anglican bishop and a Methodist pastor

Church History: When Did Churches Stop Baptizing by Immersion

Most of the students I teach seem to assume that the practice of immersion was already long-forgotten by the time of the Reformation—but this assumption doesn’t fit the historical facts. The facts are considerably more complex, but this much is clear: baptism by immersion was far from forgotten in the Western church in the era of the Reformation. Read More

How Run-Down Facilities Can Exacerbate the Decline in a Church - Revitalize &Replant #055

Facility issues can stall or hinder church growth. Today, Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe discuss five reasons church facilities can cause decline in your church. Listen Now

Rural Matters Institute

RMI is a community for pastors and Christian leaders serving in non-urban contexts that was created to provide support, learning, and community for those working in non-urban contexts in North America. It is an institute of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. Learn More

How Your Brain Affects Your Leadership

There are three major brain systems that influence the way we lead. Understanding them will help you lead better. Read More

Is Anyone Godly Enough To Be a Pastor?

When it comes to evaluating the call to pastoral ministry, the first question a man must ask is: Am I godly? Read More

Why We Must Grieve Our Sin [Video]

In our church, whoever preaches has an opportunity to write up a devotional for some follow up reflection and study. Here is my last sermon and devotion. Watch Video and Read Devotional

Respectfully Engaging the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Video]

In this episode, Dr. Darrell L. Bock and Richard Hornock discuss respectfully engaging the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Note: This interview was recorded before the president of the Utah-based church, Russell M. Nelson, asked people to discontinue use of the terms “Mormon” and “LDS.”Read More

7 Characteristics of Churches That Love Missions

I’ve moved several times in the last decade and have joined a church at each new place. Based off of my (admittedly limited) experience, I’ve observed these characteristics of churches that love missions.... Read More

Book Review: Practicing the Power, by Sam Storms

Storms’ recent book...is not a defense of continuationism.... This book is better classified as a field manual on how to actually do what Reformed continuationists say they believe. It’s a book written to help Christians implement the practice of all the gifts, especially the sign gifts, of the Holy Spirit in their local church. Hence the title: Practicing the Power.Read More

United Methodists Are Not Very United These Days

Fault lines are developing in the United Methodist Church following a recommendation by the Council of Bishops in May to adopt the One Church Plan at a special General Conference to be held in February in St. Louis. The conference was called by bishops to help the denomination stay as unified as possible despite decades-old division over how accepting to be of homosexuality. But it looks like the lofty goal may be unraveling. Read More

Soon, No One in Your Church May Get Buried

More Americans are taking the phrase “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” literally these days. Cremation, which was once rare, has become the most common way for Americans to lay their earthly remains to rest. Just over half of Americans who die this year will choose cremation (53.5 percent) over burial, according to the National Funeral Director Association (NFDA).Read More

Many Churchgoers Want Sunday Morning Segregated … by Politics

Survey finds half of Protestants prefer to worship with people who share their views—and half believe they already do. Read More

Three Reasons Why Churches Substitute Liturgy for Discipleship

By Robin G. Jordan

The substitution of liturgy for discipleship is not a problem confined to Anglican churches. It affects so-called non-liturgical churches as well as Lutheran and other liturgical churches. While non-liturgical churches may not use any set forms other than songs, their worship gatherings follow a basic pattern that is repeated every week. Rare is the church whose weekly worship gatherings do not have a recurring format. A typical format in "contemporary" churches is a worship set followed by a sermon. The origin of this pattern is traceable to the camp meetings and revivals of the nineteenth century.

The problem may be more acute in Anglican churches for three reasons. Among these reasons is that the view of liturgy found in a number of Anglican churches has been shaped by that of the late Medieval Catholic Church.

During the Middle Ages the priest’s offering of the bread and wine at the altar in the Mass would become so strongly associated in Medieval Catholic minds with Christ’s offering of himself on the cross that the celebration of the Mass came to be viewed as being of such paramount importance in the life of the Church that it superseded all other forms of devotion to God. It came to be seen as being the surest way of influencing God and winning his favor.

Whether or not we want to admit it, there is a strong element of magical thinking behind this belief, an element of magical thinking that is attributable to the pagan context of early Christianity and its tenuous grasp on the teaching of the apostles. A growing body of church tradition, which was viewed as supplementing apostolic teaching, eventually would supplant it.

This body of church tradition served as the primary vehicle for the transmission of this magical thinking which also has roots in the human condition. Magical thinking is the way that small children think. Their way of thinking provides the fertile soil in which such beliefs flourish and grow. It does not disappear as we grow older. It is overlaid by other ways of thinking.

The drift away from apostolic teaching began in apostolic times and is the focus of a number of Paul’s writings. It would be also the focus of the early Patristic writers.

The humanistic view that the closer a belief or practice is to apostolic times, the closer it is apostolic teaching, while appealing, has no basis. What we do find is a church that was divided in its opinions on a number of key issues even in apostolic times.

The English Reformers took the position that the New Testament was the most reliable account of apostolic teaching. They maintained that the early Patristic writers in their account of apostolic teaching were only reliable in so far as where and the degree to which they agreed with the New Testament account of apostolic teaching. Their position is the position of historic Anglicanism.

The New Testament account of apostolic teaching, while acknowledging the importance of the observance of the Lord’s Supper as a commemoration of Christ’s offering of himself on the cross and a proclamation of its saving power for all believers, does not take such an inflated view of the priest’s offering of the bread and wine at the altar. It also does not support the magical thinking that would become associated with the celebration of the Mass.

These beliefs are not even a subtheme in the apostolic writings. The dominant theme in these writings is discipleship—not only turning away from sin to Christ but also following him as Lord.

Through the Catholic Revival of the nineteenth century the late Medieval view of the celebration of the Mass was reintroduced in a number of Anglican churches. It influences the way their congregations view the liturgy. Attendance at Mass and the support of a priest to say Mass are given the highest priorities. Prayer, fasting, acts of mercy, and that sort of thing are viewed as secondary to Mass attendance. The Catholic Revival would also reintroduce the non-communicating Mass.

Even in churches that have no priest of their own and which must share a priest with one or more other churches, this view is carried over to how their congregations regard the service of Morning Prayer. This service, while it is different from the Mass, is still thought of at some level as something that is done to earn merit with God and from which the members of the congregation by their presence benefit. This is most evident in the way that the congregations enact the liturgy.

A second reason why the problem of substituting liturgy for discipleship is more acute in Anglican churches is the way some Anglicans have reacted to the Prayer Book revision of the last century and to other changes in the Church of England, the Episcopal Church, and other provinces of the Anglican Communion. These Anglicans chose to break with what was at the time their province in order to protect what they valued most.

Among the things that they valued most was a particular form of worship and the Prayer Book and the hymnal associated with this form of worship. It would become the primary focus of the churches that they formed. This is evident from their websites on the internet. They typically advertise themselves as “traditional Anglican churches” that use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and its hymnal companion, The Hymnal (1940).

For these congregations their common devotion to these two worship resources is an important bond that unites them. Their use of the 1928 Prayer Book and The Hymnal (1940) is an act of solidarity with what they hold dear.

Unfortunately these congregations, in making the preservation of a particular form of worship their focus, displaced what should be the focus of every church—the primary task that Christ gave his Church on earth--the spreading of the gospel and the making and forming of disciples.

Their intentions may have been well-meaning. They desired to worship God with a biblically orthodox and genuinely catholic liturgy and to preserve what they believed was an authentically Anglican way of following Christ. But the result was a shift in focus away from discipleship. They are now paying a very high price for what they did. Most of these churches are stagnant and dying.

This is not to say that the 1928 Prayer Book and The Hymnal (1940), when they are interpreted in accordance with Scripture and used in a thoughtful manner, are not useful resources for forming disciples. As with any service book and hymnal the danger is when they are allowed to become an end in themselves rather than used as means to an end.

A third reason why the problem of substituting liturgy for discipleship is more acute in Anglican churches is their size. Most Anglican churches are relatively small. One of the characteristics of small churches is that the weekly worship gathering is the principal time for evangelism, fellowship, formation, ministry, and worship. It is often the only time that the church meets. If a church function is suggested for a different time and day, a typical reaction from the members of a small church is that they are unable to take time from their busy lives to attend such a function. Sunday morning is the time that they have allocated to God and the church.

In small Anglican churches the liturgy is the primary focus of Sunday morning. While a few churches may have an adult Sunday school class, they are the exception, not the rule.

The challenge for church leaders who want to restore discipleship to its rightful place in the life of a local church is how they can leverage the liturgy to achieve this purpose.

Wednesday's Catch: Converting Western Europe's Nominal Christians and More

Europe’s Big Mission Field: Nominals

How do you persuade someone who already thinks they’re a Christian to become one? Read More

Be a Missionary, Not a Marketer

We have shifted from the mentality of having a missions pastor that focuses on prompting the church to go to the people, to a marketing director that figures out how to get the people to come to the church. We have shifted from a call for the church to “go” to a call for the world to “come.” Read More

7 Keys for Persevering in Ministry

Hebrews 12:1–3 provides both stunning reasons to keep running our race and some ways to do that. Read More

10 Guidelines for Hosting and Paying Guest Speakers and Musicians

Over the years, I have worked with many churches and speakers (and a few musicians) to establish some guidelines for hosting and paying guest speakers. Keep in mind, these are guidelines, not rigid rules. There will always be reasons for exceptions. Read More

10 Powerful Prayers the Apostle Paul Prayed Over God’s People

The prayers of Paul for God’s people are a fascinating study. It’s interesting to observe the requests Paul makes. His prayers focused on hearts and minds being conformed to Christ. Read More

What Calvinists And Arminians Can Agree On

Instead of arguing about Calvinism versus Arminianism, perhaps it’d be best to start from a point of agreement and then slowly progress from there. Agree that we should pray for the salvation of souls, and then spend time in prayer with that person that God would do just that in the lives of each other’s loved ones. Read More

A Challenge to Bible Study Small Group Leaders: Keep the Focus on the Bible

As part of our church consultation work, we often send “spies” into small groups that are designed for Bible study and fellowship, in that order of priority. But, our spies often see that the hour of “Bible study” often passes with little attention to the Bible. Here’s why that’s problematic..... Read More

How to Convince People to Get Involved in Small Groups

Three tips on how to build a culture of small-group involvement. Read More

Tuesday's Catch: How to Serve Local Schools and More

12 Ways Your Church Can Serve Local Schools

Here are 12 ways your church can be a positive presence at local schools. To find out how to get started, contact the administration of your area school. They will be able to direct you to the appropriate channel to offer support. Read More

How Do You Know if Your Church is Healthy? [Video]

There are healthy churches and unhealthy churches (so, so many unhealthy churches). How would you know the difference? I was asked that question recently and this is my attempt at an answer. Watch Now

When People Leave

Is your church ministering in a transient context? Daniel Hyun has some ideas for you. Read More

The Maker of the Maker of Middle-earth

There’s something missing from Oxford’s splendid new Tolkien exhibit. Read More

Why Every Pastor Must Empower and Release Leaders

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3 Levels of Leadership Development [Podcast]

Are your leaders in the right place? Oftentimes, they are not. Today, we’re going to look at the 3 levels of leadership development so we can develop leaders better. Listen Now

Five Major Ways to Improve Your Worship Services - Rainer on Leadership #460

There are several things you can do in worship services to improve the experience for guests and members. Today Thom Rainer and Jonathan Howe discuss five such things—four of which cost nothing. Listen Now

5 Traps That Can Catch The Children’s Ministry Leader

Greg Baird identifies five traps that can catch the children's ministry leader. Read More

The Key to Evangelism No One Talks About

“Use your words.” Read More

Liturgy Is No Substitute for Discipleship

By Robin G. Jordan

Has the liturgy become a substitute for discipleship in Anglican churches?

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against liturgical worship. But a couple of articles to which I posted links on this blog and my own experiences prompt me to ask this question.

The articles in question were not about liturgy or even worship. The focus of these articles was the Bible.

The first article was about how young people are questioning the transforming power of the Holy Scriptures because they observe no evidence of transformation in the churchgoers with whom they are acquainted. These churchgoers are no different from the rest of the population except that one day a week (and increasingly less often) they go to church.

The second article was about how self-identified Christians, while claiming to accept the authority of the Bible as a reliable witness to our Lord’s teaching and example, avoid patterning their lives after his teaching and example by misinterpreting the Holy Scriptures.

A number of older Anglicans believe that they have discharged their religious obligations to God if they go to church every week, sing three or four hymns, take part in the liturgy, listen to the Scripture readings and the sermons, give to the church, and receive communion.

While Jesus attended various synagogues during his earthly ministry as well as went to the Temple in Jerusalem, nowhere in the Bible does he suggest that going to the synagogue and the Temple are the sum of a disciple’s religious obligations to God. Rather he echoes the prophet Isaiah. What God desires is not sacrifice but mercy. In other words, what God desires is not the performance of ceremonies and rites but the living of our lives his way. This means living our lives with Jesus as our Lord and Master.

Too often people go to church not out of a desire to offer God thanks for what he has done for us but out of a desire to receive some kind of blessing from him. They are not satisfied that God gave his only Son that we might be put right with him. They are not satisfied to show their gratitude through lives of obedience and service.

They may see the Holy Communion as akin to the fire berry that bird of the sun brought the fallen star in C. S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Each fire berry gradually rejuvenated the star so that he could once more tread the heavens again. They may believe that the Holy Communion heals and restores a soul wounded by sin.

Their view of the sacrament may be simpler than that. They have been taught frequent communion is good for them. They may have only the vaguest idea of why, if they have any idea at all. The priest who taught them may have neglected to mention that those who are devoid of vital faith may as well drink purple Kool Aide laced with poison for what good eating the bread and drinking the cup will do for them. Yet they come to the communion rail, unrepentant and at enmity with their neighbor, expecting a blessing from the Lord.

The blessing they are seeking may be more mundane. They want a new car, a better job, a larger paycheck, a bigger apartment. They see God as kind of celestial slot machine. Drop in some coins, pull the lever, and you’ll get three cherries in a row and the Big Payout.

The fault is not the liturgy’s. The purpose of the liturgy is first and foremost to honor and revere God. It also serves to turn our hearts to God, keep our lives centered on him, to edify us, to encourage us, and to strengthen us so that we can live the lives of radical discipleship to which Jesus calls us.

Human sinfulness may seek to make the liturgy a substitute for discipleship, a good work by which we can win God’s favor. Human sinfulness chooses the broad road, not the narrow path.

Discipleship means taking up our cross and following Jesus. Liturgy requires only the sacrifice of one morning a week and is far less demanding than radical discipleship—loving God with kokoro love, with our whole being—heart, mind, body, and soul; loving our neighbors as ourselves, loving our fellow disciples as Jesus loved us, returning good for evil, turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, treating others as we would be treated, forgiving the wrong that others do us, praying for those who wish us harm, going into the world and sharing the good news of Jesus the Messiah, making disciples and instructing them, and serving Jesus in "the last and the least."

Whether we are a pastor or a lay preacher, God has called us to be a watchman on the wall as he did the prophet Ezekiel. We are to warn the city of approaching danger. Substituting liturgy for discipleship is such a danger. Liturgy has a place in the life of the disciple. But it should never be allowed to overshadow discipleship.