The most important divide is over this question: Do we come to church primarily to receive or primarily to do something? In other words, is God not only the object but the primary actor in the service, or are we?....
Actually, what has now come to be identified as "traditional" worship has more in common with "contemporary" worship than either has with historic practice. There are many examples, but the most important is their shared emphasis on the public service as something in which we (rather than God) are the primary actors. We are the subject of most of the action verbs. We come to church to praise, to worship, to express, to rededicate ourselves, to serve, and so forth.....
Is there room in the service for God to give us anything when we're doing all the talking, blessing, expressing and acting?
Far deeper than instruments and music styles, this divide is the real one. Historically at least, Reformed and Lutheran churches believed that the Triune God is the primary actor in the public service. That's one reason it was called "divine service": the Father, in Christ, by the Spirit, serving his people with his good gifts. We find it referred to as "the divine service" routinely in churches of the Reformation over much of their history.....
.... [T]he problem in many of our churches today is not only that we aren't God-centered enough. It's that even in our attempt to be God-centered, the focus is on what we bring the table rather than actually being on God and that remarkable work that he is doing in delivering Christ to us with all of his benefits. Only when we recover the biblical emphasis on God's ministry to us-where he has appointed, when he has appointed, and through the means that he has appointed, will the priority of God's grace in his covenant mercies be central. And only when this is central is our desperate need for regular participation in this feast evident as well. We come to church regularly not primarily to do something again, but to receive something again-and, yes, also to respond in gratitude. True enough: it isn't "about" us, but it is "for" us. And a funny thing happens when we surrender to this divine charity: we actually become active again in faith and its fruit of love and service to others. [Read it all.]Why Do We Go to Church?
Source: wizard-notes.blogspot.com
